My next stop on my trip ended up being Budapest, Hungary. I wasn’t sure where I was going to go after Slovakia, but a lot of different people at the Ginger Monkey hostel gave me some great suggestions. After I decided on Budapest, Dael mentioned he was also headed there so we decided to travel together.

After some thought and talking to people at the hostel – we decided to take the night bus to Budapest. Never again. I got almost zero sleep and I was uncomfortable the entire time. I think I dozed for an hour, but really that wasn’t much. On top of that, we got there at 6am and we couldn’t even drop off our luggage until 8am when the hostel opened. Dael got some shuteye at the bus station, but I was up the entire time.

I’ll warn you all now – this post doesn’t have as much on Budapest as I’d like and has become a bit more rant based. But it’s authentic so here you go.

The Hostel from Hell

Eventually we left to get to the hostel, only to find when we arrived that it was up 4 flights of stairs and the lift was broken. Honestly – as soon as we got there we should’ve taken one look and left. But appearances can be deceiving and the people seemed nice – plus the hostel had been recommended to us by people at the Ginger Monkey as a second choice (our first choice wasn’t available) and had good reviews. The problem? The beds absolutely sucked and everything was pretty run down in general. The good reviews? 100% come from the fact that its a party hostel that sponsors/runs a lot of different party events every night.

We spent 3 nights there, and I’m sure it’s going to take 3 weeks for my back and neck to recover. I was supposed to stay 4 days, but I forfeited my 4th night and switched to a new hostel – which was the first choice – for a 100% better night sleep last night. The worse part? People there would not shut up. Officially quiet hours started at like 10 or maybe 11pm. Unofficially, the first night saw a lot of slamming of doors and drunk people returning at various points starting at 2am and going until about 5am. The second night saw a large group partying out in the lobby until 5am. The 3rd night saw two people talking in my room after returning at 5am. One was at least trying to whisper (as he propped open the door) but the other – the one staying in the room – was doing that thing where she thought she was whispering but was really talking at a normal if raspy volume. I ended up popping up from my bed and asking them to talk in the lobby if they were going to talk at all. That at least stopped them, but it took a while for me to fall back asleep. When I let them know I’d be checking out early (would’ve left even earlier if I could get a bed at the other hostel) I made it clear it was becasue of the quiet hours not being respected. I’m also about 99% sure that there’s no one on site there after 11pm when reception closed to make sure people follow the rules.

So while it might not be the Hostel from Hell (as I’m sure there are much worse) – it wasn’t a good place to stay and I much preferred the hostel I stayed at the last night. Good shower, good bed, and quiet. I got much better sleep!

Budapest

Alright! I’m not going to spend the entire post talking about how bad the hostel was – though I totally could – and instead I’ll focus on some of the amazing sites I got to see in Budapest.

I do want to return one day, I know I only scratched the surface of the city, let alone the country as a whole. But I’ll be honest – with the bad experience from the hostel, it coated the rest of my stay in the city.

So the day we arrived we went out and got some food eventually before wandering around the city a bit and grabbing a drink at a ruin bar (there a thing there, google it!). It was really cool – but I was beat as I’d been up for over 24 hours at this point. We met two Germans at brunch who were great to talk to and gave us a couple of suggestions for other places to eat. We didn’t end up getting to them since one of them you needed a reservation and we kept forgetting to make one – but it definitely looked good.

Over the next two days, Dael and I wandered the city again. We ended up at the city park at one point. It’s a really pretty place and we checked out the Music Museum. We didn’t see their permanent exhibit, but they have a Sound Dome that we bought tickets to and we got to see and hear a cool representation of Pink Floyd’s music. It was kind of trippy at times. That same day, we walked along the river and took pictures of all of the government buildings lit up. Another day we checked out the Opera house, though we didn’t take the guided tour of it. The lobby itself is stunning though!

At one point we went to the mall – I needed to buy a sweatshirt that has a bit more umph to it than the one I brought. I ended up with a great deal at Tesco – in the boys section hahaha! It fits great though and was half the price of the adult ones.

The Food

Oh my gosh I love the food in Hungary! Though Polish food probably still wins currently in my trip. My two favorite foods were stuffed Langosok and Goulash soup!. But I had some pretty great breakfasts too. We also one night when we were out late ended up eating at an American style restaurant since Dael hadn’t eaten American food in 3 months. It was pretty good – the fries were great – but I could’ve done without. I love eating all the different foods of the countries I’m passing through and eating a chicken burger was eh. Though I did enjoy the Ramen we had one day!

Alright – that’s all for now. I’m on the way to Slovenia and should be there in about 3ish hours. I’m excited to check out the different places that I’ve been recommended to go to!