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| Big Money Big Money Big Money |
After spending a very relaxing and enjoyable week with my Danish American friends I hopped on a plane headed towards Budapest. All in all, for a day of traveling it went very smoothly, I met a very friendly Romanian who wanted to be best friends when all I really wanted to do was sleep. Luckily my seat was in the emergency exit row so I had all the leg room I could ask for and a whole row to myself. When I landed in Budapest I followed the directions which I had written down on a piece of notebook paper and found myself at my meeting location with Ann four hours early. After those first few hours I could already tell that I was going to have a great time in Budapest. I had gotten two separate ice creams, spent half an hour in an internet cafe, gotten a drink and explored the central pedestrian street all for under five euros. I went from one of the most expensive cities to one of the cheapest. I felt like a millionaire. I met up with Ann and we went out for a drink on said pedestrian street. When we ordered a beer we were not expecting a litre each so by the time I went back to the apartment we were renting to register for classes I was already a little sauced. Exciting first night in Budapest! Everyday we struck a good balance between sight seeing, relaxing and treating ourselves.
We also had a visit from my Austrian friend Sarah. She and I took french lessons together in Paris and my sister Julie and I had gone to stay with her at her family home in Vienna last summer. She had taken a three hour train ride to come see us in Budapest so we tried to show her around the most we could and we essentially covered the city twice. Once walking, once by metro. It was so great to see her and it was great to really see the city. With Sarah we wandered around an island central park, waded into fountains, had interesting Hungarian food, watched some Olympics at an outdoor television screen in the middle of a lake and had lots of ice cream. After our day with Sarah we were exhausted and went back to our apartment to rest and watch some Archer, but it was so nice to see her and our day around Budapest gave us an idea for what we wanted to do the rest of the time. Budapest was such a beautiful city my camera was out in my hand fifty percent of the time.
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| Metal shoes representing the people who were shot into the Danube during WWII |
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| Of course the guy wouldn't get a picture of our feet in the water, but we are, en fete, in the water. |
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This guy was my favorite. While most people just put their feet in, he stripped down and went swimming in it.
 
This kid was great. He had a crate tied to the end of that make shift rope of torn fabric and was running back and forth in his crocs and tidy whiteys.
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The next day Ann and I went to the Szechenyi Bath near heroes square. The bath was one of the only things I had know about Budapest before actually going there. It was great, it was in a beautiful old yellow building and in the two outdoor pools there were people everywhere. There were also old leathery men in speedos everywhere but I did not feel so inclined to take pictures of them. There were also about twelve indoor spas and four saunas, with every room havign a different temperature. My favorite however was this old spa with large brown columns surrounding it where there were a few older women using water weights and stretching. Ann and I got in and starting playing with the floaties when this strict Hungarian woman came in and starting a water aerobics class. Ann and I just gave each other this look and starting running around the pool with the rest of the ladies in the spa. The class lasted about twenty minutes and afterwards Ann and I were dying of laughter. The bath was perfect for after a long day for walking around and we treated ourselves to a fancy shmancy dinner at a restaurant that Ann's friend recommended.
