Day 1:
Our flight was out of the Pisa airport so we decided to go to Pisa a couple hours early in order to see the leaning tower. When we arrived in Pisa we took a city bus to the tower. We spent about an hour trying to get a good picture, it was somewhat successful. We wanted to have a nice dinner by the tower, but we realized we spent too much time taking pictures and had to get back to the airport. I am ashamed to admit that we ate McDonald's for dinner. After our wonderful Italian dinner.... we waited at the bus stop for about 10 minutes. A bus came and we all got on it. Good thing one of my friends asked the bus driver if he was headed to the airport and he shoot his finger in front of him saying "no aeroporto". We all jumped off before we got on the wrong bus. We looked at the bus schedule and found out that the bus we needed stopped running. Picture 9 American students with huge carry on bags running through the streets of Pisa trying to catch a plane. We looked ridiculous and got plenty of funny looks. After running about 4 miles we finally made it to the airport. Of course we looked like we just ran a marathon and had sweat dripping down our faces, but that didn't stop Nicole from getting our flight attendants number.
I was told that Ryan Air was one of the worst companies in Europe, but we had a wonderful experience. We paid 70 euro for round trip tickets, which included the extra 5 euro we paid for priority seating (best investment I've made in Europe). They weren't very organized and basically everyone just stands in a jumbled mess fighting to board the plane. They do not have section numbers or assigned seating. They kind of just say "okay, everyone line up to board", you can imagine the mess that makes. We were able to board the plane first and pick any seat we wanted. They opened the door and I expected to walk through a tunnel to the plane...nope we literally walked on the runway right to where the plane was parked and walked up the stairs right onto the plane. Ryan Air was very entertaining... they speak in 3 different languages so everything they say they repeat 3 times, which meant they were talking for the entire flight. They also has many opportunities to shop on board. The sold smokeless cigarettes, perfume, and scratch off cards. We found it quite funny. Before we knew it we were walking off the plane and were in Hungary, a place I never pictured myself visiting on my last free weekend in Europe.
We stayed at a hostel named Tiger Tim's. On the website it mentioned that there are no signs advertising that the hostel actually exists so it has a picture of the entrance and it tells you to remember what this door looks like, because that is the only way you will know you are at the right place. It was 1:30am and the shuttle pulled up to the street, let us out, and left. The 9 of us were searching for this mysterious door. One of the boys knocks on a door that he believes is the correct place. This door was located between a kebab store and a sex shop....we were a little nervous to say the least. The door opens and we start walking up a stairs, having no idea what or who we might run into. After 4 flights of stairs a very skinny Australian man greets us in his underwear with a notebook in his hand. We weren't sure if we should be scared or entertained. He started calling out our names and led us to our rooms. The owner of the hostel, Tim a funny Irish man, introduced himself and told us to all meet in the lounge area in the morning and he would go over everything with us.
Day 2:
When we woke up we all met upstairs and Tim handed us each a map of Budapest. He told us everything we needed to know about the city from good restaurants to the famous Turkish baths. Budapest is a walking city, even if it's 30 minutes away, you walk.
We began our adventure exploring the city. We went to the 3 story central market. It had a lot of fruits, vegetables, and meats.. not the market we expected, but it was still cool to explore. We then went to the green bridge and just sat in the sun for a little bit. There wasn't a cloud in the sky! After relaxing we walked on the Pest side along the Danube River and we ran into the shoe memorial. It is 60 pairs of shoes made out of iron that give remembrance to the Jews who were shot into the Danube River by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest in World War II.
We followed one of Tim's suggestions and went on one of the free walking tours. As you've already read I do not enjoy tours very much, but this was an exception. The guides were young and energetic. The brought us to both sides of the river showing us famous places in Buda and Pest. They brought us to a statue of a fat police man and told us if you rub his belly you will eat good food while you are in Hungary. We also saw more locks on an iron gate. Our guide told us that couples who are in love come here, write their initials on the lock, lock it on the fence, and throw the keys into the river. Europe really likes this lock tradition. They have it in Florence and Cinque Terre. We ended the tour on Castle Hill on the Buda side. The view was of the entire city and was beautiful.
We finished our day of sightseeing at the popular Hummus Bar. I guess rubbing the statues tummy worked because our that was the best falafel I've ever had. The made the falafel balls fresh to order. After dinner we had to get ready for our night around Budapest. Tim has organized things each night of the week for anyone in the hostel to participate in if they wish. Saturday night was a cruise along the Danube River that ended on Dream Island, which is an Island known for night life. It was a good time and we met a lot of really cool people. The view of the river at night was awesome.
Day 3:
Our third morning was when I realized how cool staying in a hostel is. We were upstairs sitting at a table full of about 15 people and when you listened around the table you heard accents from England, Australia, Norway, and Ireland. I'm not sure the next time I will be around such a diverse group of people.
We walked to a local market one of our tour guides told us about. It had about 15 vendors and would take a regular group of people 30 minutes to go through, but it took us group of 6 girls about 2 hours. Everything was so cool and unique.
After shopping we visited a museum called the House of Terror. The museum contains exhibits related to the fascist and communist dictatorial government in 20th century Hungary. It also a memorial to the victims of the regime. The entire museum is in Hungarian so we had to read the English papers that explained every room. Tim warned us that the museum was very shocking, but we didn't get that feeling until we went to the basement. This is where the memorial is and prison cells that make you feel like you were actually there. It sent shivers down my spine.
After the House of Terror we were ready for a relaxing couple of hours at the Szechenyi Baths. This Turkish bath was the first of its kind on the Pest side and is the largest medicinal bath in Europe. It has over 15 baths ranging from ice cold to steaming hot. We laid by a pool that had a whirl pool in the middle. It turned on every 10 minutes and once you are in it, it is very hard to get out. The water pushes you in circles, bumping you into the people around you...sounds weird, but it was so much fun!
After the baths we went with the Hostel the the World's 3rd most famous bar, Szimpla. This bar is considered a ruin bar, but it blows all other bars out of the water. You can spend hours exploring the bar. It is full of computer screens and strange junkyard artifacts.
When I booked my flight to Budapest I had no idea what to expect. I couldn't be happier with our decision to travel there. It was a place I'll probably never have the chance to go to again. It was the cleanest city I have been to and not very touristy, which was nice. We ate good food, had a fun time, saw awesome places, and met cool people.
