Hot Wine, Hot Women

Alright, there aren't any hot women in this post other than myself and my traveling companion, but I thought it sounded catchy so I went with it. I won't even bother talking about how long it's been since I posted and just move onto my latest travel experience: Budapest.

Before I begin, I will preface by saying that the reason for this trip was not my usual spontaneous desire to see another country. I had been planning on going out of town the same weekend, but only to Wroclaw, which was much closer and easier. After some not so nice news (understatement) about a friend back home, I decided I needed a more drastic change to remind me why I am living 5,000 miles from all of my loved ones.

Reason number one: Szechenyi thermal baths

I must give some appreciation to my traveling companion, who bought a couple bottles of wine and took a night train with me, even though when I invited her to come along I was crying in the hall of our preschool. She took it in stride and when we woke up sprawled across our train bunks, we were only an hour outside of Budapest. The train ride would have been enough to remind me how much I love traveling. But no. We then decided to visit a few castles, parks, and baths (where we spent an entire day getting massages and sitting in every sauna we could find). Afterwards we did the only sensible thing: bought wine and chocolate and spent a few hours lounging in the apartment we rented until it was time for goulash and a ruin pub.

Reason number two: bizarre, junk-filled pubs with hilarious people-watching potential and interesting art on the walls (bonus: sitting in ramshackle cars turned into benches)

Following our evening of people-watching, we did the usual stroll along the Danube back to our apartment. We stumbled upon some ruins that were showcased through windows in the ground. This would have been interesting, but became downright entertaining when a couple guys started to approach us and I simply waved my hand at them and yelled no in every language I could think of,  "Nyet! Nie! Nein! No! Non! Ara!" According to my friend, they looked extremely confused and wandered away. I call success.

By the time we got back to our apartment it was the wee hours of the morning and we had come to the decision that Budapest was possibly magical. We barely ever planned and everything seemed to be working much more smoothly than any usual spontaneous weekend vacation (some of which end in seriously sad choices).

Reason number three: beautifully focused pictures of the Danube

Our next day was to be our 'wander around and see everything we can manage' day. We started with the Grand Market, which turned out to be closed on Sundays, so we switched plans and just made our way to Castle Hill and most of the top sites to be seen. Horrible selfies were taken, there was some Transylvanian funnel cake and finally there was a view from Fisherman's Bastion of the Danube and Parliament that solidified my conviction that someday I will live in Budapest. Maybe not in 5 years, but someday. A city with no skyscrapers seems like a pretty great city to me.

Reason number four: views like this

I can only speak for myself in this matter, but Budapest's lack of skyscrapers was a selling point I can't even express. Coming from the land of whose-is-bigger makes small, understated cities with history quite attractive. When the seemingly highest point is a crazy chevron roofed church and one of the best views is from a white structure that closely resembles a gnome's house, that sounds like the kind of place I could see myself living for a few years. Night cruises on the Danube, trips to the thermal baths on the weekends, luxurious violin-music filled afternoons overlooking the Parliament? Sounds like a fabulous time. The only thing we didn't do on our weekend trip was the night cruise, and that was simply for lack of time.

Reason number 5: Markets. Markets. I absolutely love Markets.

Our last day saw us gift-shopping in the Grand Market. We weren't there for long, but long enough to spend as much money as we possibly could on various stereotypical Hungarian crafts. I don't know if it's the fact that markets simply aren't as popular in the States, or that Europe really just does folk crafts better, but markets are one of my favorite places to go in any country. One of the best memories I have of Georgia is the market in the town near my village that was covered in tarps and full of old men and women selling home-made wine, every knick-knack you could imagine and fresh produce. I loved the spice markets and Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, the main market of Tangiers, the flea markets of Nice, the book sellers in Paris. Everywhere I go, I want to see the markets. (For those wondering, yes, I have been to markets in Poland and yes, I love them.)

When we finally realized it was time to make our way in the general direction of the train station/one more ruin pub, we hauled our goods and began to trek through the tourist streets. Despite spending almost all our cash on gifts in the market, we still scrounged together enough to get some gift chocolates and wine, plus a cup of hot wine for ourselves. We wandered mostly accurately (a little help from an iPad) until we came to our last ruin pub, where we relaxed and played cards until it was time to go to the train station.

Reason number six: is definitely a repeat of reason number two, just at a different bizarre, junk-filled ruin pub in a different enormous warehouse.

Finally, we caught a bus to the train station, found our seats on the train and readied ourselves to work an entire work-day after a night train. I was sick and sore, my traveling companion wasn't feeling any better, but our trip was a success and I was able to scratch another country off my map. There's nothing like a spontaneous, wine-filled, site-filled weekend in a country where the only word you know in the local language is hello.

The next post will possibly be within a reasonable time frame, what with Christmas, a trip to Texas and the snow promised in January and February, but I won't be holding my breath. Hope everyone has a great Christmas and visits some markets!