budapeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeest.

ok so this weekend, lisa, collin, and i made a lil weekend trip to hungary. budapest was definitely so so awesome and i wish we had more time there since the frickin baths close early in the winter. anyway, so we left pretty late from rome which was so nice cause we usually have ass early flights. we took wizz air this time which had nicer planes but was completely delayed and not even nearly as awesome as ryanair. the airport is right near the city so we took a bus in and then got donuts at the metro stop. theres collin with her donut.


so we get there on friday afternoon and the sun sets early there too and it was really cold and i was really sick so we checked into our hostel and got dinner. our hostel was pretty cool cause it was like a hostel company where they just like rent out three flats and then you live in a hungarian apartment for your stay there. i felt totally hungarian (as collin would put it). so lisa was in one flat with a bunch of people and then collin and i had our own flat where the other room was occupied but the girl who stays there was away for the weekend. she must have lived there or something cause she had so much food and all these like products in the bathroom. this is the parliament at night as seen from our side of the river.


and this is the lil market hall down the block from our flat.


soon after, we went to this cute like cafe down the street from our flat called angelica that served amazing homecooked food for like 10 euro. the exchange is so awful (or good for us) that everything there is generally just so much cheaper. after that collin and i went for a walk along the danube cause it was actually kind of mild and there was no wind. after that we just headed back to the flat and did some catching up since i hadnt seen collin all week.

saturday was our day for sightseeing. we started by heading up the hill from our apartment into the castle district. the first thing we hit was the cathedral and fisherman's bastion.


this is the view of pest from the top of the hill.


and here's the cathedral from the front.


after we got to the top we headed to the other side to get a view of buda. it was soooo pretty.


and here's me and collin with a view of pest from in front of the castle.


this is the castle up close. it's not very historic looking simply because it has been invaded and razed so many times that the one that still stands is like not even a hundred years old, i think.


so after walking around a bit, we crossed the danube river to see what was going on in pest. this is the view of the entire castle from pest.


after a few minutes, we hit the basilica of st. stephen. this is me and lisa outside the basilica.


there's the rotunda of the huge dome. it kinda reminded me of santa maria maggiore.


and this is the inside of the cathedral.


after the basilica we kept walking east towards the park and hit a bunch of things along the way. here's the opera house which had a louis vuitton store right next to it. i was soooo tempted to buy someone a present there but thank god i did not.


shortly after, we reached heroes' square which is a monument park within a park in pest. this is the square.


and there was this castle thing in the park called vajdahunyad vára with an ice skating rink in front of it.


if you went in through the main entrance there was this cute lil chapel and a tiny little market place with small stands and things.


around that time we decided to have a late lunch and headed over towards the gundel restaurant but then ate at their sister restaurant, bagolyvar, instead. gundel was much more fancy so we werent up for that. this is the restaurant...i know its super random but i saw it listed in the 1000 places to see before you die book so we decided to hit it up.


afterwards, it got really really cold and we still had to walk all the way to buda so i whipped out my scarf hat (hat scarf?) that anna and i got in estonia. i decided to name him benny on the spot. here's benny's debut while i'm in heroes' square.


and so here's collin on me on the bridge on the way over to buda.


and this is the view of buda from the bridge.


unfortunately, the freaking gellert baths close early in the winter so when we got there it was already closed even though the ad we saw said they closed 2 hours later. so we went to the gerbeaud cafe instead to have their delectable layer cakes. lisa and collin had this like truffle torte thing and i had the signature gerbeaud cake with a cafe latte. yumm.


afterwards we just headed back to rest since we had to get up pretty early this morning. this is the chain bridge all lit up at night.


on the plane back to rome we met some architecture students who were studying in rome (from northeastern) who really felt the need to talk to me cause i was wearing my tufts sweatshirt. ends up theyll be in amsterdam next weekend too. how weird would that be if we saw them there? i doubt it, solely cause didnt see our friend obsidian lord in paris.

wednesday evening, i leave for paris to spend a day with marissa and then thursday afternoon we depart by train for amsterdam to meet jessie. ill post again when i get back on sunday night. should be hectic!