Thursday, October 5th
We were taking the 11:45am train to Budapest and had to meet at the main train station at 11:15am. I was able to make it to the first half of my art history class and then headed out for the train station as they were leaving for their field trip at the National Museum. I had already been to the National Museum, so I didn't feel like I would be missing too much.
The train ride was seven hours long, but it went by pretty fast. When we got in, we headed to the hostel and then went on a short introductory walk from our hostel to the Danube. A few of us got dinner at a traditional Hungarian restaurant and then got chimney cakes. I got stuffed cabbage at the restaurant and a Twix ice cream chimney cake.
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| First view of Buda Castle District |
The Czech Republic has chimney cakes, but they're not a traditional Czech food. They originated in Transylvania when it was a part of Hungary, so I guess it can be considered a traditional Hungarian food. I'd been holding off on getting one in the Czech Republic because it's not "authentic," so I was excited to try it.
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| Chimney cake |
Friday, October 6thBudapest was originally three cities and two of the three cities were Buda and Pest. Buda is on the hilly side of the Danube with Gellert Hill and the Castle District and Pest is the flat side of the Danube with the Parliament building.
We had a walking tour of Pest on Friday morning, which is the side of the river we were staying on. I liked our guide because she acknowledged Hungary's participation in the Holocaust and mentioned that history is different based on the perspective of the person recounting it whenever she discussed difficult topics like the Holocaust.
We had a two hour break at the Great Market Hall to get lunch and explore the surrounding area and then headed to the Parliament building for a tour. On the way to Parliament, we stopped at "Shoes on the Danube Bank," which is one of the most impactful Holocaust memorials I've encountered. Instead of transporting Hungarian Jews to death camps, the Hungarian Arrow Cross police thought it would be easier to dispose of their bodies by shooting them next to the Danube and letting them fall into the river.
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Great Market Hall
 | "Shoes on the Danube Bank"
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We had a tour of the Parliament building and saw Hungary's crown jewels. We then walked to St. Stephen's Basilica where they keep St. Stephen's hand in a glass box, so that was awesome.
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Parliament building
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In front of the Parliament building
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One of the rooms in the Parliament building
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St. Stephen's Basilica
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Box hand
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I hope you can see the hand
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I had booked myself a ghost tour that night, so I headed back to the hostel to charge my phone and grab a quick dinner. The ghost tour was good; our guide was very new which made it a little awkward, but I learned a lot about Hungarian history in general so I'm glad I went.
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| View of Pest at night |
Saturday, October 7thOn Saturday morning we had a walking tour of the Buda Castle District. We had a break after the tour to explore and then went to Szechenyi thermal bath, which is the largest medicinal bath in Europe (you can read more about it here). There was an outdoor thermal bath, "adventure" pool, and lap pool and indoor thermal baths, steam baths, saunas, and an ice bath. It was an interesting experience that I appreciate having, but don't necessarily need to have again.
After the baths, I walked up Gellert Hill and sat on a bench to read for a while. I had originally planned to go down the same way I went up, but I let the vibes lead me and walked down the other side of the hill to catch the tram back to Chain Bridge. I walked over the bridge so I could cross it off the Budapest bucket list and then met up with Ella to get langos, a traditional Hungarian street food, for dinner.
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View from the top of Gellert Hill
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| Langos |
Sunday, October 8thI woke up early to walk to the Michael Jackson Memorial Tree before we had to meet to leave. I guess Central Europeans haven't seen Leaving Neverland.
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| Michael Jackson Memorial Tree |
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| Sunset from the train |
