budapest + bratislava

It’s time for Semana Santa vacation! I’ll be posting more than one post for this trip because it was jam-packed, so buckle up because it’s a long ride!!! 🙂

After getting back from camp, I unpacked and then re-packed for my trip. Friday, I went for a walk with Rosa, Juanjo, and Guillermo and we went to my favorite little pizza place (Pizzería Giovanetto) for some fries with aioli sauce – they’re so good! Then, Rosa and Juanjo drove me to the Medina del Campo train station for my bullet train to Madrid. The train ride was only an hour and then Claudia (one of the twins from Tordesillas) met me at the train station. She was so kind to let me stay over her apartment for the night since my flight to Budapest was early Saturday morning. We went to her place to drop off my stuff and headed to her favorite coffee shop called Toma. It’s the best coffee I’ve had so far in Europe! She walked me around her neighborhood, called Malasaña by the locals, and we ended up on Gran Vía, walking through the giant Primark there. We went to a cute cafe, called Cafe de la Luz, for a beer and to meet up with one of Claudia’s friends, Noelia. I’ve been craving spicy food (because nothing in Spain is spicy – the slightest bit of spice throws everyone for a loop) and Claudia had a Mexican restaurant (Taquería mi Ciudad) to take us to! I was thrilled to have some guacamole and tacos!!

After a relatively easy flight on Saturday (minus the prolonged baggage check because of a workers strike), I got to the hotel in Budapest and went to the Great Market Hall to walk around. It’s huge, with a ton of souvenir shops on the top floor and food markets on the ground level. We got our rooms and relaxed at the hotel before our 7 pm meeting and welcome drinks/appetizers. For nights 1 and 2, I was with Madelyn (from Indiana), Maesan (from Texas) and Courtney (from California). Our welcome event was at Bistro Fine and I tried duck liver and beef tartar (the duck was terrible, beef was actually good!). We had some drinks and then it was off to the ruins bars, specifically the bar called Szimpla Kert. This ruin bar is a labyrinth of 16 rooms in an old building that was ruined by WW2. The decor was so awesome and the walls were covered in graffiti. The rooms have different bars and themes. We went to the beer room upstairs and then down to the “club” where there was a live band playing reggae music. We had a ton of fun dancing and then it was time to call it a night!

On Sunday, we had a tour with Edina, a local tour guide from Hungary. She was the sweetest and funniest little lady. We drove around on the bus to see the important sights and I learned that Budapest is actually made up of two cities that used to be independent, Buda and Pest (which is pronounced like Pe-shht in Hungarian). Buda is the expensive hilly side, Pest is the more reasonably priced flat side, and the two sides are divided by the Danube river. There was a half marathon happening and Edina kept making comments about how glad she was to be on the bus instead of running. It was very funny! She also taught us more about Hungary’s history, like how the country had been continuously occupied by different regimes until 1989 (!!) and that they were on the losing side of both world wars (which for some reason I didn’t realize).

We made two stops on the tour – one at Heroes Square and the other at Matthias Church. Heroes Square has a cute sign for Budapest and statues of the Hungarian heroes in bronze. Matthias Church has incredible tile work on the roof and from the Fisherman’s Bastion in front of the church, there’s an incredible view of Budapest. We had some free time, so we grabbed dessert at a local cafe and got the Dobos cake, which is one of Budapest’s famous desserts. It was good, but honestly nothing spectacular. Our tour ended at the Széchenyi Thermal Bath (the largest medicinal bath in Europe) that we had gotten tickets to go. The weather was a bit cold and dreary, but that made it the perfect afternoon to relax in the warm baths. The baths are hot springs that are abundant in Budapest and there was 18 different baths to visit. Each of the baths had different temperatures and it was fun trying them all out. I’m glad we didn’t go in the summer because the indoor baths would’ve been too hot to enjoy.

Clockwise from top left: Heroes Square, Matthias Church, view from Fisherman’s Bastion, Széchenyi Thermal Bath

After our relaxing afternoon, the group split up for our free time. I didn’t have anything particular I wanted to do, so I tagged along with Maesan (my roommate) and then some new friends, Stephanie and Colton (from Missouri) and Leslie (from New Jersey!!! Another Jersey girl!). We went to the House of Terror Museum, which was very somber and kind of a gut-wrenching experience. The Museum is located within the actual building where the prisoners were held, tortured, and killed during the two fascist and communist regimes in 20th century Hungary. My skin was crawling the entire time, imagining all of the horrific things that had happened within the four walls I was standing in. We couldn’t take pictures, but if you want to learn more, click here for the website.

We needed a little pick me up after the horrors of the museum, so we went for some dinner at a random cafe before our nighttime cruise down the Danube river. Edina joined us and educated us about the river! The Danube is the second longest river in Europe and flows through 10 countries, which is more than any other river in the world. The cruise was beautiful and it was so incredible to see the Parliament building all lit up! After the cruise, we headed back to Szimpla because some of the people on the trip hadn’t been yet and before going in, we stopped for Hungary’s famous chimney cakes!!! They were SO good and freshly made. They tasted like an extra delicious cinnamon sugar churro. After spending a little bit at Szimpla, we went to a nearby karaoke bar, which was a ton of fun and Budapest by George Ezra came on – very fitting for our last night!

In the morning, we boarded the bus for our journey to Vienna. First, we stopped in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia for lunch and some free time. I had traditional Slovakian bryndzové halušky, which is sheep cheese gnocchi with bacon. It was definitely delicious and I need to find a recipe to make at home! After lunch, we walked around the town to enjoy the sunny and warm afternoon. Our little group has become Maesan, Stephanie, Colton, Leslie, and now Adrian (from Texas). We tend to stick together because we have the same ideas for the trip – relaxing but still want to see the sights, and it doesn’t hurt that we all like to go out! We skipped seeing the castle in Bratislava and opted for gelato instead, totally worth it. However, before we left Bratislava, our tour director Alex (who is the BEST), bought us more gelato! No complaints from me 🙂 We got back on the bus and it was time to head to Vienna.