Day 1 Prologue: Catching the TrainBefore we could get to Budapest, we had to catch the 6 a.m. train to Budapest from Vienna. Right next to our hostel was Wien Westbanhof (West Station) and across town was Wien Sudbanhof (South Station) where our bags were in the lockers and where are train was supposedly leaving from. We knew there was a tram that went from Westbanhof to Sudbanhof and we knew the number of the tram, but we couldn't find it at all. Finally, after asking a couple people one guy told us where it was, but by this point the buffer time to make it to the other station had been exhausted. We saw the tram and ran to catch it and jumped on at the last second. We were feeling pretty good about ourselves until we realized that we were going the wrong direction. At the next stop, we got off and waited for the tram going the right way to show up. By this point, we had essentially abandoned all hope of making our train as based on the timetable the tram would get us to the station as the train was leaving and we still had to get our bags out of our lockers. As it turns out, the tram dropped us off exactly 2 minutes before our train was supposed to leave so we sprinted to the lockers, grabbed our bags, and then up to the platform. The problem was on the departure board there was no train leaving for Budapest from any of the platforms. As an act of desperation, we went to the one platform that had a train leaving at the time our train was supposed to depart.
| At this point, we had less than a minute to work with so I ran up to a train station employee on that platform, pointed to the train, and asked "Budapest?!?" The man proceeded to look at me as if I had said the most ridiculous thing in the world and said, "Budapest?" followed by a second "Budapest?" in a tone that screamed "Are you kidding me?" I walked away dejected and gave Colleen a thumbs down. Then, that same man walked up to me and said, "Actually, this train will go to Bruck/Leitha and then you can connect to Budapest from there." I quickly switched the thumps down to a thumbs up and jumped on the train with the helpful train employee. At this point, I took the time to look at my actual train ticket and came to the realization that the train to Budapest actually left from Westbanhof, which was the station 2 blocks away from our hostel. |
Where the F*&@ is Bruck/Leitha?" |
I was still a little incredulous that we could make it to Budapest because the train we were on was obviously a local train so I asked the train employee again to verify. At this point the guy whipped out a time table book from his back pocket and flipped through the pages fast enough where I couldn't actually see the entries, but he assured me at the end of the line if we waited 8 minutes we would catch the train we were supposed to take from Westbanhof. To any DC folks actually reading the blog, this would be the equivalent of showing up at Union Station to take an Amtrak train to New York, accidentally getting on the subway to Shady Grove, but then being assured the local metro would actually get there before the express train and we could just board the express train later on when it caught up to the local train. At this point I was willing to trust this guy, however, as he had a time table in his back pocket and I was the moron that showed up at the wrong train station to catch a non-existent train. It turns out the guy was completely right and we rode the local train for an hour, got to the platform at Bruck/Leitha 8 minutes before the express train, and boarded with no problems.
Day 1We got into Budapest around 10 a.m. We checked out bags at the left luggage counter because the lockers were out of service, and went to drop of the rest of our stuff at the hostel. The hostel guy who checked us in looked and acted exactly like my cousin Shea. Shea, if you are reading this, you have a doppelganger hanging out in Hungary.
| From the hostel, we went to the Great Market Hall which is a giant indoor market with food, souvenirs, and various other stuff for sale. We grabbed some strudel, bought some paprika, and for lunch had some Hungarian goulash. In Hungary, they like to throw spice on everything so pretty much everything you eat has some kick to it. |
Market Hall ... where serious paprika shoppers go |
From the Market Hall we walked up Vaci Utca (pedestrian street) and then went to the castle, riding up the world's oldest funicular to get there. A funicular is essentially a mini-train that goes up an incline. It's usually in places where there is a steep hill and since all the European castles were built on high ground for defense purposed the funiculars are especially common around those sites. Once at the castle grounds, we checked out Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion.
Checking out the view of Parliament |
After the castle, we walked around a bit. First, we walked down by the river to get a good look at Parliament. After that, we walked up Andrassy Avenue (famous Budapest street) and stopped at the House of Terror, which is a museum about Communism in Hungary during the Cold War. Finally, we ended up at the main thing we were looking forward to in Budapest, the thermal baths.
Szechenyi Baths ... water so warm you'd think everyone was peeing in the pool | Budapest has tons of thermal baths to choose from, but we went with the Szechenyi Baths, which are located in the city park. You essentially buy a 3 hour pass to use the baths and then you can rent lockers or if you are a couple, you can get a 'cabin' to change in and store your stuff. Colleen and I went that route. The cabin itself was probably about 2 feet by 4 feet. It was small enough that we had to be creative just to open the door with both of us in there. Changing into our swimsuits was an adventure ... had Colleen and I not been married it might have been a little awkward. . We had the choice to go to the indoor baths or the outdoor baths, but it was a gorgeous day so we did the outdoor ones. There were three outdoor baths. The best way to describe the baths were swimming pool sized hot tubs with various jets, waterfalls, and seating to make it as relaxing as possible. There are even spots where the locals will set up chess boards so they can play a few games while soaking in the baths. The baths varied in temperature from warm bathtub water to what you'd find in a hot tub. |
After the baths we went and got some dinner. We both had the goulash again because it rocks. We also ordered a Hungarian staple, fruit soup. Essentially it tastes like dessert, but it's an appetizer. At this point it was pretty late and we had another early train the next morning so we called it a night. |
