Budapest

Budapest

Hello! I am finally back from the best festival I have ever been too and I would like to describe you each day! As I said last time, my decision about this festival was not easy. It took me a lot of time to decide whether to go there or not. Once when I was running I just decided to go there because I can go to Greece whenever I want to but this festival with such an amazing line-up is only once! Firstly, I wanted to see Muse because they had a stunning show in Prague and I would die for seeing them again. Then, every time when I go jogging I listen to the SUM41. Moreover, we could see Bastille, John Newman, David Guetta and SIA which is just crazy. In addition, I totally love the atmosphere of the festival – summer, beers, chilling, music and no worries. Another reason why I wanted to go there was that I am planning on travelling a lot and I am not sure if I will stay in the Czech Republic next summer. Therefore, it was one chance opportunity to go there! In the end I have to say that it was really expensive. Nevertheless it was definitely worth it!

Our trip started on Wednesday and we decided to take a bus – Eurolines. It was crazy because all buses were sold out really fast and since we made our decision quite late we did not have many options. The cost of the bus ticket was around 500 CZK from Prague to Budapest which is okay. It was again busy with me because I went from Hradec in the morning and I had only one hour to come home, change everything and catch the bus. To be honest, Eurolines was great! It was a type of the bus called business class and we had comfortable seats, plugs, bottle of water and wifi whole time. In the bus, we were watching some movies and then I was sleeping and the time went fast actually.

When we arrived to Budapest we happily bought ten tickets for transportation which we did not manage to use. We booked hostel on Airbnb but we had own room and we shared only kitchen and bathroom. In fact, we did not even meet people from the accommodation. We were looking for the place we were supposed to stay and it looked so creepy. It was already dark and when we were walking up on the stairs we noticed that the building was old and it looked like nobody was living there. When we finally found our door we were nicely surprised. The apartment looked nice! Everything was nice and we had our own room with towels and the kitchen was fully equipped. It was around 11 pm so we decided not to go out and rest after travelling in the bus.

Next day, on Thursday we got up quite early and we had one day for exploring Budapest. I had already been there two years ago and at that time I loved Budapest. This time I realized that Prague is nicer but I still liked the city much. It is bigger. Firstly, we decided to have a breakfast. It did not take us long time to find a place where we could eat. Even though we came there around 11.30, the waitress allowed us to have a breakfast menu. We took a French toast and scrambled eggs and we shared it. It was delicious! We naturally took also coffee and fresh orange juice which I love. It was funny to compare the prices because they have really high numbers. Every time when we saw the price in forints (Hungarian currency) we just divided it to 10 and we got approximate price in the Czech crowns. Even though Hungary should be cheap in general the breakfast was not cheap at all but we enjoyed it a lot.

Together with the tickets for a festival we also bought a city pass for Budapest transportation for 2 days. We decided to use it on Thursday. Therefore, we needed to find a place where we could exchange the ticket for a pass. We were at the main square and we found the exchange point. It was inside the aquarium café and it looked amazing. On top there was a huge aquarium and it was underground. When we had a pass we could use all transportation for free and we had an entrance for thermal baths also.

I wanted to find a big wheel in Budapest so bad. When I went there with my friends from the university I always wanted to take a ride when we passed the wheel but nobody wanted and the ticket was also expensive. Therefore, we postponed it and we did not go there. This time when we finally wanted to take a ride we found a place where the wheel used to be but it was not there. We thought that they moved the wheel to the festival but we were mistaken.

The weather was not hot but they said in the weather forecast that it should be better in following days. It was time for thermal baths. Last time I went to Szechenyi and Palatinum. I wanted to try a new one. We went through the reviews and we found a lot of opinions and we decided to visit thermal baths called Gellert. Although firstly I wanted to see the castle called Halászbástya.You should know that when I first saw this castle I was so excited about it! I even said that I wanted to have my wedding there because it seemed to me super nice and romantic. This time I was not so sure about that but I was still in love with this castle. We were walking there and I was enjoying the view while sitting in a window.

They started to charge extra money for entering the upper part of the castle but area for free was also nice. Of course the place was so crowded. We took a lot of pictures there and we were heading to the thermal baths. On our way there we noticed that there the public transportation in Budapest includes also boats. It was awesome! We immediately took one even though it was totally opposite direction. I like boats! It is cool that it is a part of the transportation in Budapest. I saw the Parliament, Halászbástya from far away and a lot of nice bridges. Subsequently, we went to the thermal baths.

