Continuing Life As a Vagabond in Buda and Pest

Who knew that Buda and Pest were two different cities until the 1800s? They still refer to the different sides of the city as Buda and Pest too. So interesting!

We got into Budapest when it was dark, but managed to navigate to our hostel with Laura's help. To get into our hostel, you have to type a code into the outside door, walk quickly into another door, climb up 3 flights of stairs, walk across a terrace, type another code into the hostel door and climb up the stairs of the loft. The lady working at the hostel welcomed us in and was telling us that our friends had been waiting. We walked in to dinner being made for us by Laura, Tim, Natasha, Scott and Ben. It was great and so exciting to see everyone! Tiger Tim- the owner of our hostel, Tiger Tim's Palace- took us out that night to a "Mask"/Karaoke party... full of Australians? It seems that at every hostel, everyone there is Australian and traveling for great lengths of time. In Budapest, they take tequila shots with orange slices and cinnamon... definitely recommended!!

The next day, we explored around Budapest.

Wandering around Budapest in the drizzling rain.

We went into St. Peter's Basilica, where there is the mummified hand of St. Peter's... a little weird? Yup, but they love it in Pest.

St. Peter's Basilica!
Yup, where they keep his mummified hand...

We stopped by Parliament. It's the second biggest... in Europe? Or maybe of everywhere. Either way, it's really big.

Part of Parliament!

We visited the biggest Jewish synagogue!

We then went to the Central Market, which had SO much good Hungarian food and hot wine! Such a cool stop in our day!

Later that night, we walked to the thermal baths.

The Heroes Memorial on our walk to the baths!

The thermal baths were heavenly. There is a mildly warm bath that has a whirlpool in the middle, a cold bath in the middle, and a really hot bath on the other side. They are great, but traveling between them is miserable in the cold! There were at least 8 other baths inside the building too.

The next day, we went on the free walking tour in Budapest.

Where people in love put locks with their names on a lock!

A view of Pest from the Buda side.

The Royal Palace.

Parliament on the left and St. Peter's Basilica just barely in the picture on the right.

On our tour with the Basilica in the background.

That night, we went to Morrisons II with everyone in our hostel. At this point, we had almost 20 people from all over... Australia, Canada, England...

At Morrisons II, a massive, three-story bar in Budapest.

All in all, loved Budapest. Especially the hostel we stayed at. It felt like we had rented an apartment for a couple of days!