Budapest

Without a doubt, this past weekend has been amazing. The trip was an adventure right from the start when at 7:30 we found out that our train didn't leave at 10:30 like we thought it did, but rather at 8:30. We were given about 20 minutes to pack all of our stuff and head on over to the train station. This was an especially difficult task for me because I spent the entire afternoon sleeping because I had a terrible headache. Once we got to Stutgart we had to take a taxi to the train station because it was too late for the strassenbahn. Our ride was hilarious and the driver even told us where to get beer 24 hours a day incase we got bored sleeping in the airport. We arrived at the airport around 1 a.m. and found a sweet spot with some benches that we could sleep on. The flughafen schlafen (airport sleeping) went a lot better than I thought it would. Inevitably, I would wake up every so often to the click click click sound of a suitcase rolling against the tile floor, but other than that it was well worth the wonderful price of 0 euro. The flight left at 9:30 and by noon, we were in our hostel in Budapest! We stayed at "Tiger Tim's Place", which was operated by people who speak english. The place was awesome and they even took us out at night. We also met a lot of cool people there as well.  After we got settled in, we spent the rest of the day walking around and at the house of terror museum. There was also a neo nazi riot that day. Believe it or not, we actually even had a dialog with a fascist. Saturday night we went out to a couple bars that were fun, but fairly uneventful. On Sunday we spent a good portion of the day at the bath house, which is basically a place with a TON of pools, hot tubs, saunas, steam rooms, etc. It was a much needed day of relaxation. That night we hung around the hostel and drank some absinthe. I love that stuff because 1. I can get so drunk off of so little, and 2. I speak fantastic German after drinking it. Too bad it is not legal in the states. Monday was a day of sightseeing and walking and then getting on the plane back to Stutgart. The flight was short, but we were a bit scared for our lives on the landing because we felt like Indiana Jones was flying the plane. Discount airlines=untrained pilots? Maybe. The journey back didn't take quite as long and this time we didn't sleep in the airport. Instead, we slept on the McPatio in the Karlsruhe train station while we were waiting for our connecting train. We got back at 5 a.m. on Tuesday morning and I managed to sleep through all of my roommates alarms and miss some class. Overall, a great weekend. I'm so glad that we ended up in Budapest. It is a place that I would never book a trip to, but I ended up loving it so much. I'll definitely go back!