-pack up, say goodbye to nice apartment owner lady, sweat sweat sweat in our heaviest clothes for the plane and eventually land in Pisa!
- arrive at hostel from before at around 4pm and chill. Meet people in our hostel and swap traveling stories. This was the beginning of our meeting tons of travelers part of the trip.
- in particular we met a really nice girl from New Jersey (Jolene) and talked for hours with her. We all were very similar and the 3 of us eventually went out, ate snacks, and then went to a super unique backyard type of pizza place for dinner!
- we came back to the hostel and did some housekeeping ie uploaded pictures and then slept!
6/8:
- we were both woken up by a girl getting her laundry from outside (through a door in our room) screaming because a FERRET was trying to get in!!
- we groggily jumped up and were trying to help (Michelle thought it was a possum or something). Eventually Katie ran for help as the girl was being attacked outside by this animal. These things are mean! (they eat babies apparently). Turns out the ferret is the hostels pet. Thanks for letting us know!
- we met up with Jolene again and walked over to the leaning tower!
- took lots of pics while the conversation flowed
- at one point we had these 2 random Asian ladies just walk up to us and start taking pictures with us, acting like we were all best friends! We couldn't contain our laughs, too funny.
- on our way back to hostel we met the NICEST guy selling utensil jewelry. Jolene and Katie bought really cool unique things as we had a nice conversation with him.
- grabbed some yummy and huge paninis and chocolate dipped biscotti, went back to hostel to get our huge backpacks, walked back to tower and relaxed in the shade on the lawn, and finally got our last gelato in Italy :(
- said bye to Jolene, watched Hercules in the airport (in honor of Greece) and were off to Budapest on our rather late flight
6/9
- starting right at midnight, we were in Budapest checking into our amazing hostel! we had met a girl named Catherine going the same way and we talked to her the entire flight.
- we were in pjs ready for bed, minding our own business (on fb) when 2 guys in our room stumbled in asking us to have a drink with them, so we did!
- Eric and Danny were their names and they were from Paris and Spain! We had good conversation in the hostel kitchen until 4am and then eventually crawled into bed.
- bunk beds sure are noisy and it was a bit hard to sleep with the added creaking of the floor as our other hostel mates came home (ie Russian friend). Maybe 3 hours of sleep this night!
6/9 (day)
- upon waking up, Michelle looked around at the bunkbeds and saw 5 pairs of tighty whitey-clad boys without covers (it was so hot in the room!)--what a change for us!!! Not necessarily complaining :)
- we surprisingly felt energized as we joined our Russian, French, and Spanish friends around the city of Buda. Who knew Budapest was actually 2 cities called Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube river??
- we saw the basilica, grabbed bfast, hiked up the mountain to the most beautiful church, and explored around with Eric as our almighty leader/tour guide!
- after hopping on the metro illegally (without a ticket) we arrived back at our hostel and rested as the boys went to the famous baths in budapest and then left for good.
- we watched a little harry potter as we rested and waited for dinner to be served!
- our hostel owner, Anton, was the NICEST GUY ever. In his 60s, this guy just wants you to have the best time in Budapest and will do anything to make that happen!! This night he cooked everyone a free delicious typical Hungarian meal. It was a great way to talk with our new American hostel mates (all guys, pretty cute).
- after dinner Anton took 2 groups of people out for a night car ride/ tour of the city!
- it was AMAZING to see this city at night. All of the bridges and buildings are lit up and sparkling. Lightening kept lighting up the sky as well. Anton was a great tour guide who knew everything and it was just such a cool and unique experience!
- we got ready to finally see what the Budapest nightlife we'd heard so much about was like! Unfortunately, we stepped out into the pouring RAIN, THUNDER AND LIGHTENING!
- We walked/ran up and down the street not really knowing where to go exactly (Katie almost walked into a strip club) and as we were standing under an awning waiting for the rain to calm down we literally FELT the lightning strike above us!! We were shaking for a while afterwards.
- we finally decided to go into this club called "instant" and soon found out that's where everyone had been hiding!
- realizing we has little florins on us, we just grabbed an ouzo shot(strong!!!) and hit the dance floor. This club was so cool! It was 3 levels with different rooms of music and one big floor with chairs and tables to just hang out and drink by.
- we danced in a couple rooms and the stayed in one for a while surrounded by mostly guys. French guys are fun to dance with!
- exhausted we left the club around 3am and arrived home after our fellow Americans :)
6/10
- this night of sleep was MUCH better and after leisurely getting ready, and then eating a SUPER CHEAP (everything is so cheap here) lunch that was also very Hungarian (soup and fried chicken) we headed off to Europe's biggest baths!
- we ran into the Americans and the French as we hopped from warm to warmer to hot to room temperature baths (never cold for us). There were tons of people here but it was still cool to be able to go both inside and outside and one huge pool even had a whirlpool area that we really enjoyed (Katie's favorite).
- after shriveling up, we finally left after 3 hours and grabbed some much too expensive dessert (typical Hungarian chocolate and caramel cake and apricot and chocolate chip ice cream).
- after showering, we met up with Catherine from the plane our new solo-annoying-clinger friend joined in as well for dinner.
- the dinner was AMAZING and again so cheap! I love Hungarian Forints! we talked for a loooong time, tried the local drink called palinka (peach flavored and SOOO so strong. We felt like dragons breathing out fire).
- we departed from Catherine, dropped the other one off at the hostel, and attempted to go out again! It was a Sunday night thought and not much was happening (that we could find at least) so we just came home and slept!
6/11
- woke up later, walked to this really cool and big indoor market with TONS of food and desserts that looked amazing and were so cheap.
- we tried a basket of berries, a potato strudel, cheese ball things (similar to Leslie's snosengers says Katie), cream filled pastry thing, and chocolate pyramid cake
- we've decided we need to start a food blog btw. We just eat too much good food!! It's becoming too fun.
- we walked back to the hostel through the Jewish district, skipped out on a free walking tour and instead finished Harry potter, and finally went to sightsee again.
- after being roped into talked to this American democrat guy for way too long, we were sad to find out that both the parliament and basilica were closed for visitors that day/time!!! So bummed!
- we did happen Upon a huge beer garden though with the best atmosphere while crowds of people were sitting in front of a big screen waiting for the England vs France soccer game to start.
- we grabbed a Hungarian treat (so good but so bad for you) and a beer to fit in with the crowd and thoroughly enjoyed watching the game among so many enthused people!!
- we took out more money to get souvenirs but then everywhere was closed so we are now left with much too many Forints. And no souvenirs. From our favorite place. Live and learn I guess!
- we grabbed dinner at our place one last time (slim pickings), headed back go hostel, attempted to go out but soon discovered that our stomachs both mysteriously felt bad.
- we turned right around and laid down as our poor little stomachs constricted. Luckily the feelings passed eventually and after catching up with family and showering we were fast asleep!
6/12
- now on a plane to Paris!! Our airport shuttle guy was not happy with us earlier, on account of us buying food while he was waiting outside our hostel. Oops.
- we are very sad to leave Budapest!! It's a place so packed with culture and such a great nightlife that I don't know why anyone would wanna leave. The buildings are AMAZING as well, there are few tourists, the food is delicious, the people are generous, everything is so cheap, and you just can meet so many cool people here! There is literally always something to do. what a pleasant surprise this trip was!
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