We called the trip to Budapest, Prague and Munich the "Northern Trip." Our first stop being Budapest, which is approximately 630 miles from Riva. We departed for Zurich, where we then got on an overnight train that would take us to Budapest while we were sleeping...best way to travel.
An overnight train is an experience if you've never been on one. Kathryn and I shared a "room" with Bassil and Maggie. I haven't talked much about the people I went with, but just know that Bassil is absolutely nuts, like dancing in the hall naked nuts. So to say that our overnight experience was...interesting, would probably be an understatement.
After arriving in Budapest in the morning, we made our way to the hotel. To make matters even more interesting than being in Eastern Europe, there were political riots going on in Budapest. There had been a protest of over 40,000 on the 18th of September in front of the Parliament building. The first stop on our tour of Parliament on September 21st? The Parliament Building.
This is where we first met our tour guide Susan. She had dark purple hair and said Budapest like "Budapeeeesht." She walked us around the Parliament building, explaining the history of Parliament as well as Budapest. The Parliament building is a big building (first picture) that sits on top of a hill. It's very ornately decorated with cathedral ceilings and gold accents (second picture) and the actual chambers are decorated like an Opera house (third picture). The fourth picture is of the hallway that leads from the main entrance (we couldn't go in that way because there were still protesters lurking); a crown/septor from a previous Monarch. We also got to walk out onto the balcony that extends from the ballroom. From the balcony, you have a nice view of the other side of Budapest (it's split by the Danube River).
After the tour of the Parliament building, we hopped back on our charter bus and went to "Hero's Square." It's a famous square in Budapest, surrounded by the Museum of Fine Arts on one side and the Palace of Arts on the other side. We only took a few minutes there to look at the statues, and take pictures (of course) and then we got back on the bus to head to the Fisherman's Bastion.
The Fisherman's Bastion was built in the middle ages so it definitely has the medieval look. It is set up on a hill, on the opposite side of the river as the Parliament building. We walked around there for a little built and got to go into Matthias Church. By this time, we'd seen plenty o' churches...so this is really the only picture I got of the church. Sadly, I was very bored with churches by this time :/
We then took a ride through Budapest, up to a spot where G-Rod took all his tour groups. We walked around for a bit, taking in the view of Budapest and then he called us all together to take a group picture with Budapest in the background. That picture is somewhere...hopefully. If I can scrounge it up, I will definitely post it. There were statues on the overlook, dressed like tourists from the 1920's...I don't remember the significance of them, or if they even had one. But we, of course, being the tourists that we were, had to get a picture with them.
We came back to the hotel for a nap and to shower/get ready for dinner. This is when probably one of the weirdest/creepiest things happened. I was taking a nap, and I guess my roommate had left to go down the hall to talk to her boyfriend. She, not wanting to take a key, left the door ajar. I woke up to some random guy standing in my hotel room. I just looked at him for a second and he goes "Hello!" really loud and really friendly, like he was doing me a favor by scaring the crap out of me. I sat there for a few more seconds, in shock, and then managed to get a "Get out!" out of my mouth...as I scrambled to get out of bed. The guy flew out of the room, I slammed the door behind him. So, mental note for the next time I'm in Europe...don't leave your hotel room door open, cause crazies will most certainly come in.
After our group dinner, G-Rod took us on a boat tour of the Danube...he likes boat tours. We got served wine and were given headphones to tell us all about everything we were seeing. The headphones were abandoned about 2 glasses of wine in, and instead of taking pictures of the sights...we had a photo shoot on the boat. Megan had a little accident, resulting in Eric being covered in wine for the rest of the boat ride.
After the boat tour, we ended up at an Irish Pub (not shocking) near our hotel.
The next day, we boarded our charter bus for a trip outside of Budapest. We took the hour long bus ride from Budapest to Visegrad. Susan (our tour guide) was absolutely furious that some of us feel asleep - part of it from being a late night, and part of it being that it was an hour long bus ride. She also was mad that as soon as the bus parked, 4 or 5 of us had to make our way to the bathroom. The ride was very twisty, turvey and didn't sit well with those of us who get motion sickness easily (me!) or had too much to drink the night before. After she was done lecturing us about "being disrespectful," we went to the castle ruins that are in Visegrad. After wondering around there for a bit, we went to walk around a small town where we got lunch...and tried on silly hats in the open air market.
