"Hungry in Hungary"

          Twelve of us (Maddie, Becca, Mary, Ali, Elysse, Lyndsi, Stephen, Chris, Josh, Naomi, Ashley, and I) went on a two day trip to Budapest, Hungary. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves in to when we arrived. We got out of the train station and thought Hungary was super underdeveloped, grungy, scary etc... We had to change our Euros to Forints at a Bank which took forever for all of us to do. It was super discouraging because everything was in Hungarian and they had almost no signs in English. This was a change for us, because in Vienna lots of signs are in English. We bought tickets for the subway and rode it to the center of the city. When we arrived the first thing we saw was the Parliament building. I think it is a neo gothic building, because it is huge and has spires and pointed arches. It is my favorite building in Budapest. We changed our minds about Hungary being an awful place after we saw the building. We were excited again!



Mary and I in front of the Parliament Building!

We had lunch all together at a small restaurant by the Danube River which runs right through Budapest. Budapest was created by merging the cities of Buda and Pest together. I ordered a bowl of goulash because it was the only Hungarian thing I had heard of. It was simple, but tasted good. They gave us bread too! Everyone else got pasta or European pizza. We were so hungry because none of us had eaten a big breakfast because we left so early. We had trouble when were paying for the meal because they put our orders together. We had to ask several times before they would let us pay separately.

Mary and I eating Hungarian goulash!

           After lunch we separated in to two groups. Maddie, Becca, Ali, Elysse, Stephen, Naomi, and I walked across to the other side of the city to a large hill with a monument called the Liberty Statue. It is a girl holding a palm leaf. We then walked/hiked down the hill to the Matthias Church and the Fisherman’s Bastion. The hike down the hill was quite the experience because it was so steep it was more like we were sliding down the hill. We got a bit dirty, but no one got seriously injured.

Liberty Statue

St. Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion

          A few of us walked back across the river so we could see the Parliament building lit up at night. It was beautiful! On the way back to the hostel we walked by a fountain where people were dancing. It looked like it was a dance class. The people looked elegant as they danced. I now understand why people want to learn to dance.

The following day we had a few hours before we were to head back to Vienna so Becca and I went to see the Cave Church. It was interesting because we had seen many churches around Budapest and we thought it was odd that one would be built in a cave.

After an incident in which several people had to pay a fine for not validating their subway tickets, we made it to the train station. We found our train after a bit of confusion then settled ourselves in two compartments. We had a great time talking about a variety of subjects and had a marvelous time. After our trip to Budapest together we felt more comfortable around each other and had a chance to bond.