Budapest is the Best

For my first weekend trip (and the first out of the program excluding Oktoberfest) me and 6 other girls got together and traveled to Budapest, Hungary.

We took a train, which was about a five or six hour ride. It was awesome, mostly because it was my first experience with European trains. We went on the OBB, which is Austria's train system, for the trip there. It was nice and clean and not too full, thankfully. Though it did arrive 10 mins late, and through the travel and after a 20 min "breakdown" we arrived just over an hour late in Budapest.

Since we pulled in so late (10pm) we just dealt with heading to and checking in at the hostel, showers, and sleep.
This was my delicious meal that I got made to order on the train ride. So delicious!
On or first full day in Budapest we grabbed a breakfast of pastries at a bakery nearby. We tried to go to the Synagogue, but it was the Sabbath, so only Hungarians were let in.

We then opted for a Hop-on Hop-off bus tour which we used for the entire day. It was great because it ran us by and let of get off at all the main tourist things to see in the city. With our ticket we also got an hour long boat tour on the Danube which we did at the end of the day.

Fisherman's Bastian was build in 1901 and was named because that part of the city was historically defended by the fisherman's guild. It was my favorite piece of architecture that we saw in Budapest.

 On our second day in the city we went to the great Synagogue, which happened to be just a few blocks from our hostel. It was beautiful. Some neat features were that inside there were a few details that usually only show up in Christian churches, like the cupola above the bema. And there was a pulpit on either side of the main floor area. These were added because of one of the local sects of Jews which only developed in the Hungary area were trying to slightly assimilate with the Catholics.

 Another feature was the number of holocaust memorials in the synagogue. The "garden" was filled with mass graves of the dead from the ghetto who were storied there until Budapest was liberated and then were buried there. All the headstones around the mass graves mark those that are buried there, and later those locals that were known to have died during the Holocaust. For the 20th anniversary of the liberation of the ghetto they planted the trees and ivy over the graves.

This Tree of Life is a memorial to all Hungarian Jews who died in the Holocaust. Each of their names are engraved on a leaf. It was such a moving place. The also had memorials to those non-Jews who risked their lives to help save their Jewish neighbors, friends, or even complete strangers.

 I also dragged the whole group to this super cool "ruin" bar that was in one of the girl's guidebooks. We went on Sunday at 5pm so it was pretty empty, but that just meant it was easier to get good pictures. I really loved it, so unique. If it wasn't such a rainy day I would have sat in the outside back courtyard, but instead I wandered through the two inside levels.

 Overall the city was Amazing! I really loved it. I'm hoping that at some point in my life I'll have the opportunity to return and live there for an extended period of time.

For all of  the pictures I took while in Budapest find them on Facebook or through this link: http://bit.ly/b1OoXV