19-June: 1st Day in Budapest

Today we didn't have breakfast... so we were really hungry by the time we headed out.  We looked in the guidebook for a good place to eat and found a cheap crêperie (under US$3.50 for 3 crepes).  They were ok, what you would expect for that price, but it got us going for the day.  This was on our way to the old part of Budapest, on the Buda side.  The city used to be two, Buda on the West side of the Danube River, and Pest on the East.  The main attractions on the Buda side are within the fortress of Buda Castle and the museums and sights inside.

We went inside the Budapest Labyrinth.  It was interesting, some of it was kinda cheesy, and there was a modern art exhibit towards the end.  There was a fountain that constantly poured wine, though they suggested visitors not try the wine.

After that, we had a nice little snack of bread, a giant cinnamon roll thing, and Kinder Buenos (awesome chocolate bars). We were able to watch some of the game between Ghana and Australia but we didn't watch too much of it. After about 20 minutes of the game, we decided to leave and check out the House of Terror which was on the other side of the Danube. Once we got there, we found out that the museum was closed until 6pm due to an event called "Night at the Museums". This cool event was a once-a-year ordeal for Budapest wherein a lot of museums are open from 6pm until 2am and people can purchase a wrist band (which was the price of entry to one museum) and go to as many as they would like. Also included was transportation to and from the different museums via the city metro, tram, or bus lines. So we headed back to the hostel since it was not 6pm yet and ate dinner with our host.

Dinner was awesome! It was a potato stew, Meghan made the mistake of calling it a soup and the host kind of flipped out. The stew was exactly like the one Meghan's mom makes at home -- with potatoes, butter, onions and water, except Alex (our host) added flour and sour cream. These two ingredients definitely made the stew thick and it was amazing! We also had boiled eggs as a side dish.

As soon as dinner was finished and we washed the dishes (because the host cooked), we headed back to the House of Terror and purchased our wrist band. That place was packed! It was insane trying to get through the museum and we kept going backwards into the rooms so we went backwards through the time line. Meghan had already seen it and it didn't bother Tres that we were out of order, but overall we enjoyed it. After finishing up there, we went to the Underground Railway Museum which showcases the original plans and antique train cars which were used in Budapest. The city opened up it's metro line in 1896, which makes it the oldest metro line on the continent and the second oldest in the world (after London in 1863). This museum was not as packed and was quite pleasant to walk through, but much smaller.

After we finished up with it, we decided it was late and time to head back to the hostel. On the way, we stopped by the Chain Bridge and sat on the bank of the river to enjoy the view for a bit. It's really pretty at night. We didn't stay there too long, however, because we were both pooped....so around 1:30am we called it a night and headed in.