Budapest, Hungary, Europe

Today was mostly a travel day getting to Budapest. I got up this morning and had to wait at the hostel for about an hour for the shuttle bus to pick me up. They were supposed to be coming at 10am, but they showed up at 11am. The van was carrying ten of us, including the driver. We got to the Serbian-Hungarian border, and something strange happened. One guy got out of the van and walked across the border separate from all of us. It all seemed a bit shady, but the driver told us that it was a numbers game. If there are nine people in the car you can go through one line. As soon as you have ten people, it’s considered a bus and you have to go through a different queue and get a more thorough check.

The drive from Serbia to Hungary was a pretty dull one. I was surprised because the scenery on all my other bus rides have been so impressive, but this one was not. It reminded me a lot of Iowa. Just flat land with a lot of farms, and nothing interesting on the way. It wasn’t until we arrived in Budapest that the surroundings impressed me. And wow, what a city! Budapest looks absolutely stunning!

This city immediately has a more European feel and look to it. It’s easy to tell that I’m no longer in the Balkans. I found 2Night Hostel and checked into my room. It’s nothing special, but it’s in a pretty cool old building with a big courtyard. It needs a lot of work, but it could be a really nice building. I dropped my bags off and headed out in the city. It was surprising to me how health conscious this city seems to be. There are bike paths through the city and tons of people jogging around. It’s nice to see. I walked for about a half hour and found the Hard Rock Cafe in town! I do love a HRC, so I went in and enjoyed a nice pull pork sandwich. It was nice to have something completely different from the cuisine I’ve been used to for the last few weeks.

It was really nice to walk around the city when I finished eating. It is a really beautiful city, even at night. The only thing that surprised me was that there were a few really beautiful buildings that were not lit up at night. In any other city, these buildings would have been lit up, but I guess there are so many impressive things in this city, they can’t all be lit. Tomorrow I’ll get to see them in all their glory on a bright sunny day, I hope!