The Horsley's: Day 9 & 10

Getting to Budapest was interesting. We took a late bus to Budapest (about 5 hours from Vienna). We arrived at the bus station around 11 PM. We were supposed to be picked up by a shuttle at the bus stop but from some miscommunication we were left stranded. And we had to get to the hotel/apartment before 12 because that's when they closed the front desk. So without a cell phone or even coins to use a payphone we hurried and figured out the metro system.

We bought metro tickets. We had seen in other European cities that lots of people just walked on the metros, but there are little stations where you are supposed to validate your ticket. Well in Budapest we saw these and almost walked by but decided just to validate. So we board the metro, get off surprisingly at the right station and head up the escalators. We see these huge men who are checking tickets at the top of the escalators checking tickets. It made me so nervous. In all my Europe travel I had never ever had someone check my metro ticket. At first I couldn't find mine so I was freaking out a little. Luckily all 6 of us found our tickets and had validated. But there was another Lauder group with us who didn't validate. They were hounded by the checkers. After waiting to make sure they would be okay they just motioned for us to leave! It was kind of intense for just some metro tickets.

But we made it to the apartment we were renting. It was really cool. We had a kitchen and a living room and a nice patio. It was a fun break from our hotel rooms! We headed out for a LATE night dinner of gyros and went grocery shopping so we could make breakfast in the morning! Then went to sleep :)

We decided to buy tickets for the hop on hop off bus to get a good overview of Budapest before we explored. It was nice but I don't think I would do it again, especially since I lost our ticket so we couldn't use it for a second day.

Max LOVED Budapest. It didn't really know what to expect but we were both surprised with how beautiful it was.

{on the tour}

{so handsome}

{traveling side note: i would recommend a bag like the one i have in this picture. it was perfect because i could fit so much in it. plus i felt it was really secure from pick pocketers because i could keep the zipper right under my arm. i wouldn't recommend a backpack in europe because you don't always have someone watching your back and in crowds it would be hard to feel someone getting in. plus it's nice to have a stylish purse and not look like a tourist}

{had to try}

{parliament building}

{fun market near the apartment}

{went to a beautiful organ concert at st. michael's}

{beautiful night view as we walked to our river cruise}

{2 seconds before we stepped onto the river cruise it started POURING...the boat didn't have windows, just plastic covers, which leaked waterfalls of water..so Max and I ended up sitting on the floor...it would've been really pretty :) }

{one thing we could do for points was go to the Hungarian baths. so max and i went really early in the morning and enjoyed relaxing in the baths with the locals. the locals were all very tan and very old. there were lots of men...in speedos}