Skip to main content

Budaful Budapest

"Life's what you make it, so let's make it rock"- Hannah Montana (RIP)

I'll be honest, I think this last week has 100% changed my life, and it may be directly associated with finally seeing the Backstreet Boys in concert (I have honestly waited since I was 8 for this magical experience). I'm also not afraid to admit that I cried (more than once) out of sheer joy- because dreams do come true and The Backstreet Boys are Most definitely back, alright! 

After drooling over 40 year old men in matching outfits and some terrible choreography, we celebrated Heidi's 21st  birthday by exploring the Guinness Factory, and making friends with bartenders all throughout Dublin. The hotel pub, conveniently located directly below us made us, some beautiful birthday shots complete with a "birthday cake" made from a lemon and a candle. How sweet, honestly Monty (Python?) the bar tender was such a gem and adored us.

4:50 am rolled around way too early, but Budapest was calling our names. 

I knew the second I stepped foot in Budapest that a part of my heart would stay there forever. The sun was so warm, the sky was so blue- such a welcomed change from the rainy Emerald Isle. After taking multiple forms of public transportation, and not getting lost, we arrived at our hostel- and that was when my life changed for the second time in one week. 

Our program for Budapest, Weekend Student Adventures, set us up in Budapest's top party hostel, Retox. I wasn't exactly sure what that title meant until we arrived and we had to sign a waver that said we wouldn't get offended from nudity, no sleep, and copious amounts of alcohol at all hours of the day. Sure, let's do this. 

Thursday night consisted of meeting everyone (in the hostel bar obviously) and teaching people from all over the world my most favorite game: Boom. After a wild and rowdy series of drinking games, we headed to the Booze Cruise. With a bottle of champaign (if you can even call it that) in hand, I was able to meet more people, whilst seeing Budapest lit up and glowing in all of it's beauty. 

The next morning was a little foggy, but the tour must go on. Our WSA tour guide, Bogi, was super cool, and took us all over Buda and Pest (yes, they technically are two different places). We were able to see some incredible buildings, learn a lot about the communistic past, and that Katy Perry filmed the Fireworks music video right here in budaful Budapest! To end the day portion of our tour, we lounged in the famous hot baths. Think of it as a giant public hot tub, mostly full of overweight men in speedos, but still- totally incredible despite the eye sores. After a quick bite to eat (We're so American we ate at Subway), we were off to the Ruins Bar Crawl. The Ruins are really old buildings that were just never torn down, so why the hell not make a bar out of it? The cool part is, a woman will come up to you and ask you if you would like to buy a carrot from her. Absolutely I would like to buy a carrot in a bar while drinking a beer, why doesn't Iowa do this?!

On Saturday, we took more forms of public transportation that took us to the main shopping place, and a beautiful market full of goodies and interesting foods. We then took a chair lift (omg Adventureland!?) to the highest point in Budapest, and climbed to the top of the lookout castle to get an astonishing 360' view of the city. Our group met back up at this really cool cyber gastro pub, where we ordered our food via computer screen at our table. The food was delicious and most definitely Hungarian- woo, culture! We headed back to our hostel, full as ever, and hesitantly put on our suits to head to SPARTY (yep, a spa party in the baths complete with lasers, a DJ, and really drunk people). What a riot that was, but something I'll absolutely never forget! 

Sunday morning rolled around and we headed out to the farmers market- that's actually held in one of the ruins bars I mentioned earlier (s'fun, s'versital!) and I ate this incredible ham sandwich made with ingredients directly from the farmers market along with a beautiful chocolate and poppyseed cake (oh how it miss a good fresh meal). After saying our goodbyes to new friends and Bogi, we wandered around the town loling about life and adventures from the previous nights. We eventually returned to our hostel where we anxiously awaited for potentially the most amazing thing I've ever heard of: Beer Bike. Sixteen Americans, Canadians, Australians and British kids all hopped on this trolly-like thing, and we pedaled our way through the streets of Budapest whilst drinking unlimited amounts of beer and handing homeless men and 12 year olds (ok, that was questionable) cans of beer along the way. I don't think I've ever had that much fun, singing and pedaling and drinking my way through a city- yeah, I'll definitely do that again.

Monday came before we knew it, and after packing our bags yet again- ugh- we said our tearful goodbyes to some of the most incredible people. Retox was a phenomenal place to stay, I didn't even hate when I was woken up to the sounds of some British man violently vomiting in the other room, because when you're in Budapest with your best mates, at the best hostel- what's to hate?

HUGE shoutout to Bogi for showing us such an incredible city, and to Ducky, Krusty, Fern and Candy for making our stay at Retox unforgettable. 

Budapest, you were unreal- what a way to kick off the EuroTrip. Barcelona, we're coming for ya.











Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Olympic Rings and Emotional Things: What is it about the Olympics that make us ugly cry over sports and athletes we've never heard of?

I'm sitting here on a Wednesday afternoon where, from my couch,  I am transfixed by the multicast view of the Olympics. A quadrant of screens take up the TV where a medal ceremony, men's basketball, skateboarding and a women's soccer game are all happening at the same time. Now, I've always been someone with a love of sports - and it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for me to watch multiple events at the same time, or maybe even grab a stealth peak of the ESPN app to check the score while at a wedding...but to have a quad screen up with multiple sports - even for me, that seems excessive. It got me thinking, what is it about the Olympics that continually captures my attention so fully I can not simply fathom picking ONE of these events to watch? The simple and most obvious answer is that it's fun to watch the world's best athletes compete against each other. You get the super teams, the living legends, the hometown heroes, the underdogs, the record holders - ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Amster...dam(n), that was fun.

I have recently found myself double checking my memories- making sure things really happened, that I actually did the things I think I did, and saw the things I swear I saw, because with all this adventure going on in my life nothing seems real any more; like it's one big dream that I don't want to wake up from. It's a good thing I always carry my Nikon around with me to back up my illusive memories- for proof that my life is actually as exciting as my thoughts tend to illustrate. For the past two days, I found myself in Amsterdam . The best part is, I was able to explore the fascinating place with my friends who flew in from Rome, Florence and London. It was such a glorious feeling to have Katie in my arms, to chow down with Lindsay and Maria, and to do stupid things with Mallory and Heidi- all while being in a foreign (seriously, so foreign) land. Before I landed in the city of canals, I knew very little about it. I suppose research would have been a standard idea, bu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones.

I want to give a fair warning that this isn't my usual content. I'm very much a spreader of joy and good news and happiness- but I am also a human. And as it turns out, Maroon5 was right all along: it's not always rainbows and butterflies. So my friends, I share with you something incredibly personal, and honest. Please read on with the knowledge that my intent is not to be negative, or sad, or search for attention. Rather my intent is to write honestly and sincerely about my quest to turn my light back on. There are times in everyone's life where it feels as though the light is fading, and as if the darkness all around us encroaches with unstoppable force. I know I'm not alone in this feeling, but for me, accepting this is extremely hard to admit. Talking about (or writing about it) is even harder for me to do because I truly thought that if I convinced myself enough, there would be no bad days. But recently I've come to the conclusion that you don't know...
Post a Comment
Read more