Budapest. Former USSR territory. Cool city, with a lot of remnants of the Soviet Union.
Firstly, we were in Budapest for two nights and a day, so we had to pack as much Hungarian site seeing as one could possibly do during that period of time. My first impressions of the city did not really give credit to the city as a whole. It just seemed like the government had not really updated the infrastructure of the city in quite a while. For example, the public transportation looked quite old. I understand the concept of, "if it's not broke, don't fix it" but I think it could have used a little bit of a facelift. Also, there were random piles of trash everywhere. And I'm not talking about empty bottles, cans, wrappers and what not, I'm talking about office chairs, couches, books, mirrors, etc. It looked like a bunch of small yard sales in the middle of the sidewalks. And there were even people rummaging through all of the stuff. Not saying that made the city bad, it was just very different. Growing up a western lifestyle, I kind of imagine that major cities--especially capitals of countries--should be kept in good shape. If the government doesn't keep the capital of the country clean, then I would presume the rest of the country must be really bad.
Anyway, besides for that, the city was really interesting. Hungary is part of the European Union, but they have their own currency the Hungarian Forint (HUF). According to current exchange rates, 1 HUF = $0.0046. Which means that One USD ($1) will get you about 216 HUF. I took some money out of an ATM and here is what I got...
Although spending thousands of Forints was not unusual (like, if you wants to buy a sandwich or get a meal), it's still a little weird to spend 6000 on a meal, which is less than 30 bucks. But everything in Budapest was relatively cheap in terms of dollars or euros.
Here are some really cool pictures from the plane. The first is of the Italian alps, then a picture from just outside Vienna of the windmills at sunset (I'm very proud of this picture), and lastly (but not leastly) sunset from the tarmac in Vienna.
Okay, to the things we saw. Friday night we had dinner at a "traditional Hungarian restaurant" per recommendation from our hotel--which, by the way was awesome--with live gypsy music. When we got to the restaurant, they asked for our name, and what hotel we were from. Pretty authentic... The gypsy music was weird, but kinda interesting.
Saturday we woke up and we got a free breakfast from the hotel (which I would highly recommend--the Zara Continental. It was cheap, it was nice (it was on Jetsetter), and it was in a pretty good location). Not only was it a free breakfast, but it was a free American breakfast. Eggs, pancakes, toast, oh my! Then we hit the town. We went to the Citedella to see the Freedom Monument. Pretty cool. Felt pretty free.
Then off to the Castle which was kind of a waste of time. The elevator we took to get up to the castle was...janky. But we got up. And took a pretty touristy picture from the top. At least, I would say it's pretty touristy.
Then we went to parliament. I would definitely say it's the icon of Budapest. It's a huge beautiful building, based after the British Parliament building in London. It's actually kind of funny because the tour guide made it seem like the Hungarians literally copied everything from the British Parliament building. The Hungarian parliament was comprised of two houses: the House of Lords and the House of the Commons. The House of the Commons represented the peasants... Kidding. But seriously.
We also went to the Jewish quarter to check it out. Unfortunately, there were no tours of the Jewish quarter because it was Shabbat (we went on Saturday). But we still got to see the synagogues from the outside. I guess Herzl was born in Budapest. Shoutout to the guy who created modern Zionism.
Two...wait...three more things until I'm done with this blog post.
1) We went to a kosher restaurant for dinner on Saturday night. The food was okay, but we noticed the waiters getting ready for a big party. Turns out, there was a trip sponsored by the JFNA (Jewish Federations of North America) of rabbis that were going to meet with the Israeli Ambassador to Hungary. After dinner, we stood on the side and listened to his speech, which was quite interesting. For those who don't know, Israel does not mess around with security. The Ambassador had two security guards with him and a driver. After we finished dinner, we just decided to stand at the bar and listen to his speech. As we got up to go to the bar, Justin said that one of the security guards that was sitting between us and the Ambassador slowly took his napkin off his lap, and slowly moved the chair next to him just in case he needed to pounce on a moments notice. I didn't notice because I was too engrossed in the Ambassador's speech about the Hungarian Jewish community, Hungarian-Israeli relations, and Hungarian-Irani relations. That same security guard also ever so slightly called his security guard buddy that was waiting in the getaway car outside. He came down to the restaurant (the restaurant was in the basement) and stood behind us the entire time. Again, I didn't even notice. This stuff doesn't even phase me. Here's a picture of him giving his speech to the pompous rabbinical group.
2) Price for the pair? Or price per shoe? You decide.
3) We went to this bar called Szimpla. It's this really old bar which has all of these rooms where you can grab a beer, a table, and just chill. It's the kind of place that has a DJ that plays really chill music, has a plethora of random stuff (from hotel safes, to bicycles hanging on the ceiling, to metal sculptures), and where no two chairs are alike. There were also bathtubs that were kind of cut in half that acted as couches. Really, really cool. If I was a hipster living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, this would be the place I went to every weekend. Apparently it was rated as the third best bar in Europe. No exaggeration, it was awesome. If you go to Budapest, this better be on your list.
ACTUALLY. One more thing...
We decided to go to the thermal baths. Initially, I really didn't want to go, but I'm glad I did. I'm never going to do it again. So one of the many things for which Budapest is known, is its thermal baths. The city sits on top of a natural hot spring, so someone thought it would be a great idea to build a bathhouse. The experience was...interesting. The complex is made up of thermal baths and a few pools. We stuck to the baths. We were initially told that you could go naked, so we got towels, stripped, and ended up at the baths. Once we walked in the room, everyone was covered up either in bathing suits or this little apron things that covered one's front. I don't know if they have a name, but called them "Hungarian Penis Smocks." So we were in the baths and we met this old guy who was probably 65 or so and was adorned in a legendary "Hungarian Penis Smock" (HPS) who gave us the low down about how you do the baths. So here the process:
1) Shower
2) Warm baths (38 degrees C)
3) Go to the steam room (either 50-60 degrees C, 60-70 degrees C, or 70-80 degrees C). We did the hottest one. The ground literally burns your feet. It's not pleasant.
4) Dunk in the cold baths for a second (18 degrees C)
5) Go to the steam room (which is the hottest environment in which I have ever been)
6) Dunk again in the cold baths
7) Go to the warm baths (36 degrees C)
The process was definitely interesting, very relaxing, and there were more elderly almost naked Hungarian men than I wanted to see that day. But nonetheless, still much fun.
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