HUNGARY!

Thursday 26th May
Today we were off to BUDAPEST! We had to get up at 5am but I was so excited that I woke up at 3.30am and could not get back to sleep! Then Naomi, Martin and I drove to Eindhoven Airport which was about and hour and a half in the car. Once there, we checked in and then boarded the plane. The flight took just over an hour and a half and then we landed in BUDAPEST!

We took a taxi to our hotel and then went exploring! It was so hot (at least 28 degrees) and every now and then we had to stop and rest because we needed a break from the heat. We walked across the Dona river could see houses in the distance on the hills which I thought looked really pretty. We took a gondola type thing up to the top of this hill (mostly because it was too exhausting to walk up in this heat!) but it was like a sauna in there and we could not wait to get out. We walked around some more and the thing that I really liked was seeing the old buildings because most of them were still in good condition and they had so much history behind them.
It was so hot that Martin and Naomi took their shoes off and stood in this small fountain! To freshen ourselves up a bit more we sat down and had a drink. When we were sitting down we saw this beggar who was shaking is rusty old cup in front of people to get money. I kind of felt a bit sorry for him because it looked like he was crippled; hobbling along with a walking stick on one hand and his money cup in another. But then my sympathy for him went away. We saw him walk over to what looked to be his wife and then count the money in his cup. Then they walked over to catch the tram and suddenly he was not crippled anymore! He was walking norrmally! He was a fake! When we were walking around we saw so many beggars and I wondered how many were fake and how many were actually genuine!





We walked through an underground hall to get to the other side of the street and we saw Hari Krishna people! They were dressed in these kind of Indian style clothes and singing ´hari Krishna hari krishna´ really loudly and dancing with bells and all sorts. One of the ladies saw me smiling at what they were doing and then pointed to me to come and dance! Haha but I was not exactly dressed for the occasion so I said no That night we enjoyed a nice dinner alongside the Dona river with a beautiful view of Budapest.

Friday 27th May
Today we were lucky because Martins friend from Hungary, Margit was to be our tour guide! We first went to this big building that looked to be a train station but was actually especially built for the Hungarian markets. It was humungous and they had stalls and stalls of fresh, shiny fruit and vegetables, fresh bread, salami and sausages and then upstairs they had Hungarian souveigneer things, traditional hungarain clothing and these beautiful table cloths that were 100% handmade that they were selling for the equivalent of more than $NZ500!



After the markets we waited for a ‘hop on hop off’ bus service where you could hop on at any of the stations around Budapest that they had and then hop off anywhere you wanted. It was a two story bus and we sat at the top because it gave a better view and it was so hot again that we needed some fresh air. On the way it gave explanations about each of the specific parts that we were in and it was a really cool way to see the city. We went past a sign that said it was 40 °C! but I think that it was actually just above 30 °C which was still really hot! I heard the people next to us talking and it sounded like a familiar accent so I asked them if they were from New Zealand and they were! What are the chances of meeting some people from little old New Zealand in Budapest and then taking the exact seats next to them! It is funny how that happens.



For lunch we went to this café, sat outside and we saw all these people smoking these funny looking water pipes! We were really intrigued! And were lucky to have Margit with us because she asked in Hungarian to this guy sitting next to us how it all worked. There was a bowl of water in the bottom, then at the top there was tobacco under carbon blocks and when you sucked through the pipe, the water boiled heating the carbon blocks and that is what made the smoke. Well that’s how I understood it anyway! Since we asked so many questions, they guy asked if we wanted to try some! Haha I did not want to miss this experience so Martin went first and then t was my turn!... It was actually quite pleasant! And tasted like menthol, even though it smelt like burning sugar. I will never forget this Hungarian experience. Another Hungarian experience that could not say no to, was having a shot of Unicum (a Hungarian alcoholic spirit) after our dinner. It tasted like bitter Jagermeister but I´m still glad I tried it! When we were sitting at our table at dinner we had some Russians, Americans and Italians next to us, Then Martin was from Holland, Margit from Hungary and we from New Zealand so it was like the United Nations!

