Hungary for adventure

It was 8:30 in the morning. The wind was cold and the small jacket around my body did little to hold out the frigid air that surrounded me. Walking alongside Bree, Ashley, and Bailey to the bus stop, I regretted my decision to not pack a heavier jacket in my luggage. We sat huddled in front of the large billboard for a few minutes, touching shoulders to conserve as much heat as possible while we searched for the place our bus would be picking us up from. We were nervous and excited, hopeful we wouldn't miss our bus or its connection to Budapest after hearing about another group's unfortunate failure of a trip to Oktoberfest. Platform N at 9:25, that's where our bus would be. Now we needed to figure out what to do to keep warm for the next hour or so. After wandering around in a huddle of bodies for a while, we decided on getting a quick breakfast at the train station across the street. There I found one of the most surprising things I've had on this entire trip. While I have not been a huge fan of the central Europeans' choice in cuisine, I will give them credit and say that they have some damn good donuts. They are very unassuming, almost looking like cake donuts (which are far too cake-y for my picky tastes) but goddamn if that wasn't one of the best donuts I've ever had. It was light and fluffy just like a donut from the states, and the fruity frosting was the perfect amount of sweet to really wake me up.

After warming up over a cup of foam with a few drops of coffee as an afterthought (Europe, pick up your coffee game) and a good donut breakfast, it was time to board our bus. The trip to Budapest was a fairly uneventful 6+ hour bus ride, although Ashley and Bree forgot to mention to me before booking a bus that car sickness was a major problem for them. This meant I spent a majority of my time either sleeping or comforting some very uncomfortable and slightly nauseous friends. We had one connecting bus at Burno, with an hour or so layover where we once again sat huddled in a cuddle-puddle on a bench in a bus stop in the middle of the city. After another four hours on a bus, we pulled into Budapest. The most interesting part of the entire trip may have been where this bus dropped us off. In all the other cities we had been to, there had been actual buildings or at least a few benches that marked the bus stops. However, for whatever reason, in Budapest the bus company thought it'd be a great idea to just drop everyone off in a sketchy neighborhood right behind what looked like a murder field a gang might use. Needless to say we were a little sketched out.
As one must do when first visiting a city they've never been to, our little gaggle of friends rushed to the first restaurant with a free restroom (which is a lot harder to find in Europe than you might think) and bought some lunch. This meant that our first taste of Budapest was a very American-centric burger restaurant. The burgers were actually pretty good, but it wasn't really the culture I was hoping to get from this trip. Next on the agenda was finding a way to our AirBNB. While we have been walking quite a bit in Europe, the  room was a good 3 hour walk away from where the bus had dropped us off, and we were already exhausted from the trip so a walk like that did not sound ideal. Luckily for us, a taxi service was operating out of a bus stop just a few blocks away from the restaurant. A very nice man helped us to get a taxi, although his kindness extended a little too far when he took Ashley's backpack off her back without her asking trying to put it in the back of the taxi and the rest of us expected him to just take off with it. Luckily he was just trying to help and we didn't have to chase down a pack thief.
After reaching the AirBNB, it was time to make plans for what to do in Budapest. Bailey had found an interesting sounding tour of the city called a Pub Crawl. Essentially, you pay a tour guide a set price and they take you around to the most popular clubs and bars in a city and give you free shots and beer, as well as teach you local drinking games and just try to give you the best time they can. It makes for a good time, although the night went a little south after someone who shall not be named had a little too much to drink and ended up having quite the time in a public restroom. Poor Bree was traumatized from that experience and it really sobered up the entire rest of the night for the rest of us. Ashley, although having a bit to drink herself, actually slipped into a psychologist mindset and may or may not have changed a young man's life for the better that night. The next day, after waking up around noon with non-alcoholic related headaches, we all decided it would be best to keep it very low-key for the rest of the day. We ate more food, visited a castle, shopped in a few tourist traps, and took a dip in Budapest's famous healing natural springs. We discussed going on a cruise of the river through the city but never ended up going through with it as we all decided a quiet night in the room sounded better.

Our final day in Budapest was, in my opinion, the best. I love looking at all the architecture that Europe has to offer, especially the old stuff from Gothic times, so our idea of visiting the castle district was right up my alley. I was not disappointed. The castle district is essentially a castle and small town square up on a hill overlooking the rest of Budapest. The architecture is beautiful, and right in the middle of all of it is a majestic Gothic church. Although we really wanted to see the inside, apparently the church was only open to locals when we eventually got around to seeing it. A guard at the door first told us to wait a half hour and it would be open once again, but after returning after the half hour waiting period and still not having access to the inner chambers of the church, the guard feigned ignorance and argued he couldn't even speak English, so we had to give up and leave without ever seeing the inside.

Our trip back to Olomouc was probably the most eventful part of the entire trip. After walking around all day, all four of us were ready to just sleep on the bus. However, at first we couldn't find the bus stop (remember, this stop was in the middle of a shady neighborhood in front of an empty lot). After locating it, we ate dinner at a nearby restaurant, although it took a while to find one since apparently everything in Europe closes by 7pm. After boarding onto the bus, Ashley and Bree once again started complaining about not feeling well, although this time we believed it was because of an oncoming cold. We once again stopped in Burno, but since it was 2am, the room we had used before was locked and it was far colder than the first time we had been there. We decided the best option would be to use a nearby train station for a restroom and a warm place to stay for the 2 hour layover. After walking in, however, we immediately regretted our decision. The station was under construction and looked nearly abandoned. There were long, dark hallways that seemed to lead nowhere, trains sitting abandoned on the tracks, and construction tools everywhere. Needless to say it was a close second to the sketchy bus stop in Budapest for most interesting public transport hub of the trip. Luckily we survived and made it back to Olomouc no worse for the wear considering we had been up, walking around for nearly 14 hours straight.