Budapest

Sunday - October 20

Got to the airport around 10am, slept on the flight, and landed in Budapest, Hungary around 3pm.

We took a bus from the airport to our hotel.

Our hotel was in a good location, right next to a metro stop.

Our rooms were pretty nice, too. There were three single beds, though I'm pretty sure it was meant for two people.

We went on a biking tour of the city from about 4:30 to 6:00.

I think this is the Museum of Art.

We stopped at Heroes Square and learned a bunch about the history of Budapest, like how there is Old Buda, Buda (which is on the hilly side of the Danube river), and Pest (pronounced 'Pesht', on the flat side of the Danube).

This is the Heroes Square monument, honoring all the lives lost in Hungarian wars.

Then we biked to an architectural replication of all the styles found in Hungary.

This is Baroque.

Gothic.

And Romanesque.

Then we biked to the Széchenyi Spa, filled with hot tubs, pools, and Turkish baths.

We saw a lot of the city, but we were running out of time. It was getting late and dark and we had to find our way to our dinner cruise on the Danube.

When we finally found it, we realized it was really close to where the end of the biking tour had been. But we walked around for a long time trying to find it.

There was an indoor fountain pool in the boat.

And they gave us a glass of champagne as a 'welcome drink'.

It was a buffet, and the food was mostly traditional Hungarian. There were meatballs, spaetzle, pasta, bread, desserts, veggies, and a lot more meat than I have ever seen.

These were the kinds of views from the cruise.

Monday

Our first academic visit was to the Semmelweis University cardiovascular institute.

After the presentation of all the information I would ever need on the place, they gave us white coats and took us on a tour of the facilities. The campus was very hilly and had a bunch of different buildings.

When we went into rooms, we had to put plastic bags over our shoes.

When that was over, we went on a guided food and city tour.

A lot of people were feeling sick, like from food poisoning or something, but I felt fine so I thoroughly enjoyed the day.

We started at a cafe.

And inside the cafe, we climbed 10 floors to the rooftop area.

We were fed bagels with a paprika cottage cheese spread, and we drank shots of pálinka, a Hungarian vodka drink that the tour guide said Hungarians drink when they're sick, hungover, tired, awake, etc.

The view was great from the rooftop.

This is the Great Market Hall.

We had meat and cabbage rolls.

We were given huge portions of that, even though it was only our second stop. The guy feeding us didn't speak English, but kept talking to us in Hungarian, haha.

Then he gave us langos (pronounced 'laengoesh'), and it was basically fry bread with sour cream and cheese on it, but it was some of the best fried bread I've ever had.

Then we learned about some beautiful buildings and bridges, like how they were bombed by the Germans in WWII and were rebuilt later so they look modern and kind of out of place.

Then we went to a butcher/deli.

They had us try blood sausage, liver sausage, and a regular spicy sausage. I was pretty full and had a hard time downing the blood sausage, but I did. It had an interesting flavor but the texture was weird and knowing how they make it made me lose my appetite.

So then I ate a pickle.

Then we went to the Jewish Quarter of the city, which used to be a ghetto. It looked different and cultural and it held a lot of history. The Jews were basically walled inside the old city walls and we walked in where the gate used to be.

This is a memorial tree made of silver that allows people to buy a leaf and engrave in the bar code of a loved one who experienced the Holocaust.

It was a very nice neighborhood.

Then we went to a ruin pub. They were building owned by the government that were partially destroyed by war and the people were too poor to buy them or remodel them, so businesses started making them into pubs.

It had a couple rooms filled with thrifty furniture.

The middle/back of the pub had an open ceiling from bombing so they put colorful tarps up and had outdoor seating. I tried a wine spritzer but preferred the beer because the spritzer was white wine with club soda in it, so basically watery wine with flat bubbles.

Then we went to a fancy chocolate shop.

We had a couple different cakes and I had a cappucino.

We then went back to the hotel for a while. One girl went for a run and got bit/scratched by a dog. Christian, one of our leaders and class assistants, was really worried and stayed at the hotel while we went to Széchenyi Spa so that he could call DIS and doctors and stuff for her. She went to the spa, though.

It was beautiful and amazing and we tried out most of the pools and saunas, and we soaked both inside the building and in the outdoor hot springs.

Around 11:30pm, some girls and I were hungry for dinner so we went out and had to search a long time to find a place that was open.

I had a pizza/bruschetta things that was great and a piece of chocolate cake and cheesecake with ice cream for dessert.

Tuesday

We were going to have two academic visits today, so it was going to be a hard day.

David, the other tour leader, bought me and my friend Anna Starbucks because I carried the gift bag for the academic visit yesterday. It was really no problem, but David likes to use the money DIS gives him to buy us stuff.

Anna and me.

All three of us got pumpkin spice lattes.

Our first visit was to the National Institute of Oncology. It was also very hilly and had a couple building on campus and we got to see the pharmacy where they make and send cancer drugs to the building. We also saw the area where they give chemo treatments.

The presentations were powerpoints in a darkish room, so I tried to stay awake to no avail.

Our second academic visit was at a private clinic called the Buda Health Center.

We had chicken with tomatoes and mozzarella and a pastry for lunch in the cafeteria there.

After lunch, we explored the area for a half hour before returning to the health center for presentations and tours.

We got to see all their technology, and it was pretty cool.

We had the rest of the day to ourselves so we walked around trying to find castles and stuff. We climbed a lot of stairs.

And we made it to the top of Buda and had a beautiful view and a lot of photo shoots.

There was a beautiful historic area with ruins and castles and museums.

We spent a while here, and I bought some touristy things/gifts. Budapest is so much cheaper than Denmark.

I got a small hazelnut ice cream for about a dollar.

Then, the small group I was with walked to this beautiful church.

There was a castle feel to it, and there was a really nice looking hotel there.

We also took a ton of pictures here.

It was so beautiful in person, these pictures don't do it near enough justice.

We walked back down the hill of Buda and found a bus back to the hotel and passed the famous chain bridge.

I got this personal pizza for dinner for less than 2 dollars.

Hungarian currency is the forint, which is about 0.0047 of a dollar, or 1 dollar = 214 forints. The pizza was 500 forints.

Wednesday

We had breakfast at the hotel every morning, but I forgot to take pictures of it.

It was usually eggs and cheese and yogurt and some bread and a cappucino for me.

I got this bread thing at the train station and ate it for lunch on the train.

So we said goodbye to Budapest and got on the train for Vienna.