I regretted I did not take my flip-flops there but it was okay. The thermal baths were amazing! Firstly, we went to the outdoor part and there was a big swimming pool. There were supposed to be waves but it did not work unfortunately. We went to another swimming pool. There was also sweat room and a tub with cold water. I did not go there because I did not want to be ill already before the festival. We spent quite a lot of time in the swimming pool. It had around 35 degrees. I liked the place but I was sure that the other was better because I had no idea there was also inside area. When we found it and when we went there the real thermal relaxing started! They had at least for big warm swimming pools with splashed water and seats with different temperatures of water. The warmest one had 40 degrees and it was impossible to stay there longer than 10 minutes even for me who is the lover of warm water! We tried all the swimming pools there. The best thing was to go to the warmest swimming pool and subsequently jump into the coldest one with 17 degree water!You have no idea how it was refreshing. There were also a lot of sweat rooms. We tried few of them with herbal air and it was fine. I am not a big fun of sweat rooms because I am not allowed to go there often because of my doctor but it was nice. I did not spend there much time anyway. We were there around 5 hours! From time to time it is amazing to visit such place.

Since we had only breakfast that day we decided to eat finally. I suggested cooking in our accommodation because I knew we would be eating outside for the rest of our staying. We went to SPARnear to our place and we were choosing what to cook. The selection was not big. We found only few types of fruit, we could not find sour cream and we could not find gnocchi. In the end we found some ingredients and we decided to cook pork meat with gnocchi and with sour cream. It is hard to admit but it was the worst food we have even had! We bought some cheap meat and we did not notice that it already looked disgusting. Later, we found out we had only salt and no spice or pepper. Therefore, we tried to cook it from the things we had but it was not enough. Moreover, we did not have time to do another shopping. During frying the meat, I already knew something was wrong because the meat smelled horrible. Nevertheless, we finished the meal and we ate it. We both were not possible to finish it because it looked like smashed meat material which was super super salty. I did not like it at all. Neither did David. We started to call it pig meat and when the meat came to our mind we felt disgusting. I don’t know what was wrong but probably the meat was not good.

Then, we were in a rush because I wanted to see a singing fountain. My last time in Budapest we were not using metro much and we were only walking. Once, we wanted to go to the thermal baths which were located at Margharet island. We spent at least one hour of walking there and when we went there it was already closed. Therefore, we started to drink some gin and tonic and we got drunk. When we were laughing somewhere on the ground we noticed the fountain with water and it started to play the songs synchronized with music. At that time it was like a miracle. We all loved it! Therefore, I wanted to go there so bad again! We managed to be there on time and the fountain started. To be honest, the show was better than the one in Barcelona even though the fountain is smaller. We liked it a lot. There were some guys who got drunk and who were singing and dancing with the fountain whole time. I enjoyed it much although it was quite long. Later, we were walking in night Budapest enjoying the atmosphere. The city is stunning! I like the most castle and the building of Parliament. It was time to go sleep and enjoy last night with great shower and bed because next day we were going to the Sziget Festival!!!

It was a long procedure to decide if we were going there or not. When we checked the price of the ticket it seemed to me crazy! Whole week cost 200 euro and each day was 65 euro. We decided to buy only two days and wait because someone told me that it is possible to stay there longer without the ticket. Even for two days and city pass we spent a lot of money and in the end it was much more. I was so excited to explore to festival! I was still thinking how it will be because it was my first festival abroad. I heard about it many times already. The first day we were looking forward to seeing John Newman and Bastille.I was happy that Muse were supposed to be next day because I had more time to wait for them.

To sum up Budapest, it was great to spend at least one day there. We still did not know if it was the last one or no because we did not know how long we were going to stay at the festival. The only thing I hate about Budapest is metro. It is just disgusting! Seriously! There are drawing everywhere, metro is old and in addition it looks creepy. Therefore I did not like travelling by metro much. We did not have much time to try Hungarian specialties like Langos but we tried it at the festival later.

I was supposed to meet my Hungarian friend at the festival also. We met in France on my exchange. I remember her firstly from the party because she was a close friend of Juan and she was always smiling. When I uploaded some pictures from Muse concert she immediately texted me that she was going to the festival and we could meet there. It was a great idea! I always want to see people from my exchange. Nevertheless, bad circumstances at the festival did not wish me luck and I did not manage to meet her.

Another people coming to the festival were my two workmates from Las Adelitas. Actually, Lalo was the first one who tried to convince me to go. At that time I had no idea that I could really go. Later, I found out that his friend and my friend Joshué was going also. They just were there since beginning – since Wednesday.

Last time when I was having a breakfast with my friend Sasa I was surprised when she told me that she had already been to this festival last year. She just could not upload any pictures because she did not get any day off at work so it was secret.

When I checked the weather forecast I was not so happy. Every time when I imagine festival I would love to have at least 24 degree. This time it was supposed to be around 18 first day and then better and better. In fact, the weather was perfect! Except for the fact I got ill there. But I will tell you everything about the festival in next story!