Budapest, you rock my world!

Parliament in Budapest, Hungary

I have decided trains are awesome!  I am the type of person that gets sick on buses, cars, planes and boats, but trains do not make that list.  I could travel by train forever.  I took a seven hour train ride from Prague to Budapest. The ride in was just beautiful.  Little villages nestled in valleys, next to lakes and castles on mountain peaks.  It was stunning. Dora, a fellow couch surfer, gave me directions on how to get to her flat and this was the first thing I saw when I got off the metro.  The Parliament building; probably the most famous building in all of Hungary.

I got to Dora's place and the first thing I did was... lose my wallet for 30 minutes in between all my bags.  Sometimes I think I would lose my head if it wasn't attached.  After a scary 30 minutes Dora, Peter and I headed out to a pub crawl.  What a great way to be introduced to the night life and new people!  We had quite a bit of fun.  I tried two different Hungarian beers and some traditional spirits made with herbs (unicum).  I loved seeing all the different bars.  They all had different atmospheres.  Some where really nice, but most were dives.  My favorite was called The Library.  This pub had books attached to the ceiling.  

fisherman's bastion

The next day Dora and Peter were kind enough to show me around to some of the tourist sites.  We went to Buda Castle.  It's old as the hills, completed in 1265 and added on to after that.  It had many great things to see.  Inside we saw a beautiful church, the library and a museum.  The first thing you see of the castle is the fisherman's bastion.  This was named years ago because a fisherman guild was set to protect the city from these towers.  Like most castles, it has a small town inside where Dora told me about the horse statue legend.


This is a superstition kept by the local University students in Budapest.  They say if you know you are going to fail a test you should go to Buda Castle.  In the town inside Buda Castle there is a statue of a general on a horse.  Legend says that if you touch the testicles of the horse you will pass your test.  We visited the town and the statue.  The horse's neither regions were suspiciously shinny compared to the rest of the statue. Ha!

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Now I've talked about architecture in Prague but now I want to talk about food.  Not that Budapest doesn't have beautiful architecture, because it surely does.  It's just that I recovered from jet lag while in Budapest.  This meaning I could eat my heart out, and I did.  Let's just look at this picture of street food....

Yum!! Strudel, sausages, steamed pork, langos, appricots, licorish candies, nuts, goulash, fresh bread, potato wedges... I got lost in it.  I forgot how much I love food!

My last two days were full of my own adventure, exploring the town and taking all the picture I missed in the first round.  I got to explore a little island where I found beautiful gardens, churches and just a great view.  I also got to see see a church in a cave, weird but fun.  And buy all of that street food you see above.  (Well not all, because then I would be too round to walk.)  These days were ended with Peter and Dora being amazing hosts and making me a Hungarian meal.  We made rakottkrumpli; a traditional layered potato dish. Also we made Szilvas gomboc; dumplings filled with sugar coated plum. This was by far the best thing I did yet!  Budapest rocks.  On to the sleeper train to Germany!