EuroQuest: Day 5 - Budapest/Slovakia

Hi everyone! This was our last day in Budapest and so we decided to head to one of the places Budapest is quite famous for - the spa! We went to the Gellert Spa which was in a really fancy hotel which looking as we did in Guiding uniform and shorts we didn't really fit in!

None of us actually had any spa treatments, so we just used the pools which were separate to the spa. There was a main pool in which every hour they turned on the wave machine; a hot pool which has heated to 36°C and it literally felt like a bath, and a freezing cold tub next to the sauna. I decided to wear my new swimsuit I had bought a couple of weeks prior to my trip from Primark and it was a really nice nautical style one which could be worn with or without straps. However, I fell into a little bit of predicament when one strap unattached its self I couldn't get it back on so I decided to just wear it strapless. Big mistake! Firstly, without any straps to hold it up, it looked very unflattering as I think it was designed for someone with a smaller chest than mine. Secondly, when the wave turned on I was left with the struggle of holding it up in order to retain my dignity. It was also the first (and last) day that I got sunburnt, but thankfully it was only a little bit on my shoulders and nose!

We then headed to the train station to catch a train to Slovakia! By now it was about midday and 41° and we were traipsing through Budapest with our giant rucksacks on, literally sweating buckets! Our train was so late arriving that several of us decided that the platform floor seemed a good place to have a little nap! We actually got seats on this train but it was so hot outside the air conditioning wouldn't work! The man in the serving food and drinks was going mad with the heat which brightened up the journey a little bit!

The strange thing about the train was they didn't announce the stops so suddenly we found ourselves rushing to get everything packed away as ours was the next stop! The station we got off at didn't seem like a main station should - it sort of looked like the station in my town! But we were assured that it was Bratislava's main train station. The temperature when we finally got there was still ridiculously hot!

We got to the hostel, which was basically some student halls for a university nearby and I think this was the scariest place we stayed in! As we were waiting in the lobby there was a giant wasp flying around on a mission to kill, but thankfully a man who was also waiting managed to swat it with a tray (not that I condone the killing of insects but I see it was self defense because it looked like it was ready to kill us!)

We then went up to our rooms and found out that it was 1 bathroom per 2 rooms, but we had all been split up so we were essentially sharing a bathroom with people we didn't know... but then it got worse! I was sharing a room with Frances and thankfully no one seemed to be in the room next to us and we had a lock on the bathroom door unlike some of the others, but I then lifted the duvet from my bed to find the mattress and sheet were blood stained - which is just what I wanted! Safe to say, I slept on top of the duvet. Jenny and Emii met there neighbour, only to be told he kept a basket of girls back at home (which later turned out to mean he had a lot of sisters)! Tash and Evies neighbour brought back a girl in the night and well... the walls were pretty thin so I don't think they got much sleep!

Once we had put our stuff in our rooms, we headed over to the 24 hour McDonalds as it was the closest food place near to us, but they didn't have any of the vegetarian options such as a veggie burger/wrap/sandwich which we have over here. I ended up ordering a salad, which wasn't too bad! (Although I didn't use the strange blue cheese dressing that they gave me with it!)

If you want to see more I filmed a bit of what we were doing so you can check that out below. The video is a montage of several clips and pictures throughout the time we spent in Budapest and Slovakia as apposed to these blog posts which a split by day.

BUDAPEST VIDEO: COMING SOON!

SLOVAKIA VIDEO: COMING SOON!

I hope you enjoyed reading this and feel free to leave any comments!

EuroQuest: Day 4 - Budapest

Hi everyone! So we are still in Budapest! The day started where our leaders had gone to the local shop to buy some stuff for us to make our own breakfast in the hostel kitchen on our floor. It was a bit of a mismatched breakfast but still lovely! We ended up talking to another English girl who was staying there with her friend and they were travelling around Europe as well (although I think it was their gap year), whilst the others eating breakfast in the living area were talking to a guy who was (correct me if I'm wrong) born in South Africa but lives in Australia? It don't know if it was because we were staying in a hostel so pretty much everyone was around late teens/twenties, thus were happy to talk, but it was so nice yet strange as you just wouldn't talk to random people in a hotel in England!

Budapest in the morning

It was still super hot (around the high 30's!) so we went to a park, where we hired out these bubble car things (again due to my awful ability to describe anything I'll put a picture below) which we were able to pedal around the park. Frances took the wheel of our one and I think we were the most sensible drivers! As soon as we came near the others the drove straight at each other then swerving last minute to avoid a crash!

Awesome sculpture in the park

Driving around

After we had driven around for an hour, we returned them and went to the fountain to eat lunch. It was so refreshing to dip our feet in the water and watch the fountains. On the hour, suddenly music blasted out and the fountains began to synchronize to it which was awesome! We then split into our 2 groups and went to explore.

Nice and cool

Fluffy the fish having a swim

Our first port of call - ICE CREAMS! I played it safe with a lemon sorbet, but after we had eaten them we went back for a slush puppy. I got a bright green one which was green apple flavour but turned my tongue a brilliant green colour! We did try to find somewhere to sit and drink them, but we were pestered by flies everywhere we went.

