Hungary - Budapest

14th November 2014

The drive from Vienna to Budapest was supposed to be 2.5 hours, and there was a pubcrawl at about 9.30pm, but everything got delayed. The bus ride took 4 hours, again, because of traffic problems, and the bus couldn't go through some tunnels/bridges because of its height, and the driver got lost again. We arrived really late at the hostel and still had to check-in. By the time we could settle down on our beds, it was half past midnight. Fortunately we didn't buy the tickets to pubcrawl. A lot of those who did ended up not going because it was way too late. 

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15th November 2014

We woke up really late, at about 10.30pm. We were quite annoyed by our room mates, because they woke up earlier and started talking at normal volume. The girl below me was even blowing her hair while some of us were still sleeping. So damn inconsiderate. The night before, C and I bathed last, because we thought they were going to the pubcrawl so they should bathe first. It turned out that nobody went, so by the time we bathed, they had slept. We had already tried to keep our volumes down and I even considered not blowing my hair since it would be way too noisy (but fortunately the bathrooms had power plugs so I could do it in the bathroom), but the girl below me was still visibly pissed. And C turned on her lamp for a while to get ready for bed, but the girl just asked her to turn off the lights. Like hello, it's just one lamp, upstairs. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't stop you from falling asleep. Seriously, they were damn rude. And they probably were just biased against Asians. But whatever, who the hell do they think they were? And their actions just proved that they were obviously ill-bred. We should be the ones looking down on them.

Anyway, we left the hostel at about 11.30am, changed money downstairs, and had a piece of pizza at the market opposite our hostel. It was very cheap, only 1€ per person :D

I was quite surprised that Budapest was so beautiful and relatively clean. The weather was really kind too! The name of Budapest is actually the combination of Buda and Pest, which are separated by the Danube River. The river bank with the Buda Castle is of course Buda, and the other one with the Parliament is Pest.

We headed to the river to see the Buda Castle.

The Chain Bridge and Buda Castle.

Before that though, of course, we had lunch first hahaha. The beer was awesome! Goulash was good, but the portion was way too small for the price. Tiramisu was great too :D

The Buda Castle is really big. There's a funicular railway that could take you up there, or you could just walk up. We walked, and it wasn't very difficult to climb. Along the way, you could see the chain bridge, the Pest coast, and the Parliament.

Up on the castle, we could see the city very well. There are quite a lot of buildings in Budapest! And most of them looked like residential areas. Budapest is the 8th most populated city in the European Union with about 1.7 million people!

We played archery for a while. 5 shots for 2€. It was quite difficult!! I managed to hit the board but I guess I didn't use enough strength so the arrow dropped onto the floor :P

There was a small stall selling funnel cakes and it smelled so good!!! Despite being very full, we bought one to try, and immediately regretted not buying more. The queue was really long! Guess everyone was drawn to it by the fragrance in the air :D It's only about 2.30€ so you definitely have to try it!!

We came across a couple getting their wedding shots there. So romantic and beautiful :) Really envy Europeans!! For us, we could only make do with Sentosa lol.

The sky gradually turned dark and the city started to light up. This is probably one of the best night views ever.

We walked down the castle and across the Chain Bridge to the Pest bank to see the Parliament. We then had dinner at a Hungarian restaurant that was pretty expensive and the quality of food was not very high. Walking back to the hostel, we passed by a Chinese restaurant, and I was really craving for Chinese food, so I bought a box of 虾饺 and C bought a fried noodle. They tasted pretty nice!

C got an apartment near the river to stay for the night, because we were pretty disappointed with the hostel and our room mates. We moved our stuff over there, and joined the group to the boat party. It was a 2-hour party on the boat while it cruised the river, and then there was an after-party at the largest club in Budapest.

The boat party wasn't as fun as I had imagined, and a lot of people actually just sat on the upper deck the entire time and didn't party at all. I wonder what they were doing there... We wanted to get home earlier so we didn't plan to go to the after-party. Our guide told us that there would be a bus after the boat party that would take us to the club, which is near our hostel. So we boarded the bus without hesitation after getting off the boat. BUT the guide lied!!! Idiot. The bus took us way out of town and across the river, where we could only leave via a cab. So we didn't have a choice and got onto a cab. We didn't even bring money out, and only had 1500Ft left with us. The driver was nice enough to drive us back and wait for us to get our money. It cost us 25€ when it was supposed to be about 10€, so I guess the driver wasn't very honest... Nevertheless, we were glad to be home finally. It was already almost 2am! We had to wake up at 8am to get ready and check out.

I liked Budapest a lot. I think the architecture is amazing - the Castle and Parliament are huge and beautiful. We didn't have a chance to go inside, but I will be back :P At the right places, food is cheaper. The streets are quite clean and surprisingly a lot of people can speak English well.