Now... On to Budapest!
On Thursday I slept in and went to class. Then I went back home, had some left over gnocchi, showered, and got ready to go. My goal: got to H and M, get some more of my cheap comfy shoes, and make it to the station in Berlin early enough to grab some dinner. On the bus from my dorm I encountered a wonderful woman. I sat there listening to a family trying to figure out where to get off for something and the woman helped them!!! I haven't seen this in a long time!!!! Also... She talked to their little son when he asked to stop for ice cream and assured him that there would be some where they were getting off. Then... Two men got on and couldn't figure out which ticket to buy... And she got up to help before I even noticed they needed help. When getting off, she stopped to help a woman with her walker. I was sooo thrilled to see her exemplary behavior that I couldn't stop smiling. I wish more people were like this woman. Once at HM I had some extra time to try on some pants. My goal was to lose some more weight and get cute clothes for the summer. But.... This diet I've been following (aka enjoy everything while you can) hasn't been working ! Haha. So... I'm still set on getting some mint colored pants. I saw some and had to try them on. Didn't like the cut of the first and the color of the second. ... So the search must go on!! After that I stopped at Starbucks to download a podcast about Budapest ad then headed to the station. At the station I barely caught the overpacked regional train and before I knew it I was in Berlin at the station. Once I found where my train would be departing from, I headed to McDonalds... It was the closest thing!!! Unfortunately they didn't ask me what I wanted to drink and just gave me a coke!!! Nooooooo!!! I haven't had a coke or diet coke or anything of the sort in over 5 months!!! My plan was not to drink it, but after eating a vote, I knew I had to.... Ugh. Two sips later I was done!!! No more for me!!!
Once on the train, the awkwardness began. So now they are going to speak to me in Hugarian?? Great!!!! Well... I got what I thought was a bed and for to a wagon with my cabin. Two beds on the very top and six seat. I then realized that the seats made into 4 bed. Woah!
In the morning I was awakened by a man bringing us breakfast. Little did I know, the breakfast was free! Darn it, should have asked for coffee!!!!! I quickly sneaked out of the cabin and found Ryan!!! He was just 2 cabins away, and he only had 4 people in his cabin!!!!! Later Beth came by and told me they had a cabin to themselves. They had woken up at like 3:40 and couldn't go back to sleep.... why? Because they had read horror stories about wagons and people being taken on overnight trains while being stopped at a station. Well.... around that time we were stopped for an hour apparently. The train worker had told them to lock all their doors... soooo... they panicked. Too funny. I must have been listening to my bunk mate snore and missed it. When we arrived in Budapest we were faced with some ugly looking weather. I was expecting rain, but had inconveniently lost my rain jacket the night before...
After getting some money exchanges and visiting an ATM, we followed Rick's (Rick Steves' tour book) advice and got in a taxi with a yellow tag (the legitimate ones). Our driver was super sweet and we were to their hostel in no time. The "homemade hostel" was super cute! Super homey! Just one common room and lots of bedrooms. It was like a big apartment! They left their stuff there and we headed walking to the meeting point for some free walking tours of the city. On the way, we passed the opera house and a place where we bought ourselves some pastries for breakfast. When we were getting close to the meeting point, we noticed Beth was struggling to keep up... And then we asked if her foot was still bothering her. They had mentioned to me that they spent their last afternoon in Prague resting, because she had hurt her foot. After realizing that she wasn't saying anything, because she wanted me to be able to do what I wanted during my 12 hours, we decided that walking was not an option. As I told her, I know exactly what it feels like for your foot to hurt while you are trying to get to know a city... We paid for a hop-on-hop-off bus tour for the day that included a boat tour through the Danube!
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| Waiting for our bus! |
At this point it was sprinkling and the man told us that most
of the buses would be covered buses, due to the rain. The bus that
picked us up was NOT covered, which was fine at the time, but after
about 10 minutes it started pouring on us!!! Well... Kate had asked if
she should take her raincoat... and I said, "No girl! We will have
umbrellas and be fine!!" Boy was I wrong. We got soaked!!! There was
no way for our umbrellas to survive the wind!!!! The guide came around
bringing us hats, but there was noooo point!!! 
