Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg weekend trip

Hi peeps! 

First trip of April has come and gone! I signed up alone for a weekend trip to Budapest, Vienna and Salzburg with a travel company called Bus2Alps that organizes trips for American college kids, so while I was going alone, I'd still be surrounded by other kids and people my age. The guides who work for B2A are all fresh out of college (sweet first gig to be working as an adult, huh?) and essentially get paid to travel around with us and to make sure we're sticking to the actives and schedules that they set for us. As much as I love solo travel, it's more fun to go places alone and make new friends on these trips. To my surprise, a girl from my sorority who's also studying in Florence was on the same trip and I had no idea!

We took an overnight bus to Budapest on Thursday night from Florence at 9 PM and met the 'fly in' kids at our hostel in Budapest at 10 AM Friday morning. I'll be honest, I popped some melatonin around 11 PM and slept until 8 AM, so I was ready to go when we got there. After freshening up, we set off for our walking tour around Budapest. I quickly made some new friends who had also booked this trip alone and didn't know anyone either. Rachel flew in from Edinburgh, Jessie from Rome, and Julia from Prague. 

On our walking tour, our Hungarian guide took us around to some historical buildings and shared with us the history of Hungary and the cities Buda and Pest, which were two separate cities until they were connected by a bridge in 1873. We learned about Hungary's early history, their struggles for independence, and their liberation from Nazi Germany and the fall of the Iron Curtain. 












After our walking tour, we took the metro to the Szechenyi Thermal Baths. These baths are one of the largest natural hot springs in Europe, and we sat in them for about 30 minutes. I tried not to think about how many people were in the baths with me and how they're not chlorinated but "cleaned" by "nature" ....... :-)))))))) You can bet your ass I took a super long hot shower immediately after getting out, ahaha. 




We took the metro back to our hostel where I showered a second time and then got ready for dinner. A few of the girls and I paid for a dinner cruise that served a 4 course meal and would have "traditional Hungarian Entertainment." Our B2A leaders told us it was an experience that we had to do, so we bit the bullet and went. My dinner was delicious, and the entertainment most definitely was an experience to say the least. I wish I could attach videos to this blog-- trying to describe traditional Hungarian outfits, singing, and dancing just wouldn't even do the experience justice. We ended the night dancing in a giant circle up on stage with the dancers. Talk about taking advantage of an experience. I included the 2 photos Kevan (one of our leaders) took of me as the Hungarian lady came out of nowhere and brought a giant container filled with some weird red liquid and balanced it on my head... hopefully you can tell how genuinely confused/terrified I am in this moment. 







After dinner, we ran back to the hostel and met up with the rest of the group and went with our leaders to a Ruin Bar. After the Jewish quarter of the city was destroyed during WW2, most of the buildings sat vacant for decades before the city underwent a gentrification process in the early 2000s. The Ruin Bars are essentially old warehouses the have been renovated into MASSIVE bars. It's one large building with multiple stories, and every room is eclectically decorated. Each room has a different theme and different music, so we spent about 4 hours exploring all six stories of the building!! Our 3 B2A leaders were super cool and fun to hang out with, so we spent the majority of the night drinking and hanging out with them. One of them actually graduated from USCB this past December and we realized we had a few mutual friends from California :) Small world! 



We all got home around 4 AM and had a lovely 2 hour nap before having to be up in the lobby at 6:30 AM for our next bus ride to Vienna. We got into Vienna around 10:45 and grabbed some coffee and chilled before our walking tour at 12 PM. Vienna is the Capital city of Austria and is also where Mozart was born. We saw St. Stephens Cathedral and a multitude of famous squares in the city. These walking tours always remind me of how young the United States is relative to some European cities. 






After our walking tour, we were free to wander around the city. We stopped at a few traditional Easter Markets near the city center and tasted some delicious chocolate and the girls did a little shopping. Similar to how we celebrate Christmas, people here purchase little 'Easter trees' and decorate them with hand painted and decorated wooden eggs (essentially the same as xmas ornaments). We also stopped at a hole-in-the-wall traditional Viennen restaurant for a quick bite to eat, where I had grilled polenta and grilled veggies :) 






Back on the bus at 5 and we went back to our hostel to shower up and gather ourselves. Our leaders had suggested a restaurant to us called Le Burger for dinner, and thank god they did because I had the best veggie burger ever. It was called the San Franciscan and was made with a zucchini patty topped with avocados, grilled vegetables, tomatoes, arugula salad, and a mango curry spread... YUM. I've seriously eaten some of the best food in my entire life since coming to Europe, these cities keep surprising me!! 

After dinner we went down to the bar/lounge with our leaders and grabbed a glass of wine and all just hung out. It's cool to hang and talk to them & hear their experiences working for a travel company. They all joke that if they got paid more, they'd never leave :). Most of the kids who work for them usually only do a year or 2 before they go back home to the states and get their act together. Definitely a super cool job though and they also have a lot of great suggestions about travel/restaurants etc. 

Another early morning on Sunday, on the bus to Salzburg at 7 am. Once we arrived, I jumped on to another bus for our Sound of Music (!!!!!!!!) tour. Hands down one of the BEST tour excursions I've ever done!! Not to mention that our guide was the sweetest Austrian woman-- she was about 75 years old and was walking up and down the bus aisle singing along to the movie soundtrack, and her voice was absolutely beautiful. We stopped at a view different locations where the movie was filmed and also learned about the history behind the movie. The movie directors actually botched a lot of the dates/scenes to make it more dramatic (typical Hollywood) which was interesting to learn about. It was a perfect day though, we had rain in the forecast for all 3 days of our travels and it turned out to be sunny and 65 all three days! The hills were definitely alive, and the snow covered Alps in the background only added to the picturesque scenery. Austria was one of the most beautiful countries I've ever seen! 








Made it back to Florence around 11:30 PM on Sunday, just in time to call my Mama and wish her a happy birthday :) 

On Tuesday after class I'm headed up to Rome to spend the day with my new friend Jessie and to see the Vatican City & Coliseum on Wednesday morning/afternoon. Other than that, I'll be hanging in Florence this week taking it easy. My friend Riley and I will be going on a free trip this weekend with our school program to a handful of old ruin Italian cities & a National Park :) 

Week 12, here we go. Only 4 left... :(( 

Love you!! 
xo, 
Katie girl 


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