Six exchangers from our Uni (5 North Americans plus an Aussie) met-up at Vienna’s West Bahnhof at 9 A.M. Friday morning for our first big ‘Euro-trip’. From stories I’ve heard from other travellers, I’d say travel by train is definitely the way to go. It might be slightly more expensive than the bus, but we managed to get a six-person cabin to ourselves for the three hour journey, and it was a very comfortable ride. I had hoped the views would be a little nicer, but it was basically just flat agricultural fields.
Upon arrival in Budapest, we fell into the roles of lost and confused tourists. We quickly found a counter to exchange our Euros into Hungarian Forent. The exchange rate was about 300 Forent to 1 Euro, so we felt pretty cool with our 10,000 dollar bills. We would have to rely on public transit to get us to our hostel, so we next set-out to buy a three-day transit ticket. (As in Vienna, one ticket will give you access to subways, trams and buses.) Unfortunately the ticket machine didn’t seem to like our money, although we were eventually able to find a ticket booth salesperson who spoke English (somewhat). The language barrier in Hungary was definitely more obvious than in Vienna, where just about any person you meet speaks English. Also, Hungarian is in a league of it’s own as far as languages go. Generally while travelling, German or the minimal amounts of Spanish and French that I know will get me by as far as reading signs and such, however the next closest language to Hungarian is actually Finnish – therefore, no comprendo.
Riverside Hostel was easy enough to find, tucked away in an old 19th-century house on a fairly busy street in the “Pest” section of Budapest. The hostel had a real homey feel to it, and the girl working for the weekend was super friendly and helpful. The six of us stayed in a massive room, with ten beds/bunk beds. I believe the hostel also had one more similar ‘dorm room’, as well as several private two to three-person rooms. We were provided with sheets, blankets, towels, and lockers, all definite pluses when searching for hostels. We were also given full access to the kitchen, and the living room was equipped with various movies and games. (We watched “Borat” the first night. Kind of suitable considering we were in ‘Eastern Europe’ I suppose.)
After dropping our things off at the hostel, we set out to explore. One notable difference from Vienna was the amount of garbage on the streets. It seemed to be piled everywhere! (However, I have heard from other Europeans that Austria is exceptionally clean.) Our first goal was to find some ‘real Hungarian food’. (Funnily enough, Kebab stands seemed to be even more prevalent than they are in Vienna.) None of us really had any idea what ‘real Hungarian food’ would entail, with ‘goulash’ being the only dish that came to mind. Eventually we stumbled upon a place called “Hungarian Fast Food”, which seemed a fairly obvious choice for a quick and easy lunch. The place was set-up cafeteria style, and we had actually read about similar places in travel books we had brought with us. Apparently they are typical hang-outs for the working crowd. Lucky for us, the man working quickly realized we were English-speaking tourists, and went through the entire display of food, explaining each item. I went with what else but – Goulash! It was basically a tomato-based stew-type dish loaded with other veggies and chunks of beef. (It actually wasn’t beef so much as fat cut into worm-like strips, but either way, it was actually pretty delicious.)
With our bellies full, we made a plan to go and find St. Stephen’s Basilica, the largest church
in Budapest, and home to the mummified arm of St. Stephen. From the Basilica, we made our way down to the river (the Danube). We walked across the famous “Chain Bridge” from Pest over to Buda;. the early evening light provided for a very majestic atmosphere, and made for some great photo ops of Castle Hill and the lovely Parliament buildings.Our walk eventually led us back to our hostel. By this time, we were getting hungry again, so stopped into a neighbouring grocery store to grab some munchies. We had actually planned on going out (both nights) but by the time we settled back in at the hostel, and cracked open some bottles of cheap (and deliciously sweet) Hungarian wine, staying in and just getting to know each other better seemed like a better idea.Day number two we were up fairly early, and decided to do a city tour to get an overall broader picture of the city and it’s history. The hostel staff recommended “Budapest Free City Tours” to us. Apparently these free tours operate in all large cities across Europe, and you simply tip your tour guide at the end of the tour, based on their performance. Our tour guide quickly infor
med us that this was not going to be a typical touristy tour, where the tour guide points out buildings and explains their importance and history. Instead, he would provide us a detailed recollection of Hungary’s political, economic, etc. history, so we would have a better idea of why Hungary and Budapest are the way they are today. While this all sounds very interesting, we were slightly disappointed when an hour into our tour, we still hadn’t moved an inch from our meeting point. This same trend continued, as we stopped at various, little-wind-as-possible spaces for our guide’s long stories to continue. (It was absolutely freezing! Although we did luck out, because they had been calling for rain the entire weekend, and we barely saw a drop.) The tour was quoted as being 2.5 to 3 hours long, but far past the 3 hour mark, we had just made it up to the top of Castle Hill. At this point, we decided to tip the tour guide and duck out of the tour to do our own exploring, the tour not being quite the “sightseeing” endeavour we had hoped for. We had a late lunch at a small café, and I braved it and ordered goulash again – this time goulash soup. (Delicious, and a little more in line with my Hungarian cuisine expectations.)The afternoon was spent Sz échenyi Spa in the City Park. Budapest is known as a city of medicinal baths, and apparently not going to the baths is like going to Paris and not going to the Eiffel tower..I was more than happy to comply with an afternoon at the Spa.
On our last day, the bitterly cold weather made a visit to one of the city’s many museums a fairly obvious choice of activity. We decided on the “House of Terror”, a museum set-up in the former headquarter of first the Hungarian Nazis, and then later two other communist terror organizations. The exhibitions were historically interesting and informative, very moving emotionally, but also very visually stimulating, and I had a very positive overall impression.
After the museum, it was unfortunately time to head for the train station, to ensure we made it back to Vienna for some of the gang to get ready for school the next day. (Not me of course, since I have Monday’s off : )!) Our pockets were still heavy with Hungarian Forent, which are apparently difficult to exchange back to Euro, and so we used our last minutes in Budapest running around the train station buying Hungarian chocolate and treats. The ride back to Vienna was peaceful, and all of us commented that it really did feel like we were headed “home”. The familiarity of the city and the language was definitely an unexpected surprise.
Overall, our first Euroventure was a great success, and to no surprise, I am already busy planning the next one! (Feel free to send any suggestions my way!)
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