budapest.

Our overnight train to Vienna arrived back around 905am, and we took the 950 train to Budapest, Hungary! The journey there only takes 3 hours, which felt like 20 minutes considering all the traveling we had done the past few days. The train station we arrived at was SO sketchy. We got into the heart of the city and felt so much more comfortable. We walked into a restaurant in search of some lunch, but got rejected. At least we think we did. Upon entering, the waiter said, "Please close the door...it's cold." It was pretty embarrassing. This "rejection" served as a blessing in disguise, however, because we continued walking down the street and came across another Hungarian restaurant where I ordered authentic Hungarian goulash (beef stew with vegetables and spices) served with cubed potatoes. Absolutely delicious. The rest of our day in Budapest was spent inside their heavily-populated Christmas Market, where we had the chance to see a child's choir sing and perform Hungarian dances. We also climbed to a palace in Budapest which gave us a breath-taking view of the entire city. The architecture and construction of Budapest reminded me very much of Prague. We also went inside St. Stephen's Basilica, which remains as the largest church in Hungary.

We BARELY made it back to the train station in time to depart for Vienna, as the wheels started turning as soon as we stepped on the train. Although we didn't have a ton of time in Budapest, I'm definitely satisfied with everything we could see in our short visit. I have heard from former Vienna students that Budapest was one of their favorite day trip destinations, and now I understand why. Sorry if this blog seems discombobulated, but I just have so much to do in such a short amount of time that my brain is going 90 miles a minute at this point. I hope you can forgive me in the near future :) We come home in 10 DAYS.