Life : a work in Prague-ress: Budapest!

Where do I even begin?!

This weekend was absolutely phenomenal! All the planning was worth every single second.

On Thursday afternoon we took the tram to the bus station where we began the 7 hour trek to Budapest. Upon arriving in Budapest we realized we had NO idea where we were. With the help of directions from the Hostel owner who I had been in e-mail correspondence with, we made it to the hostel with no trouble at all. We set our alarms for an early start the next morning and headed to bed.
With a 7am wakeup call, Chris and I went on a walk to check out what it was like by the water. Absolutely breathtaking. I knew right then that it was going to be an amazing weekend. We walked and walked all day, seeing Parliament, the National Museum, the Castle, the Chain Bridge, the amazing churches, and lots of great souvenir shops. Our last stop of the day was the Kiraly Bathes. What a relaxing experience! At the end of the day we collectively decided that this day was the most enjoyable day we've spent in Europe thus far-- no rushing to the next excursion, no shoveling down food so we wouldn't miss a tour, no arguing over where we would go next-- we just relaxed, and walked, and soaked in the amazing city.
That night, after meeting a new friend Stu (this guy's got an amazing story so ask me about him later), we all went out to dinner then bar-hopping. Since I planned the entire trip, the group decided this would be my night to have fun and not worry about if we were lost, or where to go next, or how to pay for drinks. What a fun and stress-free night! Budapest has a great club and bar scene.
On Saturday we were a little more lazy and we all slept until 11am--whoops! We had a great breakfast at a local cafe, then headed to the market! I got some adorable souvenirs for some of you back home! We must've walked over 2 dozen miles throughout the course of the weekend, so my feet are killing me! Saturday night our hostel cooked dinner for us, and we all took a shot of their traditional Hungarian liquor-- it was terrible. We walked to the #3 pub in the world called Szimpla. It's a "ruin" bar, so basically everything in the entire place is recycled. One sitting area is literally made out of a car whose door and roof had been taken off. People from all over the world wrote messages on the wall in their native language. I etched Kappa Delta AOT into our table (missing you girls so much!).
We got back to the hostel with just enough time to take a short nap before having to leave at 7am to catch our bus back home. I slept the entire 7 1/2 hour bus ride back. It's good to be home, but this weekend was truly truly amazing. I'm leaving out a million details, but I can't wait to tell you all back home more about this trip! But for right now, I have to go memorize Wilson's 14 Points for my Politics class tomorrow! God bless, miss you all.