Hungary - Budapest - Home of Paprika and Horses

So Budapest was GREAT. Margaux and I arrived having no idea what to expect, but having heard good things from a few other people. We scored a super hostel in central Pest near the opera house within walking distance of nearly everything.



We spent lots of time sightseeing and eating yummy paprika-laden goulash soup (not a stew, by the way), and almost no time drinking any alcohol to dry ourselves out from Oktoberfest. Hungary was slightly more of a challenging travel destination as well, since the language is incredibly difficult to pronounce due to an abundance of consonants in a row and seven kinds of accents on each vowel (we only mastered please and thank you - kerem and kosonom - by the end of our stay). Also, despite being in the EU, Hungary is still transitioning to the Euro, so we found ourselves with the awkward exchange rate of 170 forints to 1 Canadian dollar, meaning we had no idea what anything was costing us!

Our first priority was to spend a few hours pampering ourselves in the Rudas Baths, the oldest Turkish baths in the city in the sketchiest most broken down appearing building ever. Inside was stellar though. There were six pools and two saunas, with the pools varying in temperatures from 15 to 42 degrees centigrade. So relaxing... I kept hearing my mom's voice warning me not to fall asleep in the tub as I dozed off.



Further afield was Memento Park, home of Statue Park, where the former Soviet statues have been relocated outside the city. Definitely worth a look. We also got to watch old reels of secret police training tapes about surveillance and secret house searches, which were dated but creepy.



The bulk of the tourist attractions were on (or near, in the case of the gorgeous Parliament building) Castle Hill, in Buda, where the National Palace houses the Hungarian National Gallery (the interesting part of which was closed for renos, bummer) and the Budapest Museum. Castle Hill is also home to the fabulously mosaiced roof of St Matyas Church and another castle, as well as Fisherman's Bastion and generally fantastic views over the city.



My personal favourite was the Labirintus, a massive underground cave network/labyrinth under Buda Hill, which includes an ever flowing wine fountain (too many fruit flies to drink it though!). Poor Margaux was dragged along in the dark bowels of the mountain behind me, and she was kind enough to lie and say she enjoyed the dank underbelly of the castle ruins. She's a good friend like that.