One of the things I was looking forward to for the whole program was my three-day weekend trip to Budapest. I didn’t really know much about the city, but I knew I was excited to go. We took a train from Vienna to Budapest early Friday morning so we would be able to make the most of our limited time there.
Once we got to the train station in Budapest, we took out money from ATMs in the local currency, the Hungarian Forint. The conversion rate between American dollars or Euros is not the easiest because the Forint is so inflated, which meant that for the first day or so that we were there, I just kept thinking that everything for sale was really expensive.
Right before I left for this program, I learned that Budapest is a city divided by the Danube; Buda is on one side and Pest is on the other. The cities unified and became Budapest, but obviously the Danube still remains. The Air BnB that many of us stayed in was on the Pest side of the city.
The first thing we did after we dropped off our luggage was go to the famous Central Market and walk around. After that we walked around the area across the street from the Central Market which had lots of outdoor restaurants and souvenir shops. Sadly, we fell into a small tourist trap. As we were walking down this touristy area, we were getting really hungry, so we decided to eat at one of the first restaurants we saw. The service at the restaurant was the slowest service I have ever experienced, and the food wasn’t even good. After our lengthy dining experience, we looked up the restaurant and saw that it had a 1.5 star rating and many people had done what we had done and simply stopped at one of the first restaurants they saw because they were hungry.
I walked around Budapest with a small group crossing from Pest to Buda on a bridge and then crossing back again to see the parliament building and the Holocaust shoe memorial on the edge of the Danube. That night, we all decided to check out some of the famous Ruin Bars and celebrate Randi’s birthday, which happened to be that day. It was a really fun night.
The next day we got up early to go to the House of Terror Museum before it got really crowded. Before we got there, a few of us got coffee at this random café and it was the best coffee I had had during this entire program. Somehow, I had to leave Vienna to find the best coffee in Europe!
The House of Terror Museum is described as a museum that shows that effects of the fascist and communist regimes on Hungary between the 1930s and 1980s. It was obvious that a lot of money, work, and time went into the museum as the exhibits were interactive, visually interesting, and dynamic, but many of us felt that the museum felt slightly like propaganda as a way to lessen the guilt and blame that Hungary harbored from what happened in their country under these two regimes. Additionally, the split between fascism (Nazis) and communism was very uneven. Only two rooms acknowledged the Nazi occupation, while almost three entire floors of exhibits were dedicated to the communist takeover in Hungary. To me and a few others, we would have rather the descriptions of the museum accurately portrayed what the museum was or the museum should have not even discussed the Nazi regime instead of essentially glossing over almost a decade of history that included a “terror” filled regime.
Later that day, a few of us went to one of the most famous baths in Budapest. The Gellert Baths were in a huge facility which housed indoor and outdoor cool and hot baths, steam rooms, and saunas. We all really enjoyed the experience and thought the price of around 20 euro was totally worth it. After that we climbed the hill to the Citadel statue and watched the sunset from the highest point in Budapest. The views were stunning. That night we rode a party boat on the Danube. The Hungarian Parliament building lit up at night was one of the most breathtaking sights I have seen on this program. Another great day!
On our last day in Budapest, we went to the labirintus, which was underground labrinth right by the Fisherman’s Bastion. It was a weird mix of historical and wacky. We then walked around Fisherman’s Bastion and took in the views. We all did our last little bit of souvenir shopping and eating before we headed to the train station for our 4:40pm train back to Vienna.
Overall, Budapest was one of my favorite places I had ever been to with some of the most friendly people and I can’t wait to go back and explore more.
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