Yum!

Oops

Consequently, we gave up on the idea of sitting on the grass and headed back to the fountain. On the way we bumped into the other group who were all sat on benches enjoying a variety of brightly coloured mojitos. (non alcoholic of course!) Despite already having an ice cream and a slush puppy we went and got one! They tasted as amazing as they looked, although many had the same effect of the slushie by turning our tongues various colours!

We headed back to the hostel for an early dinner so we could go exploring the city in the evening and the lovely people at the hostel  cooked us a meal of traditional Hungarian food! I think we were supposed to cook it ourselves but they ended up doing it for us which was very kind of them! The veggie option was sort of like gnocchi and scrambled egg put together which was actually really nice, although very filling!

Pin board in the kitchen

That evening we headed up to the old town (Buda) on the funicular railway and got some stunning views over the rest of the city as we were heading up. Up there we went to the presidents office took loads of photos of the view!

Then began the long walk back down! According to Hayley's pedometer there were over 10,000 steps just on the way down so it was safe to say my feet hurt just a little!

When we got back to the hostel Sara made the biggest cup of tea I think I've ever seen! I tried to take a photo of it next to my deodorant can to give you a comparison but it was huge!

If you want to see more I filmed a bit of what we were doing so you can check that out below.

The video is a montage of several clips and pictures throughout the time we spent in Budapest as apposed to these blog posts which a split by day.

BUDAPEST VIDEO: COMING SOON!

I hope you enjoyed reading this and feel free to leave any comments!

EuroQuest: Day 3 - Zagreb/Budapest

Hi everyone! Third day and we're moving onto our second country: Budapest!

The day started with a little bit of a train polava! We had reserved seats but unlike the trains in England the carriages aren't numbered and the few that were labelled weren't in the right order. So instead of pacing up and down the platform looking for a carriage that possibly didn't exist we just got on the train and tried to look around. Now the trains over there again aren't like our but more like the carriage on the train in Harry Potter. There are a couple of cabins and a very thin corridor to walk down and we were there with a giant rucksacks on and had no idea where we were going.

Budapest

We then found almost straight away what we thought were out seats in the first carriage. We unloaded and then I believe someone told us that this wasn't the carriage we were looking for. So we all had to put our bags back on and push our way into the next carriage which we were assured was ours. But alas, these seats weren't ours either. No it turns out we were right with the first seats we sat in after all!! So we tried to get back along the narrow corridors but it just wasn't working so we had to sit by the doors. This was when we started moving. Now, in most places there is a conductor on the platform that goes and makes sure all the doors are shut properly, but not here! As we began to pick up speed Attie turned around and said "Should I shut the door?" which resulted in a mad panic to pull this door shut before the train got any faster!

The train

The train journey was... well... interesting to say the least! To start with it was boiling hot and there was no air conditioning and the windows were open but the air outside was so hot it made very little difference. Half way through the journey we discovered that you could pull out the chairs in order to turn them into beds! All the seats in our cabin were pulled out (apart from mine & Emiis due to the bin being in the way) and it was basically like a giant mattress! Evie took full advantage of this and spread herself out and drifted off into a deep sleep - something she managed to do throughout the trip in some peculiar positions!

Fast asleep

We finally arrived just over an hour late into Budapest due to there being a huge number of lengthy stops along the way. It was still so hot even though it was quite late in the evening. The heat would have been fine if we were just relaxing on the beach or something but we weren't. We were walking carrying giant rucksacks around the city in an attempt to find the Maverick Hostel. We did find it eventually and the lobby was architecturally gorgeous!

The stairs

We were a few floors up so we had to climb up quite a lot of step which got my thighs burning! Once we got there there was a comunal living area with a huge TV and a computer. Our room was beautiful as well! There was a sort of balcony upstairs in the room! It's pretty hard to explain so I'll put a picture in. But Emii and Tash were soon singing 'When Will My Life Begin' from Tangled acting like this balcony was the tower!

Our bedroom (although my bed was by the window so you can't see it)

We then went for a little explore of the city. Instantly, it was obvious that this was a much more touristy city compared to Zagreb and there were loads of bars, restaurants, nightclubs and they all were in English.

Fountains at night

We went for a quick easy dinner at Burger King and I'm a vegetarian so we asked if they did veggie burgers. They assured us they did and I was looking forward to a veggie pattie kind of thing like the ones you can now get in McDonalds. So my burger arrived and I opened it up and it was literally salad in a bun!! But to be fair to them it was literally a veggie burger!

Burger King!!

If you want to see more I filmed a bit of what we were doing so you can check that out below.

The video is a montage of several clips and pictures throughout the time we spent in Budapest as apposed to these blog posts which a split by day.

ZAGREB VIDEO: COMING SOON!
BUDAPEST VIDEO: COMING SOON!

I hope you enjoyed reading this and feel free to leave any comments!