Sooooo... at Heroes Square we got off the bus to wait for the next bus (which would be covered). Once there we started to walk through the park and found the baths and a castle. Oh! What did we find outside the castle... just some Latin Americans playing pan flutes and selling homemade stuff. I do not like pan flutes that are out of their natural settings... at all.... Ryan was loving seeing the different types of architecture and it was nice to see him in his element.
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| Heroes Square |
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| The Baths |
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| The Castle -- pan fluters on the left!!! |
The walk was lovely, but ended up being more than 30 minutes... Which meant our next bus was also NOT covered.... Which was again fine, because it wasn't raining .... 5 seconds after we got on the bus.. it started pouring down!!!! SOOOOO HAARRRDDDD!!! We didn't see a thing! We just hid!!! Once we got to stop 9, we got off the bus and headed to the boat. Since we were early, we stopped and got some drinks at a cute little cafe.
Of course, by the time we were done with the drinks we were running too on time (close to late) and had to run on the boat, but once on it... it was amazing! At that point it was kind of sunny. The tour came with detailed descriptions of what we were seeing, so it was wonderful!!!
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| From the boat |
The food was delicious!!! I enjoyed a corn salad with goat cheese and walnuts that ended up having NO corn and a goulash (typical Hungarian goulash). It was delicious!!! Our waiter was hilarious and had a blast laughing at Kate and joking with us about Monty Python. Sooo strange! And after some gelato we were ready to get back on the bus.
We thought we were on the bus that would finish out the route we started, but instead we got on one that re-toured the part we had seen. This was actually perfect, because the first time... we had been too distracted by the amount of water falling from the sky to notice what we were seeing. This time around, we also noticed large amount of trash, furniture, and garbage bags filling the street. After realizing that these scenes were repeated in each street... we started wondering why. Our tour guide informed us that twice a year in Budapest, the people put out all items that they no longer need or use and people go around and take what they want. The next day, crews come and take what is left over. It is a nice idea, but it makes the city look quite dirty.
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| Synagogue |
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| House of Terror |
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After retracing our steps, we finally crossed over from Buda to Pest ( I think... or the other way around...) and went up to castle hill. The view was amazing!!! And so was the castle! As you can imagine, me and my fear of heights did not enjoy the trip up... and then we went even higher all the way to the citadel!!! The view was priceless, but.... not so fond of the heights!!! After that, we went all the way down and crossed the bridge to the Parliament.
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| Castle Hill |
From there, I got on a metro and rode back to the train station to catch my train back to Berlin!!! After being spoken to by a Hungarian in Hungarian for a good 2 minutes (wish I knew what he was saying to me), buying some chocolate, and getting a slice of pizza for dinner, I headed to the train!
This
time the beds were already pulled down! I got the bottom bunk, across
from me a Hungarian guy, on the very top two Hungarian drummers with
their cymbals, and on the middle bunks two Hungarian girls (one who was
so well dressed that she reminded me of my aunt Elena and her
conference attire and the other one was clearly finishing up a thesis or
something of the sort). As I laid in my bed, I had to force myself to
stay up until they came and took my ticket at around 8. The man also
asked me (in Hungarian) to see what I wanted to drink and I responded
(in Hungarian) with what I thought sounded like coffee. After that... I
was asleep!!! I woke up once at around 10, when my cabin mates decided
to shut the door and close the blinds. It was beautiful and dark (and
quiet!!! no snorers!!!!). I woke up a couple of times when people left
and got off the train at around 6 and 7, but aside from that... I slept
until 8:45 when they brought breakfast! I was soooo glad to have gotten
my rest! When I got to the main station in Berlin, I ran 3 flights of
stairs to barely catch my train to Potsdam! Before I knew it I was back
in Potsdam! On the walk from the train station, I stopped by my little
asparagus stand on the corner of my street and bought some asparagus and
some strawberries and then I was back on my bed doing homework!! It was
soooo fast and sooo worth
it!!! I spent the whole day doing homework and Sunday too!! Except... Sunday night I ventured to Berlin to watch a Cabaret theater piece about East Berlin! Our family friend Christiane was in town for the weekend and performing in it. I am sooo glad I went! Five beautiful voices, a piano, and a lot of history packed into just 2 hours! The audience was amazing and recognized a lot of the songs from "back in the old days." It was an awesome experience and I also got to see Christiane's mom! I hadn't seen her since 2003 when she came to Oxford to watch Christiane graduate with her Masters! Man time flies!!!
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