Budapest!!

This weekend I was blessed with the opportunity to visit Budapest. What an incredible amazing city. New top three favorite places for sure. What’s so intriguing and alluring about Budapest is their east meets west flavor. As me and one of my house mates coined it, it is very “EU-y.” They have all the brands, and conveniences of a modern open economy. However, Budapest has managed to maintain all of its grandiose character and historical significance. The Buda part of the city contains castles and magnificent old buildings.  The Pest side reflects a modern day bustling city with its commercialism, however its architecture tells a story of a powerful empire, Nazi and Soviet occupations, and a recovery and emergence into the 21^st century. Grand, large bridges link the two sides of the city across the historic Danube. The views and waterfronts are a UNESCO world heritage site. Unfortunately, the Danube was flooding while I was in Budapest. The two roads and trolley lines normally nearest the river were underwater.

Food in Budapest is far more varied and cheaper than Zagreb. Friday night we had a pretty cheap meal at a restaurant near our rented apartment. Saturday we had food at a bakery (hello $1 breakfast) before heading to Hero’s Square, City Park, and a walk down Andrassy Utca. A visit to the House of Terror was in order. Although definitely an interesting perspective on Hungarian history, the building was the original headquarters for the Nazis and the Soviets as well as a prison for those brave enough to defy the regimes. We met some of my housemate’s friends for lunch where I experienced chilled fruit soup (delicious!) and walked across one of the bridges. A 45 minute rainstorm only slightly derailed our late afternoon plans. Then we headed for a quick view of parliament. After we went to dinner at….wait for it…wait for it… A MEXICAN RESTAURANT. For those of you who don’t know me or know me well, I LOVE MEXICAN FOOD, in particular, guacamole and tortilla chips. And unfortunately, Croatia doesn’t believe in avocadoes, guacamole, or Mexican food in any sense. So to find Mexican food in Budapest was very exciting. Afterwards, we chilled for a bit in a ruin bar (famous in Budapest).

Sunday we ventured to the Turkish/Hungarian Baths, quite an adventure if I do say so. Europeans are very, well, comfortable with their bodies. I also learned I hate saunas. Who’s idea was it to sit in a room that you can’t breathe in and sweat? Not anyone sensible. However, the medicinal hot tubs were pretty refreshing. Afterwards we drove to a place called Memorial Park. This was actually pretty cool although a quick tourist attraction. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re already driving back like we were but this place does hold the boots of the statue of Stalin that was torn down by the Hungarians in the attempt to overthrow the government in 1956.

Two other quick notes on Hungary—the language is near impossible. For those of you who learned Hungarian and are not native speakers, congratulations, I’m really impressed. Second, the currency, the Forint, is so inflated. A roll can cost you 300 Forint and a dinner for two will cost you 5000-10000 Forint. The exchange rate during my visit was about 225 Forint to $1, so quickly determining a price in dollars in my head was challenging.

Props to my housemate Jess for driving to and from Hungary successfully in a miniature European car!

I’m back in the beautiful Zagreb and I think summer might finally be emerging from behind a cold and rainy spring. I guess we’ll have to see if it’s actually here to stay this time.

Work has been going well, I helped plan and execute an office-wide event last week so that was a good lesson in communication and organization for sure. I can’t release a ton more public details about my job.

Until next time—Vidimo se. Bok Bok!