Budapest, Hungary - Day 1

Location: Our room in 2night Home hostel.

Hii! I LOVE this hostel! We all do. It's so cozy. And extremely private. There are just 2 rooms in this little place and we get very personalized attention. Right now, we're sharing a 4-bed room with an Australian girl. :) :) But more about it later.

So we started our day at 4.30am! Had to wake up then and leave really early to catch the bus to Budapest at 6.30am. Of course we didn't get breakfast, but the receptionist gave us a bottled drink each. I got myself some Mirinda for the 7 hour journey and we've all loaded up on Milo and Oreos! Oh but this morning, we gave off some more Milo to our new roommate, this Sri Lankan dude from Canada. Lots of Canadian backpackers eh! And we also used the free computer to book tickets for the Salzburg Ice Caves. So had a very busy morning. We thankfully reached the Florenc bus station on time :) and said our goodbyes to Prague!

The journey was spent mostly sleeping and watching TV. I was sitting with a stranger this time and the other two were a few seats in front. Bus was pretty packed! They played some hilarious Czech movies (they weren't intentionally funny, but the acting and expressions were too comical!) so I spent my time watching that. Totally forgot to try the free beverages again, and sadly won't get the chance to anymore since this is our last Student Agency bus. Oh well.

Anyway, we reached Nepliget bus station around 2. Where we stopped seemed to be right in the middle of nowhere and everyone was just walking off in different directions. So we asked the bus driver and assistant who gave us vague directions to the actual station. The trip there was scary! Traffic here is CRAZY! Kinda like India :/ Nobody waits for us poor pedestrians man. Sigh. Anyway, we reached the station and that, thankfully, was a proper station. It kinda reminded me of the Greyhound stations in Canada. A nice busy place. We had to go collect our bus ticket for the Budapest-Vienna journey so had to go to the station. And decided to change our money here too, since the bus station at Prague had a very decent rate. But oh, what a rip-off! We found out much later that we lost about 800 Forints (about 7 SGD) due to the poor exchange rate we were given! Grr. And the toilets here charge about 100 Ft. Awful. I can't wait for free toilets again.

From Nepliget, we took the metro down to Ferenciek Tere which is where our hostel is. There is NO WAY we can cheat on metro tickets here! The wardens at the station make sure we have the right ticket both before and after the train ride!! They actually ambushed us today. And the tickets aren't even that cheap. Worst part is, we have to buy 2 tickets if we need to change lines! And there is only one line that comes to Ferenciek Tere which doesn't even go to most of the places we need to go to. Sigh. This means a lot of walking from the interchange which is thankfully only one stop away. And the road down to the hostel is kinda like Orchard Road. It's actually a touristy area. I'm so thankful for that! Especially after that deserted area we were at in Prague.

So we walked and walked and walked with our heavy backpacks, down to the hostel. We nearly missed it! It's a really tiny place. And it's part of a group of apartments. We were greeted by a Dutch guy called Jimmy. He pointed us to a very cozy room complete with bedside lamps and told us that's where we would be staying. A really welcome change from the previous dorm experience! And we were even happier to learn that after tonight, the room would be fully ours for 2 nights! The bathroom's incredibly clean too. I love it here. And Jimmy was very helpful and told us the various places we could check out, and recommended a restaurant with veg food for dinner. Really warm and hospitable. And he told us that the owner, Matt would be providing breakfast, and we even have a computer with free internet! Neela's now dreaming of home-made breakfast like pancakes and stuff hehehe. I wish!

The weather wasn't too good. So we decided to take it easy and walk along Andrassy ut. Only now we started taking photos! First, we walked down to the interchange Deak Ter, to see St. Stephen's Basilica. Didn't wanna go in as we'd seen enough churches!

Krups and I with our umbrellas outside the basilica

Neela looking v v cute in teenu's oversized jacket! And krups nut wanting to get wet in the rain

Thankfully it went down to a drizzle. I am now the guide for this part of the journey so the book's in my hand

As we walked along Andrassy ut, we came upon the Hungarian State Opera House

After lots of strolling and not much phototaking, we stopped at the House of Terror which is a pretty recommended place here. It was SO depressing. It's basically a history museum depicting the dark days of communist repression in Hungary. There were many rooms with realistic exhibits, and even spooky background music. We learnt quite a bit, despite feeling out of sorts after the tour. As we exited, the sun started coming out, and I realised that the word terror was spelt on the ground beside the building, and this was a shadow formed by the awning of the building. It gave me the chills.

We decided to treat ourselves for dinner. Checked out a coupla places, including an Indian restaurant! Forgot its name, but it reminded me of Bombay Cafe. It didn't seem worth the prices. Finally we went to the restaurant recommended by Jimmy and it was a great choice. With watering mouths, we ordered a plate of pasta each. And I asked the waiter if I could have a non-veg dish without the meat, and he offered to get it for me, at a cheaper price even!! I love the Hungarians' hospitality! The restaurant had excellent ambience too, and it was such a satisfying dinner.

After stuffing our stomachs, we walked down the street and ended up at Vorosmarty Ter, some millenium underground metro station. Honestly it didn't seem all that great. Decor was just slightly different from the rest of the stations. Anyway, we walked back (more walking!) and it started raining pretty heavily. Our jeans got thoroughly soaked and this is why I hate rain sigh. But having an umbrella soon became pointless. Krups LOVES the rain, and her enthusiasm was infectious. So we started doing crazy things..

Krups going nuts.

Neela and I going nuts.

So after taking nutty photos, we slowly walked back and here we are! Had a lovely warm shower with no water problems, no light problems, and no cleanliness problems! This place is great. I'm looking forward to our next few days here! Off to Szentendre tomorrow. It's outside the city. Goodnight!