Ciao Budapest!

Where to begin on this one...well my travel buddy, Katarina and I left for Budapest last Thursday night to meet up with Casey McKinnon (who is studying abroad in Dublin) and we were all staying with Anabel Cassady who is studying abroad in Budapest. Anabel and Casey are my amazing friends whom I met at USF, this whole trip it felt so unreal to be there together and having Katarina there just made it even crazier! The public transit in Budapest is legit and the whole weekend we were able to go places with no problem, thanks to Anabel and her Hungarian roomie Linda. Katarina and I rolled up with no phone only Anabel's number and address so when we were on her street the first person we met spoke english and let us use his phone, incidents like these keep happening to me! It's like the least prepared you are the better luck you have, I am diggin it!

On Friday we went the Parliament building which is massive and so detailed and gorgeous! Then we walked across the chain bridge to something else really cool...haha I think it use to be the kings house or something. Anyway it sits on a hill on the Buda side and overlooks the beautiful city view. It was extremely foggy so we had to imagine the view a little, we went inside the beautiful building which has a fun art museum and there was a live opera singing as we walked around, so epic! Fun fact I did not know Buda and Pest are two different cities and they are separated by the Danube river, Anabel lives and her school is on the Pest side.

( Walking up to the Palace? with the Chain Bridge and St. Stephens in the back)

(St. Stephen's)
The same day we explored St. Stephen's Basilica which was just as epic as any Roma basilica and they have on display St. Stephen's right hand...kinda creepy kinda cool. We went to a Hungarian restaurant for a traditional meal thats was BOMB! Goulosh is their famous soup and we had breaded chicken with dumplings and a crepe-ish thing for dessert...so good! We went back to Anabel's awaiting Casey's arrival and after she came we went to a cool ecclectic bar 'Simpla'. We were there when the clock struck midnight and it was Casey's twenty-first bday and with the group of people we had we were able to tell her happy birthday in 7 languages! I was the italian one of course!
( yummy in my tummy)

The next day we took the train to a cute little town, Szentendre, which is about 40 minutes from

Budapest. This town is adorable...kinda touristy but there were a ton of stores selling traditional Hungarian trinkets. The gang was having Italian food and Katarina and I passed haha duh....I can get the real stuff, so we went somewhere else for some more bomb goulosh soup. The purpose of our visit was to go wine tasting, for Casey's bday, and we got to try 5 different types of Hungairan wine and 2 times of Pulinka which is like lemonciello for Italians. All the wines were delish but the pulinka ...not so much I think it has atleast 85% proof of alcohol. We went back to Budapest and went to our bday dinner reservations at an Eastern Eurpoean restaurant and again we all had amazing meals!! I don't know if we just got lucky or if the Hungarians are just as good at cooking as the Italians. After dinner we went to and "international" club which was SO FUN! It had like 10 different dance floors and everyone there was from all over the place. My two favs were Paolo and Davide from Espana...rawr!

(Me and the Danube River is Szentendre)
(Me, Anabel, & Casey- holla for wine tasting)

Our last day we spent at the thermal baths...you prolly thinking wtf would you go to a pool in the winter in Hungary? The day we went it was beautiful, and going in and out of the pools was not an issue, it was so nice to not be wearing a million layers. Our lunch was again amazing I forgot what we had but it was bomb. Before we left we took another look at the parliament building since the weather was better, that building really doesn't get old. Then it was time say our goodbyes...so sad but Anabel and Linda's hospitality was amazing and it was so fun to learn Hungarian words and travel this beautiful city with old friends ;)(The thermal baths)

(Katarina posing with the epic Parliament building!)