pest > buda

this weekend i spent sixteen (total) hours on a bus to go to my first foreign city of the semester - budapest, hungary. i think budapest is a city that you need at least a week to do any justice to; there are so many things to see that it was impossible to hit every one of them in two days.

highlights of the trip:

our hostel. it was surprisingly cozy, in a really convenient location, and super cheap. our group basically dominated the place - there were sixteen of us! crazy, i know.

the chain bridge, buda castle, and the view from the top. my pictures do not even come close to doing that view any semblance of justice; it was absolutely gorgeous.

the labyrinth under buda castle. they give you an oil lantern, and you make your way through the pitch black caves. it was just really, really cool.

the museum of fine arts and heroes square. both lie at the end of andrassy street, a fifth avenue-esque boulevard of embassys, high end hotels, and gorgeous buildings.

parliament and st. stephan's basilica. i thought i was sick of seeing churches, but this one put all other churches i've ever seen to shame. the interior was essentially entirely gold leaf and pink marble. parliament is an impressive piece of architecture in it's own right. we couldn't get that close to it because there were police barriers surrounding it; there were riots and protests there in october over some controversy with the prime minister, so i guess they were just taking precautions.

the house of terror. this is a museum located in the former secret police headquarters. both the nazis and communists used this building as their center for interrogation and other such atrocities. the museum is incredibly well done; despite the fact that all the audio and video was in hungarian, i still got a lot out of it. it is definitely worth seeing.

even though travelling in such a huge group was difficult at times, i still had a great time. making it back to budapest sometime in my life is high on my list of things to do.