Saturday 28th May
We were off to Székesfehérvár today! Which was about 30 minutes out of Budapest. It had been 30 °C the last two days so we were all wearing shorts and singlet and were wondering why everyone was wearing long pants and jackets. When we stepped out of the car we soon realized why! It was cold, windy and almost rainy. It was amazing that how in one part of Hungary it was hot and then 30 minutes later it was cold and windy. Nevertheless, we went for a walk into the town of Székesfehérvár and it was interesting to see the difference between the big city of Budapest and a little town. Budapest was basically all touristy and it was actually hard to find someone that was speaking Hungarain because basically everyone was a tourist, and Székesfehérvár was more the real Hungary and had more of a cosy feel to it.
We went to a castle which was built by this really rich guy in the 1950´s called Jeno Bory. He was deeply in love with his wife so decided to build her a castle. It was such a nice castle, I sure would not mind someone building a castle for me! It had a nice big garden and sculptures of all the Hungarian heroes around the outside. It was very cool! And had a very nice view from the top.


Then we went up this really big hill to see the view from the top. It had huge houses all over it that were expensive and would have been worth millions of dollars. Then when we went back down and drove through this area that was the extreme opposite with small, old houses with the walls literally falling apart and it was weird to see how there could be such a big difference in such a small space.
That night we went bowling! I was so excited. I had not played in a while and knew I was bad, but I really surprised myself in how bad I actually was. At the start I actually was not doing that bad but it must have been beginners luck because after the first few bowls my ´skills´ dramatically deteriorated. Lets just say I came last in both games. Naomi on the other hand did okay in the first game and then something happened in the 2 minutes in between the games and she suddenly became really good and ended up winning the second game despite losing to Martin and Margit by a bit in the first game. Putting the scores aside, we all had a really good night…but I wished I could have at least got one spare or strike…anyway…maybe next time!

Sunday 29th May
This morning we went for a walk around because it was a really nice day. There was this fountain in a park where water from the ground came out and all day people would come to this fountain and full up bottles and bottles with this water. It was apparently good to drink because it had high levels of iron, but it smelt like egg! Me and Martin tried some and we both had to spit it out. It tasted like metal or coins, I don’t know how anyone could drink that!


Since it was a really nice day, we decided to go to Balaton Lake which was about an hour away. We parked the car in this area that looked like we were in Greece! And then walked to the lake which we had to pay to go into! we found a nice spot to sit and then relaxed in the sun. It was such difference from yesterday! We had a cute little picnic for lunch  And I have to say, Hungary has the nicest bread! I don’t really know what is different about it but it tastes so nice! The further in the day it went, the hotter it got and soon we found ourselves cooling down in the lake. It was so refreshing and it really felt like summer! It was nice to have a relaxing day in the sun.

Monday 30th May
This morning we had to get up at 3.30am! I was so tired and it did not help by the fact that some (drunk) people in the hotel decided to be really loud and woke me up at 1.00…just our luck! Anyway, we packed our things and drove an hour to Budapest Airport. We checked in and went through security as usual. But this time I beeped! So the lady scanned me then she frisk searched me which was…interesting, and then she let me free! We waited in the check in area and then boarded the plane but we had to wait half an hour before take off because there was a problem with the engines. Finally we took off and it was an hour and a half until we got to Eindhoven Airport, then another hour and a half drive to Spijkenisse. Then we took the metro to Rotterdam Central which took 45 minutes, then the train to Utrecht which took an hour then we needed to take the train to Drie Bergen Zeist where our family was. While in the train on our last leg, we waited for the lady in the speakers to say ´next station, Drie Bergen Zeist´, but we heard a completely different place! Me and Naomi just looked at each other and started cracking up laughing. We got out at this place that we had never heard of and realized that we had gone passed Drie Bergen Zeist. The train that we took was not to stop there! Ughhh so we had to take the train back to Utrecht (passing Drie Bergen Zeist), and then finally (checking this time that we had the right train!) we arrived in Drie Bergen Zeist. Because of our little mishap, our family had been waiting at the train station for 2 hours! We felt so bad! From now on we are going to triple check that we are on the right train. We took the plane, car, metro and train all in one day!
Leah xx