The trip started with an overnight bus ride. I was intending to do some reading and a lot of sleeping, but the bus had movies, so I ended up watching them instead (I did eventually get to sleep).
The first thing we did that afternoon was go to the Castle Hill in the Buda part of the city (the hilly part to the west of the Danube). We went saw the Matthias Church (one of the few white Gothic-style churches).
We then went to the Labyrinth, a collection of tunnels in the hill that had formerly been used as a prison, and currently is a quite cheesy tourist attraction focusing on the fact that the person Dracula was based on had been imprisoned there. Then, we went to get a good view of the city.
After that, we went to the Gellert baths. It is a Turkish bath house/spa with a lot of nice hot tubs and pools. It was fun and relaxing, although there was a mildly terrifying moment when we were in the wave pool and it became really strong, sucking one of my friends who can't swim well into the deeper part of the pool.
After we left, we wandered over to the Pest side of the city (the plains on the eastern side of the river) to go get dinner.
The next morning, we went to visit some caves outside of the city. The first one, Pál-völgyi, had a bunch of wonderful formations.
The second cave, Szemlő-hegyi, also was cool. It has many crystal formations, rather than stalactites. Unfortunately, the tour was not great (the tour guide would speak in Hungarian for a few minutes, then say 1 or 2 sentences in English).
After that, we went to the top of Janos Hill, the highest point in Budapest. There was an amazing view from the top ( I apologize for the slight blurriness at high zoom/translucent flags that resulted from not taking every picture from the exact same spot).
After descending from the hill, we went to the Széchenyi baths, a bathhouse in more of a Baroque style. It had several large outdoor heated pools. I kind of felt that its "cold" pools (for when you leave the sauna) were probably warmer than the water I swim in over the summer.
After that we went to dinner nearby, then had a look around Heroes Square.
The next morning, I went with the part of the group staying in the same house as me to explore the city. We started off by going to the market, which had a large range of food and souvenir stands. I ended up getting a cool box that you need to manipulate in a certain way to be able to open.
After that, we walked along the river, then went to the St. Stephen's Basilica. Supposedly, it has a mummified hand of one of the kings as a holy relic, although I wasn't able to see that (it looked like they were preparing for a wedding). Needless to say, it was gorgeous inside.
After that, and a brief trip back to Castle Hill, we went to Gellert Hill, generally considered to be one of the best views in Budapest.
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| The joys of taking pictures of your friends without them realizing |
After going back down the hill, most of my friends went back to the house, while I went with one of them to the opera. I had heard that the building was amazing, and was not disappointed. However, the opera (The Rake's Progress by Stravinsky) was a little …odd. Then again, I was expecting that, given that this was the composer who wrote a piece that caused a riot at its premiere. The opera was in English, but I still felt a need to look at the English supertitles, and to read its description on Wikipedia when I got back. However, the tickets that I got were only 1500 HUF (about $5.50).
I have to say, the trip was very nice, even though Budapest's public transportation system makes the MBTA look good. Budapest is one of those cities with lovely old buildings all over the place, and the hills and caves are also very interesting. It was also the first time in a while that I had spent the majority of my time while traveling with other people. I definitely enjoyed being social.
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