Hungary? Why wait?

I apologize for my long absence from blogging. I owe my loyal readers (by which I mean my mom and adopted Chinese sister) a few entries, which I will try to finish up in the next few days. I've just been lazy lately. In late January, I took a trip to Budapest with fellow Fulbrighters Halley, Matt and Rachel. Matt and I flew in together from Cologne Friday night and with a flight booked for Sunday morning, we were determined to make the most of our pretty much just one day in Budapest.



In order to describe the hecticness of our day, I wanted to give you all a minute by minute account, but now, a month later, the details are very fuzzy, so I will do my best, but everything after 10:45 is suspect.
0800 hours: leave hostel to buy tickets for tour of Hungarian Parliament.
0855 hours: arrive at Basilika, which is not yet open. Eat bagels and coffee at California Coffee Company and debate the merits of Teach for America.
0915 Basilika. Chapel containing mummified hand of St. Stephan, first king of Hungary not available for viewing. Disappointment.
1000: arrive for Parliament tour. Have a sassy tour guide who tells people not to take pictures while she's talking. Happy.
1045: Walk across Chain bridge to Buda side to check out castle. Walk around a lot. See the prime minister. At some point, we descend into some labyrinths, the lowlight of the day.

Okay, and months later, I have forgotten, so I will leave you with some pictures and a list of non-chronological highlights.

Hungarian National Museum--pretty cool, but not enough English translations
baths--very relaxing. Many couples making out and older Hungarians blessed with amazing amounts of body confidence that led them to wear speedos and bikinis. Uhh, more power to you, old Hungarians, I guess?

What the menu described as a chicken donut. Very tasty

The chandelier in the Hungarian Parlament. Apparently there is a complicated procedure to change bulbs that involves someone crawling up there, so they don't do it a lot.

The chain bridge

St. Matthew's, I think. A church that was turned into a mosque then back into a church.

View of Parlament from the Buda side of the river.