The Talbots: Hungary Part 1

Chris and I went on vacation to Budapest Hungary the first week of June. It was a really fun experience. I have always had an idea in my head of what Europe would be like, and this was not really what I had expected. I kept thinking to myself while we were there that Hungary is nothing like America. Although the trip was not what I was expecting it was still a blast to see the beautiful old architecture and listen to the language. We traveled around like the locals; we took the subway, tram, bus, and train to travel around the city and countryside. I personally was not a huge fan of the food, they did have really good pastries though. Hungary is somewhere in between modern western Europe and post communist eastern Europe. Chris kept commenting on how much they had improved things (especially public transportation) since he was there on his mission.

Day 1 technically Sat-Mon
We left St. George around noon on 5/31 and took the shuttle to the Vegas airport. Our flight took off around four and we flew to JFK in New York. We landed around midnight and took a taxi to a hotel. Taxi's are ridiculously expensive and the driver was kind of rude. If we would have been more prepared I would have gotten a hotel with a shuttle. We were hoping to go into the city that morning since we had a 14 hour layover but JFK was just too far away and we ended up not having time. We made it through security and waited 3-4 hours until our plane arrived. We took Aeroflot (Russian Airlines) across the ocean.

This is our plane, it was massive!

We left New York around two on Sunday and started our 9 hour flight to Moscow. The flight was long but not too bad. They fed us two decent meals and we had unlimited free movies and TV to watch the whole way over. I was really impressed with it. We landed in Moscow at seven Monday morning and had a three hour layover to Hungary. We finally landed in Hungary at noon on Monday. We went through customs and were on our way. We took a Taxi (again...) to our hotel because we weren't sure where it was and didn't want to risk getting on the wrong bus. Scariest taxi ride of my entire life! I honestly thought we were going to wreck and die in Hungary. The guy was a maniac and was weaving in and out of traffic, speeding up then slamming his brakes, and had some serious road rage. I was so grateful to get to the hotel. I refused to ride another taxi the entire trip. Once we got settled in the hotel we headed out into the city.

Our first meal there at one of Chris's favorite restaurants. The top right picture is Hungarian Goulash and the bottom is my plate of food. The broccoli dish on the right side is literally just broccoli and mayo. No good.

Hungarian Parlament. Absolutely stunning.

We took a Ferris Wheel ride and we were able to see the entire city from the top.

We climbed to the top of Gellert Hill which I paid for the rest of the trip but it was worth it to see the views when we got to the top.

I have a bunch of pictures of just walking around the first day so be prepared for a ton of pictures.

The way in and out of the subway, I don't even know how many times I went up and down those escalators. They were so long the picture doesn't even do it justice.