Earth.Travel. Love. Lithuania.: Budapest.

Budapest was a little....off. I don't know, I just got super weird vibes during my whole visit there. Which made me super sad because it was one of the cities I was looking forward to the most. First of all when we arrived into our room, we were staying at a super nice hostel called "The Hive Party Hostel." I've stayed in party hostels before. Yeah, they are loud and busy, but they've never bothered me. I usually enjoy them because there are a lot of people to meet. But this one was just....sketchy. First off, when we got to our room and looked out the window onto the little terrace, there was a used condom out there.....so that was lovely. Our room was super nice and cozy (our sleeping areas were shaped like little honeycomb beehives. It was cute!) But turns out, when we were out later that night and Madi, McCall and Annie arrived back before us, they got super badly harassed by some older Italian dudes who were also staying in that room. They were making advances on them, asking for sex, saying super creepy things, and watching porn in front of them. It was super scary for them! So we came back to them being super shaken, telling us that they switched us rooms, and that we now had our own room. Thank heavens! Poor girls. I felt super bad that they had to experience that. Once we had our own room though, we all felt a lot better.

Earlier that day, when we went to the ATM to get money out, I ended up withdrawing......almost $500!! :( I was having a hard time figuring out their money while I was looking at the ATM screen. I thought I was withdrawing like $70, but no. Turns out the comma didn't mean anything, so it was really 2 extra zeros. So I was withdrawing 120,000 HUFS which equals to about $450 or something like that. I felt super uncomfortable walking around with that much money. It wasn't too big of a deal because I knew I could exchange it to Euros when we got back to Vilnius. But it actually came quite in handy, because I just borrowed some of it to some of the other girls and had them pay me back in Euros back in Vilnius, so that worked out well.

We found a super DUPER cool shop called Szputnyk that sold quirky & vintage clothing. They had sections where they sold clothing with really neat designs and stuff and then they had a vintage section. I ended up buying a lacey black vintage tie shirt. It reminds me of the early 1900s. I wanted to buy everything in that store. We had dinner at a lovely little cafe called Zosko's that sold American pancakes. I ended up having a ham, brie & blueberry panini. It was very good! There was a bakery next door to us called "The Sweet" which had really delicious treats. We snagged some treats and a hot drink and headed across the river to check out the Parliament building, which is one of my favorite structures in all of Europe. It is so grand!

The next day was Halloween. We started off the day by heading to the Szechenyi thermal baths. They were lovely, as always. Last time I came, I could barely sit in the hot sauna for more than 10 seconds. But Tim's family friend had a sauna that we would go to back in St. George, and with him being Finnish, he always made the sauna hellishly hot. So I think I got used to it, because this time around I was able to stay in that sauna for a lot longer! I think my favorite part was boiling in there for about 5 minutes and then jumping into the ice cold tub right outside. It was such an amazing, refreshing feeling. We stayed for about 2 hours and then explored the little castle park.

We walked back to the hostel, changed and set out to find food. The thing about Budapest is, they have so many lovely little bakeries and shops and bars, but just plain old restaurants and cafes? They sort of lack that. So it was weird trying to find places to eat. We found this place called "The Hummus Market" which sounded really nice. I think Saffron & Katie really liked it but Rebecca and I did not.....I got pumpkin soup with pita bread and falafel. I had never had falafel but I always heard how great it was. And I've always liked pumpkin soup. Anyway, it was all super weird tasting. I decided that Greek/Middle Eastern food probably doesn't agree with my stomach because I got super sickly after the meal. I did drink 2 sprites, which also could have added to it. But I just sat in my bed back at the hostel with my stomach churning, trying to vomit. Nothing happened though. After I started feeling better, we went back out to cross the bridge again and see the Parliament and the palace and everything again. We got back to the hostel, and Saffron started on our Halloween makeup. I decided I would be a pin-up girl. She did my makeup so beautiful and perfect and I put my hair together and she did everyone else's makeup. The hostel was throwing a dance party and we were super excited!!! We go down to the bar/dance floor area and......Nickelback. They're playing NICKELBACK! And all of this other super crappy early 2000s music. I couldn't even believe it. The only song they played that you could MAYBE dance to was "Proud Mary" by Tina Turner. It was completely horrendous. There were 40 year old men getting so wasted, falling and tripping over everything. It was just an embarrassing mess. We did not stay there for long. We left, and followed the crowds outside to try and find another place to dance. But we had no such luck. I felt bad that Saffron spent hours on our makeup, just to have us have to take it off for nothing :( So Halloween, being one of my favorite holidays, was super duper lame this year....

The next morning we went to the Invisible exhibition. I read about this place on "Spotted by Locals." It is a fairly new exhibit. You pay about $9, and you receive a blind tour guide. They explain to you how the brail system works and show you how to use a brail type writer. That was pretty awesome. I have always wondered how brail works. Then they take you into the exhibit. You go through 6 or 7 different rooms, and everything is pitch black. You only have your other 4 senses to work with and guide you through. They are typical settings like an apartment, a fruit market, a museum, a garden, and a cabin. It was so interesting to feel around the apartment and try to guess what everything was. Our tour guide's name was Thomas, and he was beyond kind. I think the scariest part was trying to cross the busy street. They had sound effects playing that really sounded like a busy street. I almost tripped over the curb. Just all of these little things that you have to pay attention to! I think my favorite part was the museum room. There were like 7 sculptures that we got to feel. It was interesting to guess what the sculptures were. Apparently one of them was the famous Statue of David, and some were of Snow White and her dwarves. Ah! It was just so amazing! I wish everyone could experience it. Thomas was born without sight, so he has literally never seen anything in the world before. He offered us to ask him some questions after the tour, so Katie asked him what his dreams were like, since he can't see. He explained how his dreams are just sort of....feelings I guess. Like he mentioned that he has been trying to stop smoking, so sometimes he will have dreams where he is smoking and he can just feel himself getting the buzz and all of that. It is just completely mind-boggling to me. I loved every minute of it. It was definitely the highlight of my whole vacation!

After the tour, we went to the Fisherman's Bastion and explored around there a bit. Then it was time to head to the airport and go back to Vilnius!