Berlin

This last week was very eventful. Dad was in Berlin for work and I decided it would be a good idea to buy a last minute ticket to see him. So Saturday night I bought a flight to see him from Sunday until Tuesday. I left early Sunday morning and arrived around noon in Berlin. I was going to get a taxi to the hotel we were staying at, but he surprised me and picked me up. It was so great to see him again! We went to the hotel checked in and then I had to finish up an essay that was due Tuesday morning and email it to a friend to print off for me and hand in. Once that was done we walked around the city, ate a late lunch and then explored some more. We did a lot of walking that night and then headed back to the hotel. We were trying to decide what kind of tour to do to be able to see some of the city. I had found a bus tour and a segway tour, we went with the segway tour.

Here are some pictures from the first night of exploring.

There were a lot of boats on the river

The TV Tower

We woke up early the next morning had breakfast at the hotel and then headed for our segway tour. We had a three hour guided tour of the city. When we got there we had a mini class on how to ride the segways. At first it was a hard to figure out, but once I got the hang of it, it was a blast. During the tour we got to see parts of the wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitlers Bunker, the last of Hitlers watchtowers, a Holocaust Memorial, and many other things. There is so much history in Berlin, I learned quite a few things from the tour. By the end of the tour no one wanted to get off the segways, we were having too much fun! After giving them back we went for lunch and then did a bit more walking around the city. We bought a few things and then sat by the river for a bit before heading back to the hotel. We hung out at the hotel for a bit and then went for dinner and walked around for a while because the next morning we were already leaving. 

 Brandenburg Gate

Memorial to all the burned books

 Me & Dad on the Segways

There are many building in Berlin that are built around parts of the wall that still stand. 

Hitlers last watchtower

The hotel that Michael Jackson held his son out the balcony

Me & Dad in front of the Brandenburg gate

Look for us in Mall Cops 3

Throughout the city where the wall used to stand, there are memorial plaques like this one

Memorial to the murdered Jews of the Holocaust.

Berlin Wall

Checkpoint Charlie

Part of the wall

More of the wall

On the outside of many of the buildings you can see bullet holes from the war

We had to get up really early the next morning because we both had early flights. It was so nice to see my dad again! I can't wait to see him in May when I go home! Once I got back to school I had to make sure my paper got turned in and then I had to continue with more work. This is my last week of work here and I am planning a trip to Poland in mid-May right before Brooke comes!!

Budapest

I have had this last week off from classes and don’t have to start again until the 13^th. Last weekend I stayed at school and hung out with some of the other Americans, Saturday night we went to a food festival. It was pretty cool and had a wide variety of food to try.

 Monday afternoon I left for Sarah’s and on Tuesday morning we flew to Budapest. I was in Budapest from Tuesday until Saturday night. Tuesday when we arrived, we got a shuttle to our hostel unpacked some stuff, and just did a little wandering around until eating dinner. Wednesday was our first full day in the city. We had a list of things we wanted to see while there and luckily got to see everything. First we headed to St. Stephens Basilica. Just like any other church, the interior design was amazing. There is just so much detail put into the work. After that we headed to Chain Bridge, which was the first bridge ever built connecting the Buda side and Pest side. We then walked down to the parliament buildings and took a look at them. After this we were hungry for some lunch so we got a baguette and some meat and cheese and made sandwiches. Then we headed back towards the hostel.

First view of Budapest

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St. Stephens Basilica 

Inside St. Stephens

Inside St. Stephens

 

Me & St. Stephens

Shoes Holocaust memorial on the river

Chain Bridge

Parliament Building

Thursday was full of relaxing. We headed for Széchenyi Bath, which is one of the more known ones in Budapest. We paid an entry fee for access to multiple pools, a relaxation room, saunas, and a 30 minute massage. We first sat in the outside pools for a bit, it was nice except when you got out because the wind was pretty cold. We sat in some inside pools for a little while until heading for our massages. The only thing wrong with these pools was that it smelled so bad. The massages were good as well. After that we sat in the saunas for a bit, washed off, changed, and headed back to the hostel.

The Bath

The Bath

 Friday we walked the most out of the whole trip. My fit bit recorded about 14 miles. We started by hiking up Gellért Hill. The view we saw from the top was amazing; you could see everything, we could see all the way across the city to where the bath was the previous day. We explored a bit around the top of the hill and then started the hike down. Once we got down we headed towards Central Market. After walking around the market we made a sandwich on a bench again and then walked down Vaci St. This street is one of the main touristy streets in the city. We found a small festival with a lot of street food and some live music and hung out here for a bit. After we walked back down towards parliament, just trying to waste time because I wanted to see everything lit up at night. As we got to parliament the flag was being lowered so we got to watch that happen which was pretty cool, and then we just sort of wandered until it was darker and chain bridge was lit up. It was pretty cool seeing everything at night. Then we decided it would be cool to see Vaci St at night so we went back and walked around again. After that we headed back to the hostel and packed our things to leave the next day.

Gellért Hill

Starting the clmb

Finally to the top

The view was amazing

Yolo. Swag.

Vaci St.

Princess statue and royal palace at night

Chain Bridge at night

Saturday was the last day in Budapest. We first went to House of Terror, which is a museum about World War 2, but it wasn’t that great. After spending a few hours here we headed back to the park the bath was in. We sat by a pond for a while and then wandered around this festival that was going on. It was just like the one from the night before, but way bigger. We wandered around a bit and then walked around the park a while before returning back to the festival to eat. We ate and watched people that were dancing and singing. We then headed back to the hostel to get our bags before the shuttle came back to pick us up to take us back to the airport. We arrived at the airport way to early and then our flight was delayed. Once we finally got back to London, I had to wait two hours to get through customs, but we finally got back to Sarah’s around 3 in the morning.

House of Terror

Street Food

More street food

See you later Budapest.

            In all Budapest was amazing, it was a pretty cool city with quite a lot to see. The only thing that was difficult was the currency and language barrier, but I would definitely recommend visiting here. Since getting back I have just been at Sarah’s and we leave tomorrow night for Dublin to visit Annie!

Some street art we found