Budapest Day 2

March 25: Today started off with a missed alarm clock. I ended up sleeping in until about 10am, but Jorde (the hostel owner) was still waiting to make me breakfast. I hurried up so that I could enjoy the day while the sun was still out, and decided just to wander the city a bit. I started walking, and managed to find the grand market in southern Pest. It was fun - filled with fresh foods, as well as LOTS of paprika and souvenirs on the top floor. I tried another Hungarian specialty that my friend had suggested. It's called Retes, but it's basically a strudel filled with sour cherries and curd cheese. It sounds a bit strange, but like everything here... was pretty good.

From there, I decided to check out the WestEnd mall. It was about 4 blocks from where I was staying and is about a third of the size of the Mall of America. Mostly, I was looking for a swimsuit, since I intended to go to the Hungarian baths, but forgot my suit at home. No luck since it's still relatively cold there, and spring clothes hadn´t really come out yet.

Then, I was supposed to meet up with another friend that lives in Budapest, but I was a little early and it was cold out. I decided I would just ride the metro around for a while and people watch before meeting Csenge at Heroes Square. This is in the northeastern part of the city, and is a large plaza filled with statues of heroes in Hungarian history... including St. Istvan (the first king) and Kossuth (a leader in the latest revolution).

From there, we decided to go up to Gellert Hill. This is on the southern part of the Buda side of the city. It's virtually a small mountain, covered in parks, and we just walked up to the top. When you get there, they have their own statue of liberty commemorating the lives lost fighting for their independence in 1956. It was really windy, but the view from the top was amazing. I felt like I was floating directly above the Danube.

Finally, it was back to the hostel to make some dinner. I ended up just hanging out at the hostel that night, getting to know some of the other people staying there. There were a couple teenagers from Singapore there who were really excited about Jerry Springer. I thought it was kind of bizarre, until I started talking to them and found out that all media is censored there. They had never seen anything like it. It really is crazy the things that we don't know about other cultures.