Budapest
We arrived late Thursday night and went straight to our hostel. We stayed at the Mandragora Hostel and it was so cute and nice! It was yoga/hippie style and had only 3 rooms, a double, a six person and an eight person where we stayed. It didn't have any bunk beds but lofts instead, it was a lot more private that way. We also got free breakfast and all the coffee and tea we wanted. Friday morning we headed out to explore. We took the metro to the center of Pest and wandered around, a little lost for a while. We found Parliament, made it to the river and crossed the chain bridge into Buda where most of the "sights" are. We walked up a ton of stairs to the castle district and saw amazing views of the city.
We had lunch at a traditional Hungarian restaurant; I had goulash- yum! We struggled with money, their currency has large denominations (100, 500, 2,000, 5,000 etc) and it was confusing trying to convert prices in our head to see how much we were really spending. After lunch and some more walking in Buda, we took the metro back to Pest to go to the thermal baths! Their basically huge hot tubs, some outside and a bunch inside. It felt so good to relax and hang out in the baths and then we decided to get Thai massages! It was pretty cheap and felt so good. This little Asian lady was crawling/walking all over me and cracking my body in ways I didn't know were possible. It was awesome. We had dinner, strolled around a little and headed back to the hostel. We enjoyed the unlimited tea and went to bed early because we had to catch the train the next morning. We only spent a day in Budapest but one full day is all you really need to see most of the sights. Parts of Budapest area really nice and some are really sketchy and run down looking so we were ready to move on.
Vienna
We arrived in the early afternoon and only had to walk about 2 blocks to our hostel, the Wombat. The hostel was really cool, it had a lounge area with a pool table, computers with internet for 50 euro cents and a huge bed to relax on. There was also a kitchen with free food and the WomBar in the basement! The Wombat felt like living in the dorms, there were lots of young people staying there. We stayed in a 6 person dorm so we had randoms staying with us the 2 nights we were there. It wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be since we were all out and about all day and didn't really see each other. On Friday we started in the center of town where St. Stephen's Cathedral is and continued to the area where the Vienna Boy's Choir performs, the Spanish Riding School, the Butterfly House, the Opera House, Parliament and City Hall.
In front of St. Stephen's Cathedral
We found multiple Starbuck's which was very exciting. The cool thing about them in Vienna (and some other countries) is that they ask if you want to drink your coffee there and give you real Starbucks mugs! Classy. Anyway, we were cold from walking all day so we headed home for a nap before going down to the Wombar for our free welcome drink. The next day, Sunday, we went to see Shonbrunn Palace across town. We rode the metro which is awesome in Vienna, it takes you everywhere and our hostel was right across the street from one of the stops. The palace is gorgeous, and there are gardens all around it, I only wish all the flowers would have been in bloom.
We had lunch at a traditional Viennese restaurant, I had soup with dumplings. Side note- Vienna in German is Wein, we had so much fun trying to read words in German. Words have like 15 letters in them, people thought we were crazy when we would laugh at street signs. Our favorite sign read "Gute Fahrt" (say it out loud hahaha), turns our it means "enjoy your travels". I digress... That night we went to an English cinema and watched Milk, it was my second time seeing it, so good! It was really nice to do something "normal" like going to the movies, it helps to not feel like my life here is so different than at home and that I'm in a foreign country. Vienna is a beautiful city, the architecture is gorgeous, most old buildings are crisp white with no graffiti and the whole city is very clean.
Prague
Our original plan was to take the overnight train from Vienna to Prague but it ended up being a lot more expensive than we thought, so we took a bus. It was a 4 hour ride but it went by pretty fast and it was cheap. We stayed in an apartment that we rented for 3 nights, it was pretty nice and there was a washing machine! We had to pack light, only backpacks or duffel bags because the budget airlines that we took charge you to check a bag so we could only have a carry-on. We packed for 5 days and were able to wash things in Prague, which was half way through the trip. The machine didn't work that great but it was good enough. My friend Martin that I know from SD last summer lives near Prague so he was our tour guide. We had lunch at a Czech restaurant down the street from our apartment, I had Wiener Schnitzel- yum and we had a beer tasting. Prague is truly a fairy tale city, it looks just like Main St. in Disneyland. All the buildings are really clean and are different colors so they stand out.
