We have now been in Olomouc for a couple of days and the weekend was soon approaching. Ashley, Bree, Chase, and I did not really think we would go somewhere on the first weekend. We were still trying to figure out Olomouc and adapt to this huge change in our lives. Finally, we decided we had to go and at that point I knew exactly where I wanted to go.. Budapest! We booked our bus rides which were only like $10 a person!
It is amazing how cheap transportation in Europe is, how could you not take advantage of that?! We left for Budapest Saturday morning we got to the train station two hours early just because we were so paranoid that we would not find the right bus stop and miss the bus. Well, lets just say that was a long two hours, we got there so early that our bus had not even popped up on the electric screen yet. We decided to relax and have some breakfast. An hour in we realized that our bus did not pick us up at that station, our pick up was a couple blocks down and I surely got paranoid.
Some of our friends who were planning to go somewhere else that weekend missed their bus due to some delays so I busted into full mom mode to make sure we got there. No bathroom breaks were allowed until we found the right place! After a long bus ride with some fun movies to watch we were finally in Budapest.
We struggled to find a taxi at first to get to our Airbnb, so we ended up just eating at a burger place nearby. Once we ate I wandered around and ended up finding some taxis nearby!
Finally we got to our Airbnb and began to both unpack and unwind. Though we were exhausted from most of the day being full of travels that did not stop us from going out to see what Budapest has to offer at night.
The next day we woke up and had a very nice lunch with the most amazing view of Vajdahunyad Castle. Located in the city park of Budapest this castle was built in 1896 as part of the Millennial Exhibition which celebrated the 1,000 years of Hungary since the Hungarian Conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895. So even though the castles architecture may look old, it isn't. It was built to best represent a certain architectural style in Hungary including: Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque structures (it is a very big castle). It is free to walk around the castle on the outside but the castle is also the home of several festivals, concerts and the exhibitions of the Hungarian Agricultural Museum.
For the rest of the day we went to the The Széchenyi Thermal Baths. This place is one of the largest and first bath complexes in Europe with 21 different pools. Its water is supplied by two thermal springs. I enjoyed this a lot, I would recommend it to anyone who visits Budapest!
After a nice long day at the thermal baths we explored more of the towns beauty at night. At first we were not exactly sure where we were going so we honestly just started walking around they City park! We came across Vajdahunyad Castle again, which is even more breathtaking at night!
Story time real quick so when we got back to the Airbnb, I desperately wanted to do laundry. In Olomouc we have to pay for laundry and it isn't the cheapest, so doing our laundry for free at the Airbnb sounded like an amazing opportunity, right? ... wrong. Well that night I put my load in and than tried to start it, it sounded like it was about to start going but than it would stop. After trying to start it up a couple more times using different settings I realized something else was wrong. I than remembered that their was a little compartment within the washer that I did not close together. I begin to open the load to fix this and the lid would not open. I tried a couple more times and I also had Ashley try. My laundry was stuck... We had to leave the Airbnb the next morning and I was very worried that I would not be able to get my laundry out. Ashley texted our host, clearly this has had to happen before! I did not sleep as well that night, I kept waking up worrying about my laundry which is kind of silly but my favorite pair of leggings and jeans were in their. When we woke up, he had texted us back saying that when I lifted up the handle I also had to pull it to the right. I was not really sure what he meant but I gave it a try and got it opened, finally I could do my laundry!!!
We checked out of the Airbnb that morning but did so in quite a hurry. After getting Mcdonalds (yes I know Mcdonalds we were missing American food a bit) we went to a souvenir shop. We thought we had plenty of time because checkout was not until 11, but the souvenir shop did not open until 10 and we were in there for a bit longer than expected! We may have ended up checking out 10 minutes late, but lets just keep that between you and I okay? okay. So for the rest of the day we had to carry our heavy backpacks around because we were not heading back home on a bus until 11:30 that night. The backpack honestly was not too bad for me. My friends convinced me to get a North Face backpack right before I left this Summer because it has a lot of room and support. (Thanks guys I truly needed this backpack even though it took a while for you to convince me!) So for the whole day we looked like tourist who had not yet placed our backpacks wherever we were staying (even though it was the other way around), basically we were backpackers! Going into this day I honestly thought the views could not get any better than what we had already seen... I was wrong
The first thing we did was climb up the Buda Castle hill. Today, Castle Hill is recognized as a World Heritage Site, and has many must-see attractions, Gothic arches, eighteenth-century Baroque houses and cobblestone streets. Though Castle Hill has changed from the 13th century, its main streets still follow their medieval paths. Some houses date back to the 14th and 15th centuries, giving us an idea of what the Castle District may have looked like back then. Looking out into Budapest from the top of this hill was not a disappointing site at all.
(Click the arrow to scroll through the photos)
Budapest treated us very well for our first weekend trip, we would not have wanted to do anything different.. except for one thing. Night buses are not the way to go. We did not want to miss the bus so again we showed up hours before it left and did not have much to do. At 4 AM we were dropped off in Brno where we had to wait 2 hours just to get on another bus to get back home to Olomouc. After a full day of hiking and exploring and a long bus ride we were all a bit cranky and tired that next morning when we got home. Luckily we were able to sleep in before we had class at 3 PM, but lets just say we are going to do our best to avoid buses at night time for our future weekend trips. Stay tuned to see where we go next, thanks for reading!!
-Bailey Gittler