After the rough day we had, some of us decided to just stay around the hotel for dinner. Conveniently we found a TGIFridays (how sad are we?). At this point we had been in Europe for a month...eating Lugi's food (our cook in Riva) and tasting the European fare in the countries we visited. We just wanted some French Fries (and RANCH!) and a good cocktail. The TGIFriday's in Europe have the BEST Mudslides...the best. After dinner, we all went back to the hotel to get some rest because we were leaving for Prague the next morning.
An overnight train is an experience if you've never been on one. Kathryn and I shared a "room" with Bassil and Maggie. I haven't talked much about the people I went with, but just know that Bassil is absolutely nuts, like dancing in the hall naked nuts. So to say that our overnight experience was...interesting, would probably be an understatement.
After arriving in Budapest in the morning, we made our way to the hotel. To make matters even more interesting than being in Eastern Europe, there were political riots going on in Budapest. There had been a protest of over 40,000 on the 18th of September in front of the Parliament building. The first stop on our tour of Parliament on September 21st? The Parliament Building.
This is where we first met our tour guide Susan. She had dark purple hair and said Budapest like "Budapeeeesht." She walked us around the Parliament building, explaining the history of Parliament as well as Budapest. The Parliament building is a big building (first picture) that sits on top of a hill. It's very ornately decorated with cathedral ceilings and gold accents (second picture) and the actual chambers are decorated like an Opera house (third picture). The fourth picture is of the hallway that leads from the main entrance (we couldn't go in that way because there were still protesters lurking); a crown/septor from a previous Monarch. We also got to walk out onto the balcony that extends from the ballroom. From the balcony, you have a nice view of the other side of Budapest (it's split by the Danube River).
The Fisherman's Bastion was built in the middle ages so it definitely has the medieval look. It is set up on a hill, on the opposite side of the river as the Parliament building. We walked around there for a little built and got to go into Matthias Church. By this time, we'd seen plenty o' churches...so this is really the only picture I got of the church. Sadly, I was very bored with churches by this time :/
We then took a ride through Budapest, up to a spot where G-Rod took all his tour groups. We walked around for a bit, taking in the view of Budapest and then he called us all together to take a group picture with Budapest in the background. That picture is somewhere...hopefully. If I can scrounge it up, I will definitely post it. There were statues on the overlook, dressed like tourists from the 1920's...I don't remember the significance of them, or if they even had one. But we, of course, being the tourists that we were, had to get a picture with them.
We came back to the hotel for a nap and to shower/get ready for dinner. This is when probably one of the weirdest/creepiest things happened. I was taking a nap, and I guess my roommate had left to go down the hall to talk to her boyfriend. She, not wanting to take a key, left the door ajar. I woke up to some random guy standing in my hotel room. I just looked at him for a second and he goes "Hello!" really loud and really friendly, like he was doing me a favor by scaring the crap out of me. I sat there for a few more seconds, in shock, and then managed to get a "Get out!" out of my mouth...as I scrambled to get out of bed. The guy flew out of the room, I slammed the door behind him. So, mental note for the next time I'm in Europe...don't leave your hotel room door open, cause crazies will most certainly come in.
After the boat tour, we ended up at an Irish Pub (not shocking) near our hotel.
The next day, we boarded our charter bus for a trip outside of Budapest. We took the hour long bus ride from Budapest to Visegrad. Susan (our tour guide) was absolutely furious that some of us feel asleep - part of it from being a late night, and part of it being that it was an hour long bus ride. She also was mad that as soon as the bus parked, 4 or 5 of us had to make our way to the bathroom. The ride was very twisty, turvey and didn't sit well with those of us who get motion sickness easily (me!) or had too much to drink the night before. After she was done lecturing us about "being disrespectful," we went to the castle ruins that are in Visegrad. After wondering around there for a bit, we went to walk around a small town where we got lunch...and tried on silly hats in the open air market.
After the rough day we had, some of us decided to just stay around the hotel for dinner. Conveniently we found a TGIFridays (how sad are we?). At this point we had been in Europe for a month...eating Lugi's food (our cook in Riva) and tasting the European fare in the countries we visited. We just wanted some French Fries (and RANCH!) and a good cocktail. The TGIFriday's in Europe have the BEST Mudslides...the best. After dinner, we all went back to the hotel to get some rest because we were leaving for Prague the next morning.
To be continued...Next up: European Tour: Prague
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