I Found You Miss New Bud-apest!

This past weekend, I went with Emily, who works with me at the school, and 13 of her friends to Hungary. It was a really short weekend, but we took advantage of the time we were there.  We all stayed in one large room in a hostel that was absolutely nasty. A teacher at school taught me the word ¨cutre¨ today and translated it means ¨cheap and nasty¨ which is the best description of this place, but for two nights and a total of 13€, I can handle just about anything.  We spent all morning Saturday walking around. We first went to the marketplace which was fun and had some breakfast there.  There was a church built into a cave in the side of the mountain which was pretty neat to see. It had been restored from its original after it was shut down during the Communist reign.  There was a trail leading up the mountain so we started walking because we heard there was a great view higher up. What I didn´t realize when we started was that we would, in fact, be climbing an entire mountain.  However strongly my gluteals burned, it was worth it because we got such an incredible view. After our morning hike, we strolled along the Danube toward the Buda Palace which is not like Buda Buda the fat guy, but in reference to when the city of Budapest used to be made up of the two separate cities of Buda and Pest. The Parliament building was amazing and we saw it from across the Danube.
 The architecture of the city was breathtaking and luckily gave more of the impression from the Imperial days than the communist ones. We didn´t go into many historical buildings because of the time constraint, but everything was so gorgeous from outside, we didn´t really care.  We ate a very Spanish lunch; meaning, we had lunch at about 3:30 and it lasted for about an hour and a half, but after walking for so many hours it was nice to relax and we found a some great sit down restaurants for cheap prices. It took awhile to get used to the currency because for example when I exchanged 60€, I got 15,000 forints. We ended up figuring about a 300-1 comparison which messes with your head for awhile.  The evening we spent at the Thermal Baths which was so much fun.  It consisted of something like 15 pools which are really giant hot tubs inside and out. One of them had jets that made a whirlpool, and we played in it like little kids for hours.  That was probably the most fun part! Again, being with Spaniards, we ate at a late time for dinner. I think we finished at about 12:30 at night of course. But, it was good to spend a lot of time over a meal because when you´re traveling alone, it´s a bit awkward to spend a lot of time eating. On Sunday, we had Hungarian style breakfasts which was sausage with scrambled eggs and cheese and loaded with onions. We spent some more time walking around and seeing churches and sculptures and the pretty things of the city.  Our flight was at four, and we hadn´t slept much over the weekend so it´s a good thing we didn´t take off much later or I might not have made it. 
It was a nice change to go on a trip with a bunch of people after a couple of solo trips. This weekend, Emily and I are going to Malaga in the south to soak up the sun so it´s going to be a good couple of weekends. Grampa is in the hospital so keep praying! Thanks!