Every once in a while I have little epiphanies that I’m in Prague. Silly ordinary things like: I’m doing my laundry…in Prague! Or: I’m bored in class…in Prague! It’s a little disconcerting but it always makes things a little better. It makes the whole experience all the more real. There are other things that I’ve been noticing recently that are also a little strange. When I first arrived in Prague the language threw me for a bit of a loop; it always sounded like people were arguing with each other. It made me worry about getting through customs or getting the keys to my dorm room. Turns out that is just how the language is. Now I am so used to it, I cannot remember why I thought that before. A French-speaking girl I know told me that the hardest time she has speaking in English is the inflections we place on everything. In English people change the pitch and tone of their voices a great deal more throughout a single sentence than French people do in most conversations. Then there are the Italians. Our Italian roommates always sound like they are singing when they speak. They are definitely on the opposite end of the spectrum from the French. I had never noticed before until my friend mentioned it. Another weird thing I have been noticing recently: when I leave Prague for any period of time I start missing it; I get homesick…for Prague! I went to Budapest this weekend and while their transportation was very simple and easy to figure out I was still homesick for my number 9 tram (which I take everywhere in Prague).Prague and Budapest are incredibly similar yet incomparable at the same time. On the surface they appear to be incredibly similar: the architecture, the transportation system, and the proximity to an important river are a few examples. But once you delve a little deeper into the history and the culture, the two cities are too diverse to be contrasted.
Budapest is actually two cities split by the oh-so-mighty and wonderfully historical Danube River; on one side is Buda and the other is Pest (pronounced Pescht). The Danube marked the original border to the Roman Empire. The cities were unified in 1873.
Small side note: Hungarian people speak “Magyar” not Hungarian. Mainly because they come from a country called “Magyar Köztársaság” not Hungary. I have not exactly been able to figure out how English speaking people managed to change the word “Magyar” into “Hungary”… “Magyar” though comes from the name of the tribes that occupied the Danube starting in the 10th Century. “Hungarian”? not so much. Anyways, back to my story.
All the rumors you have heard about Czech people being a little reserved are true. In comparison the Hungarians are a great deal more outgoing. The people who worked at the hostel where we stayed were always readily available for a conversation or a few suggestions on what to do in Hungary. At one point, a friend of one of the people working there took us on a quest to find a Hungarian bar…but more on that later.
For our first day in Hungary we ventured up to Heroes’ Square. The Square is occupied by statues standing in a semi-circle depicting all of the Hungarian rulers. Five spaces were originally reserved for the Hapsburg rulers of Hungary but when the Square was damaged during World War II the Hungarians replaced the Hapsburgs with more recent figures. The
Millennium 
Memorial occupies the center of the square. Construction began at the Hungarian millennium in 1896 but was only finished in 1929. It towers over everything in the square. Magyar riders surround the base of the monument. Heroes’ Square is situated near the Budapest City Park. The Vajdahunyad Castle sits in the middle of the park. The leaves in Europe it seems (or Central Europe at least) tak
e a lot longer to change colors and fall off than in the United States (specifically Colorado). Maybe I just remember wrong but I feel like by this time all of the leaves are long gone in Colorado. Here though many of the trees have not only held tightly onto their leaves, but the leaves remain healthy and green. The tree outside my window in Prague is many shades of green, yellow and brown and is quite pretty. For this reason I feel like visiting Budapest in October was a brilliant idea. The Vajdahunyad Castle pokes its way up through an incredible assortment of every leaf color you could think of. Most of the trees still have a green majority but the ones that have change create such a beautiful array of color it is like looking at a rainbow ocean with a castle poking its head up in the distance.
e a lot longer to change colors and fall off than in the United States (specifically Colorado). Maybe I just remember wrong but I feel like by this time all of the leaves are long gone in Colorado. Here though many of the trees have not only held tightly onto their leaves, but the leaves remain healthy and green. The tree outside my window in Prague is many shades of green, yellow and brown and is quite pretty. For this reason I feel like visiting Budapest in October was a brilliant idea. The Vajdahunyad Castle pokes its way up through an incredible assortment of every leaf color you could think of. Most of the trees still have a green majority but the ones that have change create such a beautiful array of color it is like looking at a rainbow ocean with a castle poking its head up in the distance.
The church near the castle has previously appeared in our history class so I was incredibly excited when I not only recognized the church but also because I could describe the things that made it architecturally significant. (For example: when creating the statues of the lions, the creators had never seen lions, only had them described so the lion statues do not actually look like the lions we know and love.)
We later ventured up the high towers of St. Stephen’s Basilica (stretching over 286 feet). Later our free tour guide informed us that this was a huge tourist trap and it was not worth the money. It was two dollars and I disagree entirely. We could see for miles and everything was beautiful. I thought it was a great way to see the city of Budapest. There are more stairs than I can count reaching up to the top of the tower and my knees were aching horribly by the end of it but it was absolutely worth it. Plus climbing stairs helped to work off at least a little of the pasta that I am always eating in Prague hahaha. We spent the rest of the afternoon climbing and exploring the many hills that accompany the Buda side of the city.
That evening as I mentioned before, our new Hungarian friend (whose name I cannot remember for the life of me) took us out to several bars. Two American girls and an Australian boy that we had also met at our hostel came as well. The first bar we went to had cars and car parts lining the walls. We situated ourselves near and inside a Trabant (Trabi).
Trabi’s made their appearance during Russian occupation in Eastern Europe. They were an incredibly cheaply manufactured, two-stroke engine car that maxed at wopping speed of 70 mph. Trabis were popular among teenagers in the 1980s, and now the car in general is looked upon with a level of affection from East German and other former Soviet States.
The ceiling of the bar was covered in plants; it was like being in a jungle. Spiral staircases in the center of the room led up to the second floor (above the plants). The toilets in this bar were terrifying. They were holes in the ground…that is the best way of describing them. They were manufactured holes in the ground and I had absolutely zero interest in trying to use one.
The Australian and the Americans deserted us and we found our way onward and upward to two more bars, both of which we were all too tired to really enjoy.
The next day we continued to wander our way around Budapest. We visited a Turkish Spa called the Rudas Baths. It was originally built in 1550 and was therefore incredibly cool if only for that reason. It consisted of several different baths. The big one in the center of the room was the most ideal temperature (like a hot tub but not too hot). One of them was so hot I wouldn’t put more than just my feet in. Another one was only 10 degrees Celsius. The rest fell in between somewhere. The spa also had a series of saunas and steam rooms, most of which were too much for me and made me feel a little ill. The water somehow dyed my bathing suit and my hair brown (although I did not notice this until the next day when I was washing my hair and all the water was brown). All in all though the spa was a very good experience.
We spent our last few hours in Budapest on a free tour of the city. In the future I would absolutely recommend doing a free tour at the beginning of the trip. Most cities offer free tours (tour guides work only for tips) and they are very helpful at the beginning of a vacation because most of the time the guides will suggest good places to eat and visit that are not too expensive or touristy.
