Budapest and Vienna

This week was my last week to travel and explore Europe before I head home. :(

After leaving Joe at the airport Tuesday, I flew to Budapest, Hungary, where I met with Emily and Erin after more than two weeks apart. Our airbnb host had arranged for a car to pick me up from the airport when I landed. It was really nice to not have to worry and figure out how to use public transportation from the airport to our airbnb. When I landed, there were three young girls probably in high school, that were holding a sign with my name on it like they do in the movies. It was kind of a sketchy situation, but I went with it. After about 10 minutes, this scary/pervy looking old man walked up to me and asked if I was Ashley and if I was ready for my ride. I would be lying if I said he didn’t freak me out a little bit, but he ended up being really nice. He asked me about my travels and was telling me all the best things to see and do in Budapest. He was actually kind of fun to talk to. 

It was so nice to see Emily and Erin again! They are so much fun to travel and hang with. By the time arrived, they had already made dinner and told me we were going out for drinks afterwards. It was so sweet. I felt like I was home! 

That night we went to a few different bars and famous streets in Budapest. Budapest is known for its nightlife; we went to a series of bars that were in these old ruins and it was all lit up with lights and music was playing. It was so cool and so much fun! On our way home we passed by this little courtyard area that had food trucks and bars and was completely packed. We each got a drink, talked about our travels and adventures, and just enjoyed the evening. It was perfect!

I don’t know if it was because I have been with Joe for the last week, or what, but the Hungarian men are super aggressive when it came to catcalling and making comments to girls. I swear they are worse than the Italians! We got a lot of stares and a lot of “hey beautiful”. Erin loved making eye contact with them and staring them down anytime they looked at Emily or I. It was hilarious! Thank goodness for Erin!

On Wednesday morning we set out to explore Budapest. The city is divided by the river; one side is Buda and the other side is Pest. In the morning we crossed over into Buda and explored everything! We saw Buda Castle, saw the main cathedral, and let me tell you, the view from the Fisherman’s Bastion was beautiful! We could see all of Pest the Danube river. It was so cool! We eventually got hungry, so we found lunch at cool Wok restaurant and took a few minutes to just sit. The Hungarian sun is brutal. It was about 90 degrees and what felt like 100% humidity. We were completely exhausted by the mid afternoon. After lunch we visited the largest synagogue in all of Europe. Unfortunately we couldn’t go in, but it was really cool to see the outside. While we were exploring Budapest, we happened upon a movie set, where they were filming some sort of WWII movie. It was actually really cool! We got to see behind the scenes and watch how the movie was made. We sat and watched them do the same scene at least 10 separate times. It gave me a whole new respect for the movie business. It was really cool to see. Another famous spot in Budapest is the Parliament building. Apparently it was modeled after the parliament in London, which we had seen earlier in our travels. Personally I didn’t think they looked alike, but what do I know.

After touring Budapest all day, we ended the evening with a cool boat cruise around Budapest on the Danube river. We got to see all the famous buildings and monuments along the river and once it got dark, we got to see all the buildings lit up. It was absolutely beautiful! We even met a nice woman who is a professor at UCLA and was spending a couple weeks traveling Europe. We made the fatal mistake of not having dinner before our cruise, so by the time we got off the boat at 9pm, we were starving!! On our way home, we stopped at a grocery store and picked up some dinner/snack food. When we got home, we feasted on cheese and crackers, and homemade mac n cheese. Dinner of champions!

Come Thursday, we had seen everything we wanted to see in Budapest, and the heat was draining, so we headed to Margaret Island. Margaret Island is an island in the middle of the Danube river that is basically a huge park. Many people run, bike, tan, swim, and hang out there. We found a really cool water park and decided to spend the day at the pool. This water park was like visiting Disneyland. They had 6 pools. Some wave-pools, whirlpools, thermal baths, lap pools, kid’s pools. You name it, this swim park had it. It was crazy! We spent the whole day there. It was so much fun!!

That evening we went to dinner at a traditional Hungarian restaurant our airbnb host had suggested. It was delicious! I had some sort of chicken and potatoes, and it was so good! For dessert we decided to try a traditional dessert. Emily picked a “cottage cheese crepe” for us to try. Note: I will eat anything and everything… Except cottage cheese. So when our crepe arrived and it was covered in powdered sugar, I thought “Ok, this looks good. I can do this” It wasn’t until I took a bite and realized what was inside, that I couldn’t do it. It was so gross! Why ruin a perfectly good crepe with cottage cheese! We spent the rest of the night walking around the city and ended up drinking some delicious hungarian wine at a local wine bar. It was the perfect end to our trip in Hungary!