The weather was crazy though like Budapest and Vienna, windy, cold, thunderstorms, a little snow and sunshine, so bipolar. Monday we saw Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square, the Municipal House, Powder Gate and we saw an Opera that night. On Tuesday we went to the Jewish Ghetto and walked along the river, then we crossed the Charles Bridge. We saw the Lennon Wall and had to take a million pictures. It was amazing, and detailed, you could stare at it for hours and still not see everything.
After we walked up a ton of stairs to the Castle area. Up on the hill is the Royal Palace, the Castle, and St. Vitus Cathedral. We watched the changing of the guards before walking down the Golden Lane and then back home. That night we went clubbing at FX, the club where Rhianna shot the video for "Please Don't Stop the Music' it was a lot of fun! Wednesday we had a lazy start to the day and just wandered around the city and into a few shops. We stayed in that night to pack and rest up for London the next day.
London
We left early Thursday morning to get to the airport. We arrived in London and took a quick train into the city. Christina met us at the train station and we took the tube to the Marriott! It was awesome to end the trip in a nice, comfy hotel. After freshening up we went sightseeing. We saw Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey before lunch. We went to a typical English pub and had fish n chips, delicious. After we ate we crossed the Thames River and went on the London Eye. I was scared at first because I really don't like heights, but I had to go on it! It actually wasn't scary because you're completely enclosed and there is a bench in the middle to sit. The only time I would get a little scared was if I went right up to the glass and looked down. We went in the late afternoon, just before dusk and the sky was beautiful.
That night we attempted to go out, but for various reasons it didn't work out so we kicked it at the hotel. Friday we went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards, it was packed so I didn't see all of it but it was still cool. I was a little bummed to learn that you can't actually go up to the guards and take pictures with them like in movies. We had lunch at Pret- basically its all grab and go food, packaged but really fresh and delicious. They have them all over and other places like it, Italy needs to get on it! We also took some time to act like complete tourists and took picture with everything...
Lauren, Jessie and I went to see the Tower of London and Tower Bridge while Christina went to a few museums (she was in London a few days before us so she already saw the Tower). I was so excited to go because the Tower of London was once a palace where royalty and nobility lived but then became famous as a prison. The Tower is where King Henry VIII beheaded two of his wives and had others killed as well. They had tours of the grounds lead by the Beefeaters (retired military personnel that now work here, that's their nickname, they're actually called Yeomen Wardens). Our Beefeater was awesome, he was really funny and told us about a lot of cool stuff. At the Tower of London is also the Royal Jewels- bling bling! We were grandma's again that night and stayed in. We enjoyed the pool/steam room/gym at the hotel and watched a movie in our room. Saturday we got up early and went to the Apollo Victoria Theatre to get Wicked tickets!!!! We went on a Beatles walking tour through some quieter areas of the city and saw where some of them lived, where they filmed scenes from both of their films and saw Abbey Road and Abbey Studios.
Our attempt of The Beatles Abbey Road album cover haha
After the tour we walked around the shopping areas and then went to Wicked. The show was amazing, I'm so so SO glad we went and I really want to see it again! Sunday was our last day, Christina left in the morning for her flight, the rest of us didn't fly out until that night. We did some last minute sightseeing, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Millennium Bridge, the Globe Theatre and a stroll along the river. There were a bunch of street performers out and it was so fun to see them, especially the break dancers! The last thing we did before going to the airport was go to King's Cross train station to see Platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter, that's right they made a little wall and trolley just for tourists lol. We had a great time in London, it was awesome to be in an English speaking country, we really didn't feel like foreigners. It mostly felt like we were in the U.S. just in a state we'd never been before, except for the cars on the other side of the road and the double decker buses haha.
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