Semana Santa - Part 3: Budapest

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Inside St. Stephan's Cathedral

"The hand"

At the top of St. Stephan's Cathedral (Me, Annie, Megan, and Bonnie)

Views of Budapest

More views of Budapest

Cool Staircase on the way up (and down...)

When Megan asked for water... this is what they gave her...

Our lunch!!!

Budapest Castle

Castle Hill

The Chain Bridge

Cool view of the Parliament in the background

The little tram we took up the hill

Parliament Building

Fisherman's Bastion

I love my Budapest!

Cute buildings up on Castle Hill

Pretty street

I love my stars!!! And this was a door!!

I should have bought this shirt......

Easter markets

The Castle

Pretty sunset over Castle Hill

Annie and me on the Danube River

Budapest by night!

"For Sale" Restaurant

Varosliget Park

Hungarian ducklings!

We left Vienna really early on April 22, although our bus was an HOUR late, which was really lame! When we got to Budapest we took the metro to our hostel and then started walking to the center and ran in to Megan and Annie on the way, which was perfect!  We stopped at their hostel really quick but then went to St. Stephan's Cathedral.  It was cool because it wasn't over the top.  What WAS over the top was the fact that in a side alter there was the actual hand of St. Stephen in a shrine.  Ewww… We went up to the tower of the cathedral to see a panoramic view of Budapest.  It was so beautiful! What a lovely city!  We continued to the city center to eat at Gerbeaud, one of the most well known cafes in Budapest.  I had a gigantic club sandwich.  We continued quickly across the Chair Bridge to Castle Hill where we took a lift up to the top which was fun.  I really enjoyed the Fisherman's Bastion.  There were Easter markets which had some different type things there which was fun.  We saw the outside of the castle before walking down.  We had some drinks on a boat along the Danube River but we kept having some issues with some giant spiders hanging out above our heads and dropping down, so it was not the relaxing drink on the river that I had hoped for… After that we went to a restaurant called "For Sale" which had a lot of character.  It had handwritten notes posted all over the walls and peanut shells on the floor.  I had a cranberry pancake and some beer.  We went back to the hostel but didn't get much sleep due to the obnoxious and drunk Spanish guys that kept us up almost all night.  The next morning we walked to Varosliget Park and then went to the Szechenyi Baths.  Budapest is famous for its spas, and it being the last day of our trip, we decided to see what they were all about.  It was basically a lot of hot tubs of different temperatures and waters both indoors and outdoors, and some saunas with different scents.  It was indeed relaxing!  After the baths we went to a little café called "Pause" and ate really yummy pizzas.  The person at the train station had told us that our tickets were for two hours earlier than they actually were, but we had already checked out of our hostel and had all of our stuff with us, so Annie, Bonnie, and I hung out for a long time at the train station waiting to go to Bratislava, Slovakia.  However, finally we made it to Bratislava in our hostel and left on a plane early in the morning.  It was a great week traveling! I think Budapest was my favorite and wish that I had had some more time there, but there is always the future!.......

Semana Santa - Part 2: Vienna

There were pretty flowers everywhere in Vienna

Spice selection at Naschmarkt

Veggies at Naschmarkt

My lunch at Naschmarkt

Gardens of Belvedere Palace

Belvedere Palace

Vienna Opera House

A little history of the famour Sacher cake

The infamous cake

Inside Stephensdome

Gardens of Hofburg Palace

Bonnie at Hofberg Palace

I thought this was a pretty cool dish collection in the Palace

Fancy napkins!

Hofberg Palace

Hofberg Palace

Parliament Building

More pretty flowers!

Random pretty church

Easter bunny cactus!

Easter egg market

Outside the restaurant with the big Schnitzels! 

Weinerschnitzel!!!!!!!!! 

On April 20, Bonnie and I took a really early train to Vienna.  Upon arrival we took the metro to our hostel.  It was the same hostel "company" that I had stayed in two and half years ago when I came to Vienna, just a different location.  Luckily, this hostel was located in front of the cutest open air market, Naschmarkt.  They were swelling fruits, vegetables, Mediterranean food, dried fruit, nuts, Asian food, and had lots of cafes sprinkled about.  We stopped at one and had fresh juice (orange, carrot, and apple), pumpkin soup, and basil ravioli.  It was so very pleasant!  After our pleasant lunch, we went to the Belvedere Palace to go to the art museum there where they have a large collection of Gustav Klimt.  I enjoyed the art but Bonnie didn't really like it.  We then went to the center of town to walk around the Ring Road.  Next to the Opera House had the famous place where the Vienna Sacher cake was first made and popularized.  It was a chocolate cake with apricot jelly in it.  It was good, but nothing to travel all the wait to Austria for.  We decided we were too tired to go to the Opera that night so we went back to the hostel for some drinks before then going back out to the Naschmarkt to eat Chinese food and then crash.  The next day we went back to the market (seriously my favorite place ever) to have a bagel and to buy some nuts and dried fruit that we could take on our train ride the next day.  We headed out to the Hofburg Palace, which is the biggest palace in Vienna.  It was 3 exhibits in one.  First there was the palace's silver collection which was mostly dinnerware.  Next there was the Sisi museum (Empress Elizabeth).  There was a free audio guide that came with the walk through and it was actually filled with interesting information.  I really enjoyed hearing about how messed up Sisi was, it was fascinating!  The last part was the actual palace.  After the palace we went to a nearby café where I had spaghetti with veggies and some Prosecco outside.  We walked around the Ring some more (this was the main road that circled the center of the city) until it was time to wait in line for the Opera tickets.  We met Annie and Megan in line and waited for a while to get our cheap standing room tickets.  It was only 4 euros to attend one of the most famous Opera's in the world (or at one of the most famous Opera Houses).  We got some ice cream before the Opera and then went inside to stand.  It was ROUGH.  The first act was an hour and 45 minutes.  Standing still in a small space for that long was not really my thing, although it was a good experience.  We left after the first act because the whole things was 5 hours.  After the Opera we went to get some Schnitzel at this restaurant that was recommended by a local.  OH, MY, GOSH, they were so worth it! It was the size of a gigantic plate.  We split one of those and had some spinach dumplings as well.  I really love schnitzel.  After that we ended our evening before having to leave early the next day.