Friday morning, Emily, Erin, and I went for a quick run in the city before it got too hot. We ran to the famous Budapest thermal baths. We wanted to go in and see them, but they were going to charge us an entrance fee even though we didn’t plan on swimming or staying for that matter. So we ditched the thermal baths and ran through the park instead. By the time we got back, it was time for us to pack up and head to the bus station.

On Friday, we took a bus to Vienna, Austria, where we were met by Emily and Erin’s friend Fabian. Fabi was nice enough to show us around Vienna and let us girls stay at his apartment. His apartment only had one room, so he let the three of us take over his bed and bedroom while he slept on the couch. What a nice host :). After settling in (and doing our first load of laundry in 3 weeks) we set out to explore Vienna. We first went to Schonbrunn Palace and walked around the palace grounds, which was really cool. It's hard to imagine that royalty used to live in a place like that and would wake up every morning with the most beautiful views and gardens. 

That evening we went to get drinks and met up with another one of their friends Markus. We had so much fun getting drinks and catching up, or meeting them in my case. At one point Markus asked me why I wasn’t following him on instagram and my sassy response was, “ umm well, because I just met you…” They were so much fun! After drinks, we returned to Fabi’s house to make dinner and watch youtube videos. (We had to get Fabi caught up on American pop culture!)

Saturday was our tourist day. We went sight-seeing all over Vienna. Fabi even took us on a horse drawn carriage ride! It was so cool! We got to see all the sights of Vienna from our cute little carriage. After that we went to lunch and went shopping. We had a blast just enjoying the city with Fabi. He kept pointing out all the amazing desserts and treats that Vienna had to offer. By the time we were on our way home, we had 4 different types of cake and dessert. It was crazy, but also delicious! That evening we went out to this bar that was on the rooftop of a hotel. We could look out over the city and see all the city and street lights. We could even see an outdoor concert that was going on in the distance and lightening in the clouds around the city. It was so cool!

It was really cool staying with Fabi, because he gave us an authentic experience in Austria. One of the things he was most excited to show us was his gym. Fabi, along with Emily and Erin, are really into their fitness and enjoyed finding new cool gyms across Europe. Sunday morning, we went to Fabi’s gym and worked out. He has a really cool gym with various types of training spaces and “toys” as Erin called them. It reminded me of ClubSport on steriods. It was also nice to work out for the first time in awhile. While traveling, I have mostly been counting my daily 10+ miles of walking as my workout, but it was kind of fun to be in an actual gym again. Again by Sunday afternoon, we had seen everything we wanted to see in the city, so Fabi took us to a really cool private pool just outside of Vienna. The pool was at the top of a hill, and when you were in the pool, you could look out over the entire city. It was actually really cool! We spent the day just relaxing and hanging out. We had brought snacks and had a little bit of a picnic lunch and just enjoyed the afternoon in Austrian sun. That evening we planned to go to dinner and a movie (don’t worry, the movie was in English). We had a hard time finding a place to eat, but ended up goiong to this really cool urban restaurant. It was absolutely delicious. The only issue was that we were in a little bit of a hurry and the service was kind of slow, so by the time we got our food, we payed the bill, shoved food in our face and ran to the theater. As we got up everyone at the restaurant stared at us, and I’m sure they thought we were leaving without paying, but I promise we paid!

We saw the new Deadpool movie at the English movie theater, which was cool. I actually learned a lot about American culture while watching an American comedy in Austria. There were some jokes and comments made during the movie that we thought were funny since we were American and knew the context of the joke. But it was interesting because we were the only ones laughing. It’s crazy to think how "popular" American pop culture is worldwide, but how a lot of other things are only understood or interpreted differently because we are American and have a different frame of reference. Anyway… watching an American movie was not my ideal way to spend the last night of my crazy adventure, but it turned out to be really fun and I learned a lot. 

The day finally came when I had to return to Italy and start my journey home. This morning I caught an early flight back to Italy. After a bus, train, and a bit of walking, I made it back to Reggio Emilia. I have a couple days left before I head home, and I am going to make them count. See you on the flip side! ;)