Sidenote: Gas there (diesel) was 1.35 Euros per liter. If you do the math, that's equivalent to $6.86 per gallon. OUCH. Thank goodness for public transportation!
We made our way to the train station around 10:15 and sat on the platform waiting for the train in the beautiful sunshine. Aside from our one rainy, cold day at Mauthausen, we had great weather the whole trip. Temps ranged from 18-25 degrees Celsius, which I learned is 60s and 70s Fahrenheit.
The train was very full since it was stopping in Vienna on the way to Budapest. We ended up sitting at a table next to two brothers who had just come back from Munich from Oktoberfest. Once we reached Vienna, most of the people cleared out and the people who got on weren't speaking German anymore - they were speaking Hungarian, which is a totally foreign language. I don't think I'd even heard Hungarian before this trip, and NOTHING sounds familiar.
The trip in total took 5 hours and 45 minutes. There was a noticeable change in scenery once we got over the border into Hungary. Things just looked older there, and I swear that every building in Budapest had graffiti on it. It was a shame because there's some beautiful old buildings there.
The train station there was CRAZY. It was half indoors/half outdoors (a pretty building, if you could look behind the craziness), and as soon as we got off the train and into the building, we were accosted by money changers and taxi drivers. Thankfully I knew where our hotel was and knew that we didn't need a taxi, just public transport.
There were a couple of funny moments. We headed straight to the money changing desk, and there were several "unofficial" money changers standing around it, waving their wads of cash and calculators in our faces, offering us a much better rate than the money changing desk would be giving us. I declined, since we were standing right in front of a money changing desk (also, we got kind of burned on exchange rates while we were in Guatemala, so I wasn't going to make that mistake again). My mom pointed out a sign to me in the window of the money changing desk that read something to the effect of, "Money changing on the street is illegal. If you do it, you will be held responsible for breaking the law." Glad to know the Hungarian police is cracking down on the money changers, who were so blatantly waving their cash in our faces!
We also had one aggressive taxi driver following us around the station. I told him no several times, and my mom said I had a really ugly stern face when I was telling him no. I think my kids have seen that face many times! Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do! Anyway, I told this guy we were traveling only 2 kilometers away, and he offered to drive us for 3,000 forint. I quickly did the math in my head and figured out that he wanted us to pay $15 for 1 1/4 miles. Yeah, right. I told him no, but he continued to follow us around. Eventually he got the hint that I was serious, and instead of going to find someone else to pester, he helped us find the subway station! At least he was nice!
We got a 3-day metro pass once we got down into the subway station, and that turned out to be a bit excessive for our needs since we hardly rode public transport the whole time we were in Budapest. Oh well. It's nice to be able to jump on and off whenever we needed to without buying tickets every single time.
We rode the M1 red line for just two stop until we got to the Astoria stop. Our hotel was just half a block away from the station, so that was fortunate with all of our luggage.
We stayed at the Eurostars Budapest Center hotel. It was the nicest hotel we stayed in the whole trip, and also the cheapest (when I say "cheapest", I don't mean that it was $35. It was still a 4-star hotel.) Yes, I took pictures of each of our hotel rooms so you can get an idea of our surroundings. I made sure to book a double room each time so my mom and I could have our own beds, and yes, we did have our own beds at every hotel. "Double" in Europe means something a little different than "double" in the U.S. "Double" means two twin beds. Sometimes the beds where across the room from each other, but most often, they were pushed together like this hotel room. At least we had our own blankets and didn't have to share!
We had two balcony doors in our room with a teeny balcony overlooking the road (when I say "teeny", I mean that you could comfortably fit just one person on it - it was more for looks). This is the road we stayed on - a main thoroughfare with Elisabeth bridge at the far end.
This is the lobby of the hotel and the front entrance. Very modern.
I think my mom was a little freaked out by the new city and the madness of the train station because she nearly refused to leave the room for dinner. She wanted to go to the hotel restaurant instead, but when I told her a mere brownie from the menu was going to be $7.50, she said she would go down the block to McDonalds with me. I made a promise with myself before I left that I wouldn't eat at an American restaurant while I was on this trip, but sometimes you have to go with the safe bet just so you can get your mom out the door.
We walked up the block and around the corner and came to a very modern McDonalds. Same menu, except for some weird Asian pita pockets (I think). We went with the safe bet and had cheeseburgers meals (cheeseburger, fries, and a drink) for 450 forint each - $2.06.
Once my mom was convinced that we weren't in danger, I told her we should get cake at the cafe across the street. We ordered this caramel cake with a hard caramel crust on top, and this chocolate dessert which was basically chocolate-covered chocolate mousse.
We ended our night there and went back to the hotel.
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