Budapest for a Day

Yesterday, Lexi, Marion, and I woke up bright and early at 6 am to catch a train to Hungary. Only having gotten 3 hours of sleep because of a cold and cough, I thought I might end up miserable all day. Thankfully that wasn't the case.

We arrived in Budapest at 9:30 am after a hectic, noisy train ride, exchanged our money for Hungarian Forints, made fun of how ugly the US Dollar is compared to other currencies in Europe, and headed out into the city. During our initial wandering in Budapest looking for some food for me (still hadn't eaten breakfast - sad face), we decided that it wasn't a very tourist-y city. It was interesting, for sure. It just wasn't filled with souvenir shops, which was a nice but unexpected change.

The Parliament building was the main site of our trip today. It was beautiful and the history was very interesting. I never really knew much about Hungary's history, or the history of eastern European countries in general - aside from the USSR used to control most of Eastern Europe, communism, and little snippets about it from the history of World War I and II. Obviously, there was a bit more taught about it, but not much. Eastern Europe is basically glossed over unless it affects France or England or the US.

It was really cool to learn about something new! And our tour guide was so adorable. She was very enthusiastic about teaching us about Hungary's history and the Parliament building.

Lexi loved it, and it showed with her 100 photos of the Parliament building from many different angles as we walked around Budapest and along the river. I hear she is currently in the process of choosing her favorite glamour shot out of all of the ones she took of her most favorite building.

We stopped to eat at a little cafe/bar/restaurant after our tour at the Hungarian Parliament where I had a beef and potato stew that was absolutely delicious. We also stopped by a little bakery stand before we headed back to the train station at the end of the day to get some pastries. I got a little round pink cake (cherry maybe) and a cookie sandwich pastry that had a fruit jam filling and was covered with chocolate. Yum!

We even stumbled upon a National Geographic exhibition set up in one of the squares. It was called 'The Future of Food' and talked about hunger, food production, and traditions all over the world. And we also found a Jewish World War II memorial of bronze cast shoes on the side of the river.

Lessons learned:
1. You can travel on 3 hours of sleep while sick and still have tons of fun.
2. I love Hungarian food.