So, this past weekend I took a little weekend trip to Budapest, Hungary with 3 other girls from my study abroad group. We had a really great time!
Some highlights:
FREE (yes, I said free) walking tour of the city
Getting lost, only to find some really great buildings!
The indoor market
Wine tasting
Train ride (my first!)
Night cruise on the Danube
Big Fish Hostel
Okay, soooo. From the top! The walking tour was sooo amazing!! Our tour guide, Agnes, was hilarious, very informative, educated, friendly, and all around great! On the tour we saw all of the major sights in Budapest (pronounced Budapesht). It was very nice because the day before we had gone on a hunt for this market thing we'd heard about, and we saw all of the same buildings but we didn't know what they were! Putting a name to the building and it's purpose was helpful.
The market. WOW. It was an indoor market in (what we think was) an old synagogue. Not 100% though. It was really great!! There was 100s of food vendors selling fruits, meats, strudels (which I of course took part in), clothes, lace doilies, souvenirs, etc etc. It was HUGE. Oh, and of course they had the traditional Hungarian paprika. Of course I bought some.
Wine tasting! One of my favorite hobbies!! Well, Hungary is known for it's wine and Palinka (I'll explain what that is in a minute). We went wine tasting and we tried a red, a white, and something called Tokoj. Tokoj is a sweet dessert wine that is only made in Hungary. It was AMAZING. It smelled like apples and pears and all of the good things in life. Naturally, I bought a bottle of that as well. YUM. Plus, no one in my family likes sweet wine! ALL MINE! =]
We had a little coupon saying that we got a free gift with the wine tasting. So we got to choose if we wanted another glass of wine or some Palinka. let me explain Palinka... It's a Hungarian brandy type liquor, but it's only made in Hungary with Hungarian fruit and it's very strictly regulated. There are laws protecting how Palinka is made... crazy. Anyway, so we opted for Palinka. I got plum, Amy got black currant, Michaela got pear, and Allison got strawberry. Out reaction when we all tried a sip?
HOLY SHIT!! IT BURNS!!
No joke... it was that bad. The aftertaste was fine, but MAN was it hard to drink. A good brandy is easy to drink, very smoother etc. This was just plain fire in the throat. Then we looked at the alcohol content... 46%. No wonder. So we finished off our glasses, and wandered back to the metro station, all slightly tipsy.
Oh! The train ride there!! It was my first train ride EVER and it was pretty fun. Nothing too spectacular happened, but that's okay. It was enough just to be on a train!
Night cruise on the Danube. It was sooo beautiful!! We went up and down the river between what used to be the two cities of Buda and Pest (before they became one) and saw all the lit up sights, buildings, bridges, etc. It was amazing! Freezing cold, but still really fun! I loved it.
Big Fish Hostel is the best hostel in the world. It was homey, comfy, clean, the staff was nice, they had food for us, homemade baklava (one of my favs!!), nice bathrooms, HUGE rooms, and it was amazing basically. The 4 of us had our own private room with 4 twin beds and a locked door, so we could leave our stuff in there if need be. The supplied us with sheets, blankets, pillows, EVERYTHING. Most hostels make you pay extra for all of that! Not to mention free wifi, they offered us TONS of food, baklava, wine, Palinka, and just great hospitality. It was a great stay in Budapest!
However, I am happy to be back in Prague and planning my next trip to......
ZURICH!!
We leave on Thursday, so I better go book us a hostel!
Some highlights:
FREE (yes, I said free) walking tour of the city
Getting lost, only to find some really great buildings!
The indoor market
Wine tasting
Train ride (my first!)
Night cruise on the Danube
Big Fish Hostel
Okay, soooo. From the top! The walking tour was sooo amazing!! Our tour guide, Agnes, was hilarious, very informative, educated, friendly, and all around great! On the tour we saw all of the major sights in Budapest (pronounced Budapesht). It was very nice because the day before we had gone on a hunt for this market thing we'd heard about, and we saw all of the same buildings but we didn't know what they were! Putting a name to the building and it's purpose was helpful.
The market. WOW. It was an indoor market in (what we think was) an old synagogue. Not 100% though. It was really great!! There was 100s of food vendors selling fruits, meats, strudels (which I of course took part in), clothes, lace doilies, souvenirs, etc etc. It was HUGE. Oh, and of course they had the traditional Hungarian paprika. Of course I bought some.
Wine tasting! One of my favorite hobbies!! Well, Hungary is known for it's wine and Palinka (I'll explain what that is in a minute). We went wine tasting and we tried a red, a white, and something called Tokoj. Tokoj is a sweet dessert wine that is only made in Hungary. It was AMAZING. It smelled like apples and pears and all of the good things in life. Naturally, I bought a bottle of that as well. YUM. Plus, no one in my family likes sweet wine! ALL MINE! =]
We had a little coupon saying that we got a free gift with the wine tasting. So we got to choose if we wanted another glass of wine or some Palinka. let me explain Palinka... It's a Hungarian brandy type liquor, but it's only made in Hungary with Hungarian fruit and it's very strictly regulated. There are laws protecting how Palinka is made... crazy. Anyway, so we opted for Palinka. I got plum, Amy got black currant, Michaela got pear, and Allison got strawberry. Out reaction when we all tried a sip?
HOLY SHIT!! IT BURNS!!
No joke... it was that bad. The aftertaste was fine, but MAN was it hard to drink. A good brandy is easy to drink, very smoother etc. This was just plain fire in the throat. Then we looked at the alcohol content... 46%. No wonder. So we finished off our glasses, and wandered back to the metro station, all slightly tipsy.
Oh! The train ride there!! It was my first train ride EVER and it was pretty fun. Nothing too spectacular happened, but that's okay. It was enough just to be on a train!
Night cruise on the Danube. It was sooo beautiful!! We went up and down the river between what used to be the two cities of Buda and Pest (before they became one) and saw all the lit up sights, buildings, bridges, etc. It was amazing! Freezing cold, but still really fun! I loved it.
Big Fish Hostel is the best hostel in the world. It was homey, comfy, clean, the staff was nice, they had food for us, homemade baklava (one of my favs!!), nice bathrooms, HUGE rooms, and it was amazing basically. The 4 of us had our own private room with 4 twin beds and a locked door, so we could leave our stuff in there if need be. The supplied us with sheets, blankets, pillows, EVERYTHING. Most hostels make you pay extra for all of that! Not to mention free wifi, they offered us TONS of food, baklava, wine, Palinka, and just great hospitality. It was a great stay in Budapest!
However, I am happy to be back in Prague and planning my next trip to......
ZURICH!!
We leave on Thursday, so I better go book us a hostel!
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