BUDAPEST! First city that I'm not gonna share this experience with anyone (nicer way to put it: uniquely mine). First friend I made was on the train: Monica from Hungary, studying in Budapest. Nice to have a friend on the train cos I could sleep without needing to worry about random people taking my stuff (and the train was super crowded; lucky I reserved a seat, and even more lucky I got Monica as my seat mate). She even picked up my portable charger casing before she left; would have been gone if she didn't notice it.
When the train drove across the bridge from the Buda side into the industrial part of Pest, I thought I'm back in Singapore cos it really looked like our Changi plus CBD. Alighted and orientated myself; was drizzling but found my way relatively quickly and reached Maverick City Lounge, and it's super awesome!! The lobby is nicely littered with bean bags; environment is clean; and the beds are individually compartmentalized by having a curtain for you to draw (so even when my roommates came back late the light wasn't that glaring). Made new friends in my hostel though the English speakers are pretty old (upwards of 35 I would guess) and the young ones don't speak English (Chileans: Gino and Pedricio! Pretty cool)
Next morning was scheduled for free walking tour; I left and reached the meeting place early so I figured I could get some coffee or something. And I found Starbucks! Not only that, I was so happy it accepts euros I went in and paid in euros, then when I asked about the exchange rate she told me "very bad" but it was too late to change... Figured that it amounts to a S$5 loss but that's like drawing from ATM so it isn't that bad. Anyway, found this after I walk around: really brighten up my day!
Tour was... The usual. But we saw really cool change of guard ceremony; also learnt that the St Stephen Cathedral and the City Hall are of the same height to symbolize equality of church and state, and at a height of 96m to commemorate 896 (when the Magyars established Hungary). Most important part of the tour was that I made two new American female friends: Karen and Leslie! Had lunch together and brace yourself... it's mouthwatering:
After lunch we went our separate ways and I went on to the communist tour. Learnt about happy communism (which is why some of the elderly still miss the old communist days) - "my happy days in hell," and also looked at how the US and Russia are still pointing middle fingers at one another with the statues they erected. Tour ended at a ruin bar (which are storerooms/shops in the communist era that were vacated after the change of regime and smart businessmen turned them into bars with just refurbishment without renovation):
And at the bar we were shown real once-used communist stuff...
But most important thing about this trip is, again, new friend! Met Carl from Canada (forgot to ask if it's Karl Marx's Karl but I'm assuming it's the more English one) who's studying political science in Paris Science Po (didn't ask but I'm assuming he's smart). Again, we split up after the tour though it was really enjoyable talking to him about how different Singapore and Canada is.
Tour ended and I headed for the Parliament (second largest in Europe and biggest building in Hungary) and my first impression was "whoa!" Really very impressive... I also get to see their flag lowering ceremony:
Walked along the Danube river (2nd longest in Europe) in search for the most iconic statue of the many random statutes around Budapest: the Shoes.
Had a change of plan (after some talking to myself; hate it when there's no one to discuss!) Went back to Vörösmarty Christmas market where the tours started and found people (choirs, bands, kids, etc.) caroling and just randomly walking around. Decided to wait for the "8pm pub tour" that our guide introduced so hung around the area.
So much calmer and less crowded (less vibrant but good for crowd shy people like me; even though the next day will actually prove this point invalid, dunno why suddenly so much more crowded on a Tuesday than a Monday). Best thing: free toilet! It was so cold my pee started to smoke; next level will be to freeze on the way out HAHA. Ok enough of the disgusting stuff, had Apple and Walnut strudel!
Don't know why I don't feel like eating when I'm alone zzz so this is the second and last thing I'll eat for the day. As 8pm approach, I met Carl again! He also changed his plan to come check out this tour so we chit chatted and waited for the tour to happen... And it didn't. No one turned up! We concluded that it was a scam by our guide; so he went back to his hostel to find a new pub crawl tour while I contemplated my options as we parted ways yet again (last time I'll see him, bye Carl!). Decided that the weather wasn't nice for a trip up to the Liberty Statue so I headed back to the hostel just as the rain turned heavy.
On the way back I was approached by two girls who kept emphasizing they were tourists and asked for directions to a bar; and they even claimed to be from Stockholm! (They got so excited knowing I'm studying there but their accent sounded more like Hungarian, and they smelled drunk); when I told them the direction, they headed the opposite way... Guide book tells me to be careful of girls asking tourist to go pubs with them (cos they'll extort money) and I'm thinking street smartness comes in handy this time round.
