When in Rome: My Hungarian Adventure

Wow. So in the most spontaneous act of my life, I bought a plane ticket to Budapest that departed pretty much 24 hours later, and I gotta say, I could get used to this.

I know what I did in Budapest, but I don’t know what day I did it. So here’s the quick rundown of the highlights of Budapest, and what was definitely one of the top two weekends of my trip so far, if not the top. Without further ado:

First off the flight. It wasn’t the best, there wasn’t a lot of legroom, and food was unbelievably expensive. But it’s hard to get mad at a company called “Wizz Air.” Especially when they have “Wizz Magazine” that has “A Wizz Welcome” on the first page. I laughed for half of the hour and a half flight at that. Then we got to the hostel, The Groove, which was another highlight. The staff was so helpful and nice and the people we shared a room with were amazing! Martin from Bristol, U.K., Ezgi and Evrim from Istanbul, Turkey, even the scary, quiet Russian guy was growing on me by the end of the trip. We all hung out at the bars and had a great time (minus the Russian, he didn’t seem to like us too much). The experience wouldn’t have been half as much fun without them.

Our hostel's last night together.

As for the city, what wasn’t there to love? Amazing buildings (Parliament Building, countless churches, the Opera House, museums, the famous baths) mixed in with unbelievable castles. The snow was very cold, but led to some amazing pictures, epic snowball fights and a cool snow angel. There were also a few great bars (Szempla and Lamps stand out) that were so cheap I almost felt bad. This also led to a few fun walks home, including one on the last night there that should have taken about 15-20 minutes, but ended up being 90-120 minutes…in the snow. But we were having so much fun we didn’t even care.

Me with the third largest Parliament Building in the world in the background.

I know it looks like a car commercial, but I love this picture.

Not surprisingly, next comes the food. Long story short, Hungarian goulash = Oh. My. Gosh. I also had the best Italian B.M.T. I’ve ever had at a Subway in my life in Budapest. Corn on the cob at a market and the fanciest (and most delicious) McDonalds I’ve ever seen were also great. I also liked the people outside of the hostel. They were very nice and helpful (helping us find the airport on the way home) and seemed to not be sick of seeing Americans walking around, which is a feeling I sometimes get in Rome. I learned two Hungarian words (a goal I hope to accomplish in every country I visit): “Szia” which is “hello,” and “koszonom” which means “thank you.” It was also great hanging out and bonding with Jessica. We got to talk about how much we love everybody else in the program, as well as our thoughts on life, sports and how beautiful I am.

Yeah, that's ice in the river. Told you it was cold!

The sights were amazing, but one thing that stood out in particular was the House of Terror museum, documenting the Hungarian victims of the Nazis and Arrowcross parties. I’ve read about internment camps, and thought I knew about it, but I had no idea. Seeing the history of the country was both sad and unbelievably enlightening. Nothing like this should have ever happened, there’s no excuse for it. THIS is why I want to be President of the United States of America. To ensure that there is never anything like this tragedy ever again in the history of the world. I’ll do whatever I have to do to ensure this.

The House of Terror, one of the more influencial places of the trip.

Sorry to get all serious on you. Bringing it back, I knew next to nothing about Budapest, but went for four days and they were four of the best of my life. We had plenty of time to see the sights, but still relax, hang out with people from the hostel, and go out to the bars at night. It was good times (keep this phrase in mind when you read the post coming tomorrow), and I’m so thankful I got the opportunity to do this. It’s going to be hard to top, but with a few great trips coming up, I’m optimistic.

Next stop: Prague, Czech Republic…in a little over 24 hours…