Spring Break Part II

Saturday March 3rd
After a very early morning, Katie and I headed off to Geneva, Switzerland, where we spent the better part of our four-hour layover hanging out in the gift shops at the airport and people watching in the food court. We arrived in Budapest, Hungary in time to meet our fellow travelers, Lisa, Ann, and Andy and to grab some very traditional Hungarian dish, called goulash. It's basically a paprika beef stew (paprika being a specialty of Budapest).


Andy excited for his (half-eaten) goulash soup!



Hungarian money was one of the most difficult currencies I've ever dealt with. One euro is about 280 florints. Which meant that dinner for our first night out was about 1900 florints, translating into roughly 6 euro. This is incredibly cheap as meals go, but figuring out our respective budgets became something of a joke.


Sunday March 4th
Because most places in Europe aren't open on Sundays save a few museums, we decided to take an early morning walking tour that our hostel had recommended. Some fun facts: Hungary was formed by 7 different nomadic tribes in 895. It changed hands and rulers several times, notably integrated with Mongols and Austrians, and had its capital (Budapest) separated a few times into two different cities - Buda and Pest.


Our lovely tour guide sitting with a famous statue in a central plaza. Rub the knees of the statue and good luck becomes your fortune!


Most cities of Europe have a bridge or a archway like this one where lovers write their names on padlocks, lock them onto a solid structure, and throw the key away to symbolize their everlasting love.


Judging by the rust on this one, these two have been together for awhile!


This church was my favorite part of the walking tour. Located on the Buda side of the city, this church is quite noticeable with the incredible colors of the tiles that line the roof. I became quite inspired with the Aztec-feel of the different shades and contrast of brown and teal.


Close-up!


Stopping for a rest after the tour, we wearily braved a Hungarian specialty - Toro Rudi. Toro Rudi is a cheesecake-type cheese wrapped in chocolate. We LOVED it! If anyone finds this incredible candy, please send me a box (or five).

Encouraged by our delicious Hungarian conquests, we readily agreed to a famous café- Alexandra's.

Alexandra's consists of a bookshop on the ground floor, but as soon as you reach the top of the nondescript escalators, you are greeted with live pianists, a glass display of the most marvelous cake you've ever seen, and tea cups clinking under quiet chatter. Definitely recommended.


This is one of the (many) photos of cake I took during our trip. I think we stopped for hot chocolate and cake every single day.

The last part of our adventurous day turned out to be my favorite night out in our week-long trip. Located in the Jewish district, dilapidated warehouses dating back to the Communist regime of Hungary remain, still un-renovated. Local entrepreneurs decided to leave the structures as they were and spruce up the peeling walls and creaky floors with mismatched chairs, tables, kaleidoscope images, and bizarre artwork, and then call it a bar. Szimpla is one of the most famous of these ruin bars and certainly lived up to its hype. Spanning two stories with more than 17 different rooms, there's always something interesting going on; from the bathtub in the corner to the bachelor party upstairs playing flip cup, we were continually entertained!


Szimpla!

Ann, Katie and Lisa doing their best alternative/BlueSteel faces while we were tucked in a nook behind a staircase.

Lisa and Katie - none of my photos really show the ambiance of the bar very well, but this was taken in the main central room of the bar.

Monday March 5
We headed on over to a famous market in central Pest located in an old railway station. With huge archways and wrought-iron supports, it's a beautiful place. Catching onto the beauty of the building, the venders here also make preparation in considering the visual aspect of their booths.




Photo cred: Katie Hardy


And one more photo of cake (I couldn't resist!)

Tuesday March 6
We declared Tuesday to be our "Day of Bath", meaning we visited the Szechenyi bath house. Thermal rivers under the city have been heating bath houses like this one for centuries. Jumping in and out of pools for a few hours was the most ideal way to spend our last day in such an incredible city. Photos below are Katie's.


The largest outdoor pool. Also the one where the fountain sprays felt like a deep tissue massage on my back. Heavenly.


Old men playing chess in the waters. Stuff of legends.

Wednesday March 7
After a six-hour bus ride to Krakow, we arrived dirty, tired, and ready for the next big adventure! Our first day in Krakow was spent walking around the city, getting a feel for our surroundings, and eating dinner at the most incredible Polish restaurant. We found a sign for the resto along a quiet side street off the central plaza, entered into a hallway that looked like a museum (complete with busts and old literature propped open to random pages), opened the door at the end of the hallway into a dark courtyard, headed down a bunch of wooden steps, and into a log cabin-esque room filled with old quilts and babydolls in bassinets. Cue the creepy slasher music. Opened one last final wooden door to a room with wooden picnic benches and a round aquarium in the middle of the room. We went from being creeped out to loving it so much we convinced seven other people in our hostel to return to the same restaurant the following evenings.

Unfortunately I ran out of available space on my camera for photos in Krakow, but once I steal some from Katie I'll put them here.

Thursday March 8
We knew going to Krakow that we couldn't go and then miss out on something as historical as Auschwitz-Birkenau, which is located about an hour from Krakow by bus. So once again we loaded our picnic into bags and headed out. I'm actually kind of glad that I didn't have my camera with me on this trip. I think it would have taken away from the emotions that I experienced going there. It was almost impossible for me to let everything sink in at once - there's just SO much that happened there. So much sadness, so much death, so much horror. It's still hard to believe that I went and visited a place that thousands of people never left; that I walked through the "exit" side of a gas chamber; that I stood by the shooting wall and then turned around and went back out through those black iron doors.

Auschwitz- Birkenau is actual two separate camps, Auschwitz One being smaller and Birkenau (or Auschwitz 2) being quite a bit larger. Auschwitz One was an old miltary building that was converted for labor camp purposes. It is also the one that had the "Work Will Set You Free" sign, a remaining gas chamber, the buildings that housed SS guards, and buildings that contained results of medical experiments on prisoners. Auschwitz Two, or Birkenau, was massive and indescribable. A true death camp. The majority of the buildings had either been bombed out by the Allies or by the SS guards themselves when they tried to destroy the proof of their crimes. However they had some reconstructed barracks where we saw how people slept 5 to a bunk, 3 bunks high. Over 300 people crammed into one barrack. Of course I had read about the atrocities there and seen movies, but to actually get there on my own was truly moving.

Friday March 9
We took an early walking tour of the Jewish district of Krakow, where we saw synagogues, the old Jewish "ghetto" that was liquidated of all Jews, parts of the wall that separated the ghetto from the rest of the world, and the outside of Schindler's factory. And then we went back to the creepy hidden Polish restaurant with the rest of our hostel haha.

All in all it was an incredible adventure - I loved all the history behind Central Europe. Budapest and Krakow completely exceeded my expectations and more. I would definitely recommend going. Should you need suggestions on hostels or restaurants do not hesitate to ask!