Hungary... why wait?

get it? cause it's like the snickers commercial, but it's hungAry. as in Budapest. as in where i am now. amazing.

yesterday, we took a train from Vienna to Budapest and arrived here in the early afternoon. really unfortunately it was raining. boo. but we found our hostel and the woman who runs it, Sylvia, is so nice and sweet. She sent us to a very good Hungarian food place for lunch. Then we went to St. Peter's basilica, but there was a mass going on so we just took the elevator to the top of the look out point and took some pictures (cause it's not like we haven't done that before).

For dinner, we went to this very sort of cafe style place. i had onion soup and some cheese for dinner. no i'm not kidding. our waiter, Mishi - which is Hungarian for Michael, was very nice and attentive... but then too nice and attentive and tried to get us to go out with him for drinks after he got off work. He even slipped sasha his phone number when she went to go to the bathroom. Then, on our way out the door, he did a little call me signal with his hand, just to reinforce his invitation.

Instead of meeting up with Mishi, we took a cab up to the citadel, which overlooks the whole city. Budapest is very well lit up at night, and the view was gorgeous. We look the most pictures. It was lovely. But then we tried to get a cab to leave. Apparently cabs dont come up there to pick people up at 12 oclock at night. We tried to talk to all these Hungarian people and ask how to call a cab, but they weren't so helpful. A group of Hungarian Police officers told us to just walk down the mountain. I had no faith in that situation, but we started walking down - cause really what other choice did we have? After only a little while we found a cab and made our way home.

Today was a very nice day, hot and sunny. We went out for breakfast and then went to see the largest Hungarian synagogue, which is the second largest in the world (after temple Emanuel - i think - in NYC). It was very pretty inside and there was a gorgeous holocaust memorial in the back garden area.

This afternoon we decided to go to one of Budapest's thermal bathes. It was very intimidating and not a lot of english was spoken there. After figuring out how to change into swimsuits and get lockers, Sasha and I went to get massages. Apparently, european women have far less issues about being naked... and we didnt realize we were getting entirely naked massages. would be ok if there was a like a blanket. but no. just naked. on a table. with lots of other people getting massages. haha. good times. we also hung out in the steam room and hot water pools. outside there was also a wave pool, which was rather excited. Then we were tired and hungry (haha) and so we came back to the hostel to eat and check email... ohh the priorities.

Tonight, I'm assuming there will be some sort of dinner adventure happening. Tomorrow.... is our last day in Budapest and the last day of our trip. wow.... how did it fly by so quickly? We are going out to dinner tomorrow night at the nicest restaurant in Budapest. It's called Gundel. We are very excited.

48 hours from now... I will be in Rome. amazing.

love, lindsey