Budapest, Hungary

Hungary was such a beautiful and relaxing country. Outside the main cities the landscape is full of rolling hills and grassy plains. I think the train rides trough this country have been my favorite as far as seeing the beautiful nature of Europe.

The city of Budapest was amazing and very relaxing. I treated myself to a hotel in the country side of Buda, on the outskirts of the city in order to get away from the urban and hostel environment. It was great as I needed to rejuvenate for my remaining travels. I have become pretty exhausted from all the site seeing and city life especially since I have always lived on the outskirts of the city, having little experience figuring out city transportation and the environment in general.

For my birthday I enjoyed the healing mineral waters of the natural thermal baths as well as the sauna and a deep tissue massage. This was followed by a stroll through the park as I was waiting for my bus tour of the city to start. The tour was great as it took us to all the main sites including a brief historical overview of Budapest and had 3 stops 2 of which were in the castle district and had panoramic views of the city and river. The castles were so beautiful! I met a couple on the tour and throughout our conversations I had mentioned it was my birthday so after the tour they invited me out to dinner with them as a birthday treat. It was really nice to have some company for my birthday as we talked over dinner for hours and they sang happy birthday to me. I then bought a bottle of Hungarian wine and relaxed at the hotel for the rest of the evening.

The next day I explored the beautiful paths of the castle district some more, catching the sunset but unfortunately most my day was wasted exploring the city center looking for a post office and standing in lines to mail some souvenirs home. I could not believe how expensive the mail system is in Hungary. Everything else is relatively cheap, except the postal services.

On my last day I went to another thermal bath to enjoy the relaxation of the mineral spas, saunas and another massage. I also enjoyed walking through 2 caves which were over a million years old but have been in formation for an estimation of 40 million years as the sea use to cover the country. On the sea floors many shells and water life became fossilized. As tectonic plates formed and the sea levels dropped through millions of years caves began to form through the the underground thermal springs. It was so amazing walking through learning about how the caves and minerals were formed and seeing calcite and gypsum in formation. There was also a cave climbing tour which would have taken me through the passage ways inaccessible by the walking tours but unfortunately I did not have boots so I could not go on it. Oh well, it will give me something to look forward to on my return to Budapest.

Overall, this city was amazing and I spent most my time relaxing in the parks and at the hotel as it was so remote and peaceful with a goldfish pond and a mini waterfall in the back yard . It gave me time to reflect on my trip and life in general as well as catching up on some writing in my journal.