After the episode I continued walking and along the way I wandered into a clubbing street and saw performance with people dancing under the sky!
Came back and chilled in the awesome lounge with my Chilean roommates but language barrier meant limited interaction (Gino was playing guitar, how I wish I could...)
Next morning I had a firsthand experience of communistic inefficiency when I try to buy a stamp and the person in front took up about 15 minutes I gave up and walked out (the other queues weren't any faster). Went for the Jewish district tour and guess who I met: Karen and Leslie again! And guess who's the guide? The one that scammed us! (But I didn't mention the scam of course).
Visited the largest synagogue in Europe (2nd in the world; largest is, surprise surprise, in New York!); learnt about the Yin and yang of Middle East architecture; heard the joke about how the only thing Jews agree on at the end of a discussion is that they disagree; came to know that Hungarians have their surname in front as part of their Asian heritage; visited the Tree of Life (that looks dead; but yea, it's to commemorate the fallen soldiers so kinda fitting); went to a hidden alley to see the older communist way of life; and also saw a very cool rubik cube (invented here in Hungary by the way, along with many many other inventions; I should mention that they have the highest Nobel prize winner to population ratio in the world, but out of the 14 winners, 13 are Jewish and received their awards overseas...)
Tour ended in a food-serving bar so Karen, Leslie and I decided to stay for their supposedly (and indeed) awesome Goulash. And when the goulash was served, it came with chili padi!!!!! I was so excited I asked for another plate and when the server tried to tell me that it's really spicy I replied with "trust me, I'm an Asian!" (Didn't even know how that slipped out of my mouth) but she had no choice but to reply "that sounds pretty legit" and gave me another plate... Good thing is, I finished all of it, to my greatest satisfaction! The heat from the chili and the soup made my stomach super warm and ready for the cold outside! Not forgetting the Pálinka (Hungarian fruit brandy) shot I had to go with my soup...
And so, we parted ways yet again after lunch (and that was the last of them, byebye!) Walked down Andrássy út and it was super nice especially with a sunny day that made my mood much nicer...
Then I reached Heroes Square! But it's much nicer at dawn so I shall post a photo of it that I snapped at a later time:
Szechenyi Bath (My roommate says it sounds pretty Chinese and I must agree)! Took me a lot of courage to finally come here and turns out I should really have a guide or at least someone with me but all's well and fine! Soaked under the cold wind in the thermal baths for a good half an hour (they even have a "lazy pool" thingy with water pushing you in a small circle and I was like a kid having so much time in it lol) before I recognized someone... It's Arnold, a Durch from the tour yesterday! So we went dipping and sauna together and he even "forced" me to take cold shower intervals between our sauna sessions and it was really pretty fun chit chatting with him. He likes to travel alone (and wanna visit Singapore) while I expressed my disdain for it but he quickly pointed out that I might not have befriended him if I was not alone... Pretty accurate. Decided to leave the bath before the sky turns completely dark so I bade him goodbye while he carried on to find his friends from yet another tour.
No photos of the bath (cos I didn't even bring my towel in, what more my phone) so here's the main entrance lol
Walked down the whole long stretch of Andrássy avenue, this time in the nightlights (not as nice in my opinion), and headed for St Stephen Cathedral mainly for the Christmas market outside. Brought a hot fruit tea (maybe that's what's causing my slight insomnia now) and caught some projection performance on the cathedral's façade. Walked a little but further down and got my chimney cake!
Walked all the way down to the Green Bridge and I really like it!
And I didn't get photo from google of course... I climbed all the way up to the Liberty statue! It was kinda scary cos the route up is really dimly lit and they even have a very eerie playground halfway up the hill (not to add that the cave church is at the foot of the hill). Was sweating much when I finally reached the top, and while the going up was okay since I had this group of dudes in front of me, going down was a test of my night blindness... The cold wind so strong that they made my fingers super numbed and stiff didn't help with the situation...
This also marks the end of my trip (on a high note! Pun intended again). Will just be heading to the airport in the morning and back to the cold cold Stockholm (that I kinda miss...)
First solo, checked!
PS: on the way to airport I got checked for tickets (in peak hour!) wanted to just take the metro without tickets but I guess I was second time lucky (previous time was to Uppsala)..
Also, first time eating alone in a restaurant hahaha
Plane landed early and I'm off to meet the gang!
PS: Jiahan expressed his disappointment when I said I wasn't excited about meeting them; well, to be very clear, you guys are the closest thing to family I have these few months ;)
