Greetings from Budapest

I'm in Budapest at a hostel called "Thumbs Up." It's a pretty nice establishment run by a young couple. It's about 9:30 and I just had breakfast (Included with my bed which was €15 for two nights!!) so now I'm going to give you a quick update while I kind of wake up and prepare myself for the day ahead!


The weather in Bratislava yesterday was crazy! It was cold and blustery at time but at other times it was sunny and calm, almost warm! We had a good time following our professor around while he explained this and that to us. We went to the top of a giant tower for a good overlook and we all felt like we were going to get blown off! Don't worry, there was plenty of protection, though.

The city definitely had some super communistic aspects but all in all, there were a lot of pretty areas. The people seemed super nice and of course lots of them know English. It was a little smaller than I expected but the main shopping area was bustling so I think Slovakia is making a comeback and definitely doing pretty well for themselves, now.

The train from Bratislava to Budapest took about 2.5 hours. It was Deutsch Bahn, from Berlin to Bucharest, Bulgaria and not as nice as I thought it would be... maybe they use their older trains on some of the Eastern European routes?

The main Bratislava train station was a little sketch and I heard myself thinking in the back of my mind (as I often do!!) "Omg WHAT are you doooooing, Laura?!?!" But I just say shut up and continue on my way. The trains just looked really crappy, the station was busy but grimy. When I arrived in Budapest, though, I was pleasantly surprised. The train station was pretty big and my first impression of the city was good. It seemed clean and the public transit look okay - except for the Metro train which looked like it was made from leftover scraps of a 50s diner... IN the 50s, so yeah it was pretty old! I'll have to take a picture!

Not to much on the itinerary today but there's a place called the Hall of Statues which is like an outdoor museum of all these communist statues collected over the years. It's supposed to be pretty cool. After that, there are some big hot springs in the middle of the city so I think I'll go check that out. And I'll see where I'm at afterward but once again, I'm looking forward to just wandering the city and exploring the sights on my own time.

I'll try to get an update in tonight! :)