Budapest is so far my favorite trip of the semester! We had a early morning flight and arrived to Budapest that afternoon. It was easy to get from the airport to our accommodation. Once we were settled in, we were quite tired but decided to take a stroll through the neighborhood. On our walk, we realized that the entire city is full of these beautiful incredible old buildings, not many houses. We walked to Parliament, which is a massive building that has amazing architecture. After exploring that area, we walked around to another massive cathedral that is just right in the middle of a major street. It is incredible that people will pass it on their everyday drive to work! After exploring we headed back to our accommodation for dinner.

The next day we went to the Hungarian Baths! It was really cold outside, but the water was really warm. Its these massive pools that are outside, and they have a bunch inside as well. People from all over the world are sitting in the baths with you, kind of weird if you think about it! After our bath, we walked around town and saw some of Budapest’s favorite sights including Soldiers Statue, Opera House, and more incredible buildings. The day after that we went to this huge market that was all indoors. It had 3 levels of food and souvenir vendors, it was so busy!

They served traditional Hungarian food, and we tried this sausage wrapped in fried dough, oh how Hungarians love fried dough! They put everything and anything on it, varies from cheese, nutella, honey, meat, the possibilities are endless! After some delicious food we had some of their traditional cakes and cookies, all of which were incredible and left me wanting to open up my own bake shop in America! After our big lunch we walked along the water. Budapest is actually two cities, Buda and Pest, that they combined. We lived on the Pest side of town, but walked over the famous Chain Bridge to the Buda part.

In Budapest there is a shoe memorial, in remembrance for the Holocaust. It is a hidden memorial, that not many people know where to find it, but it was incredible and moving to see it. Overall, Budapest was awesome. A must visit if you’re heading to Europe!