Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren! I went to Budapest. Some friends and I decided to rent a car and take a long weekend to reward ourselves for all of the hard work we were putting in at the university (we're actually not doing any hard work, ever). But, we found some good deals on a rental car and an apartment in the city center, so we capitalized on the opportunity. We chose to go last weekend because it was a holiday weekend. If you've ever lived in Austria, you should know that there is at least one holiday what seems like every week. Holidays mean no university classes, and we usually go somewhere on the days we have off.
I went with three friends, two girls from Ireland and one guy from England. The drive was a short 5 hours for the American, but it seemed to be devastatingly long for the Islanders who could cover their whole country in that amount of time. We eventually arrived, got lost, asked for directions, received no directions due to our inability to speak Hungarian, yet somehow pulled up to our apartment perfectly on time without a clue how we got there. The flat was wonderful because it had a bathroom, two large beds, a full kitchen, and a beautiful balcony where we spent most mornings and evenings eating home-cooked meals.
The day after we arrived, we wandered through the beautiful architecture of some enormous buildings, which included embassies, hotels, castles, cathedrals, and parliament. I know that probably sounds like every European capital city, and it is, but Budapest is particularly beautiful because of it's location on the Danube River. The view of the river is really something from atop the hill on the Buda side of the city looking toward Pest. I think the two sides were named Buda, for the rich people on the high side of the river, and Pest, for the poor people on the low side. Maybe I just made that up, or somebody made it up and told me.
I think that somebody famous wrote a song about the view of the Danube in Budapest, so it's gotta be beautiful, right? The next day we started out by wandering again, but soon found ourselves caught in the storm of storms, so we took refuge in a restaurant that we thought looked nice. The unfortunate thing was that the restaurant we found was rather expensive, and in order to stay out of the rain, we had to order. Oh well, Budapest's currency is worth considerably less than the Euro. After the storm passed, we headed home.
Most of our time in Budapest was spent in our apartment either eating something unhealthy or drinking tea (the British love tea). We also went out to explore the nightlife one night. Being in the city center, we thought it would be fairly easy to find a place to hang out, and it was. Across the street from our apartment was some sort of outdoor entertainment place. It looked friendly from the outside, so we went in and found out that it was the exact opposite. The unfriendliness of the place that appeared to be so nice turned our smiles upside down, so we decided to go home. At the foot of our apartment building, one of the girls noticed that there was some sort of club/disco filled with people inside. After walking through the security, which consisted of huge men big enough to block the entire doorway with just one body, I felt like I was in a movie. There were crazy lights, music pushing out the walls and windows with every thump, and people who come out from the woodwork at night after spending the entire day sleeping due to their last party. It was like a movie.
After 3 days, the rental car had to be returned, so we made the journey back to Austria. I got the opportunity to drive, even though none of us was sure if it was legal. It was fun, though. The others were tired, so we figured it was best to have the one awake person driving. I got nervous, however, at the Hungarian-Slovenian border because I wasn't wearing any shoes, so we had to switch back. The driving was fun while it lasted, even if I wasn't supposed to be doing it.
The trip to Budapest was one of the longer trips I've made since I've been here, because I usually only go out for a day or two, but it actually seemed quite short. The highlight of the trip was definitely the balcony. We spent many hours sitting in the sun, watching our neighbors across the way, and chatting about our experiences in Klagenfurt. All of our times here our coming soon to an end, and there is a general feeling going around the exchange students that we don't want it to end. Like any good thing, the ends always seem to come too soon. Our main topic of conversation on the balcony was exactly that, how much fun we've had in Austria. Not only have we had fun, but we have loved life. I'm sure that this will be a common theme in my writing from now until the end of the semester, so I will leave space and time for me to think. I have a little over a month left here before I return to the United States. I plan on making the most of it with new friends in new places. Ciao.
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