Day 10: Touring through Budapest

Our plan this morning was to catch a 9:30am tour from somewhere near the city center. We left the hostel around 9am, but did NOT account for the ridiculous public transport.

Allow me to elaborate:
1) Ticket Gestapo- in the other cities we've been in so far, taking public transport worked mostly on the honor system. For the first 5-7 days we bought our tickets, then decided with our sporadic use, we wouldn't necessarily be spending 10euros a day on tickets. It turns out, this is not an option in Budapest- there are secret undercover people on trams and buses there to check your ticket, and 3-4 guards at every subway station to make sure you have the right tickets. It is no joke- the fines are like 50euros.

2) A day pass is more than 10 US dollars- what the heck! It is more expensive than getting a day pass here than any other city I have EVER visited. This is Hungary, why is it so expensive!

3) Trams are slow. They get stuck in traffic and also, stop for a really long time.

Therefore, with all of this, we ended up not making it downtown by 9:30am, although we did end up with an all day transit pass after getting jumped by the ticket gestapo on the first tram (thankfully we'd heard horror stories from other people in the hostel and bought a single ride ticket at the grocery store on the way).

So, seeing as we spent so much money, we decided to use the trams, buses, and subways as much as possible today, even if we could have probably walked it.

Since we missed the tour, Rachel decided to guide us through the "Pest" side of Budapest using her trusty Fodor's guide. It was fun, and the sun was out and it was super nice, so we had a really great day of sightseeing. My favorite thing so far is the AMAZING church of St. Stephen, which is the biggest church I have ever seen, and the inside is filled with gold. There was also a wedding going on inside, so that was cool.





So far, Budapest is reallz beautiful, but more expensive than we dreamed. It is certainly more expensive eating here than it has been anywhere else we've travelled so far, which we didn't expect. That being said, I am so glad we are here, it is a unique and wonderful city, with beautiful buildings, gorgeous squares and parks, and plenty to see and enjoy.

Tonight we are eating in (cooking rice/eggs/having sandwiches) and heading to the mineral baths (it is open Saturday nights from 10pm-4am) and maybe going out a bit. We'll see, should be fun!