Day 8: Bro, Bro, Bro Your Boat

After getting up around 4:30 this morning, we slept nearly the entire plane ride. I was fortunate enough to wake up as the plane was landing. We got a great aerial view of the entire city, and it was an excellent tool for helping us get around the city for the rest of the afternoon.

Getting to our hotel was quite interesting. We used an inexpensive airport shuttle. Our driver was not aware of the phrase defensive driving, as it seemed his goal was to cut off every car we passed on the highway. Once we arrived at the hotel, we stored our bags and were off to see the city. While it was a little chilly to “start” the morning, our first of several excursions warmed up really quickly. Before heading into Pest, the western side of the city, we journeyed up a small hill to discover the “cave Church.” It was a place of worship built right into the mountain. A service was actually taking place, so we couldn’t visit the whole thing, but the parts we saw were fascinating.

After climbing down the tiny mountain, we crossed the bridge from our hotel and went into the local market place where some friends got some knick knacks. This proved to be a little bizarre, as the Eruos we have become accustomed to were no longer the currency of choice. Hungary uses the Forint (HUF), which is roughly 250-280 per Euro. The conversion means 10,000 HUF is roughly 40 Euros, which is of course slightly confusing. Steph really enjoyed the 10,000 HUF bill she withdrew from the bank...

We then headed to a side street to grab food at a café. A nice pizza and cheap latte were the recommendations and they turned out to be pretty good.

After breakfast/lunch we journeyed through the old area around our hotel. There was a lot of interesting architecture and this part of the city was quiet, but inviting.

We returned to our hotel after taking a few hundred pictures each. The Gellert is a little higher class than I would prefer, but it was unique to Hungarian culture. It is connected to a Turkish bath, which I hope to explore tomorrow before leaving to Slovakia. We checked in and changed our clothes as the other members of our group arrived at the hotel. Here is a picture of the hotel from the outside and a picture of my room.

Because we had already explored much of the city, Steph, Chrisine and I decided to try another part of town for the afternoon. This time we headed up the river, on the Buda side in the hopes of reaching the Parliament building. We crossed a different bridge and went into a local market place with live jazz music and a Euro festival. This led us to St. Stepphens Cathedral in the middle of a large square. Here we could not even enter due to a service going on. The outside was more than satisfying to look at though.

Not five minutes further up the river we bumped into the Parliament building. It was so rewarding to actually see the place where they conduct government functions, after researching Hungary’s political system for the past week.

Because it was Saturday afternoon, we could not go inside. Wa instead attempted to walk around the building which put us back on the river. Here we found a brand new memorial for victims of WWII crimes.

We then found a local place for Gazpacho, which was roughly 1 Euro a scoop. Each of us tried a different flavor as we sat on a sculpture and watched the hundreds of people stroll by. After resting our feet, we headed back to the hotel to meet everyone for dinner at 7pm. We all put on fancier/dressier clothes, before heading off to Alcatraz. This place was a bar that a Hungarian man suggested to Brie on the flight in, but ended up being a dud. While they had swing music, which I love, it ended within a few minutes arriving. The first band left and the second one set up before we got our food. My meal was good, but everyone else didn’t like there’s. Fortunately, the slow service and weak food was made up for by the second band’s test of the sound system using a beautiful acoustic edition of “I believe I can Fly”. We paid and left on foot back to the hotel while a few others grabbed cabs to get to a night club. We walked through the city and across the bridge, which at night was quite charming and impressive.

Once we returned to the lobby, we discovered Jake and Elana had returned home to grab coats. They informed us that the place had no cover and was a lot of fun. While it had just started raining, we walked the ten minutes down the street and entered the Rio night club. The place was an open air club, with no walls, two bars, neon lights, and a roof covering some of the dance floor. Unfortunately, within the first five minutes of arriving, the music system was compromised by the rain, and for 45 minutes the place was quite quiet. It was still nice to spend time with others and enjoy the unique night life culture. In Hungary, or at least at this club, it seemed appropriate for people to dance wildly by themselves. A half dozen people (guys and girls) were really enjoying their time without anyone else within 20 steps of them. This was funny to us, but seemed acceptable to everyone else.

Once the music returned, all of us had a great time dancing. It was the standard techno for the entire evening, with the same beat playing for 20-30 minutes at a time. A few times they played American lyrics (including Linkin Park), but for the most part it was just sounds. While we tried to dance outside, it was just too rainy, and after living it up for a few hours, we returned to the hotel around 3am to fall asleep.