Budapest, Hungary ~ ELC

While most of my friends in Rome left straight for their homes back in the states, I decided to continue my travels and extended my stay in Europe for a little less than a month. My first stop was to Budapest, Hungary to visit my uncle (dad's brother). Having family around was nice, especially because I've been away for so long. I stayed at my uncle's house in Hungary one night (away from Budapest), and he booked a hotel in Budapest for me for the following 2 nights. I was so thankful to have him around. He picked me up from the airport at midnight, set me up in a hotel, arranged train tickets for me to my next destination, had one of his employees shuttle me to the station... I couldn't have been more grateful. Budapest was such a lovely trip, and such an underrated city.

My uncle brought me to his church outing at this park. It looked like a scene from a movie. Clear blue skies and a sea of green.

My uncle booked the Marriott for me and my friends smack dab in the center of Budapest.

Michelle and Heidi joined me later. They came 1 day earlier and were staying at a different place.

Beautiful view of Budapest from the hotel, right on the Danube River.

My uncle and I went on the "Hop On, Hop Off" tour bus that shuttles you around the city. The cost is about 20 euros to sit on a bus no different than a normal metro bus. Absolute waste of money

I could be wrong, but I believe these are homes that still remain from the Communist era. Actually that could be totally wrong. Safe to say they're old homes that are still there today.

Beautiful cathedral in Budapest.

Totally felt like a scene from a Disney movie, like Sleeping Beauty's castle.

My uncle forced me to take a picture with this guard even though I was fighting him against it, right in front of the guard lol.

Beautiful day in Budapest. I couldn't have been more infatuated with this city.

One of the oldest bakeries in Budapest, around since 1858.

Club sandwich with you know, some gourmet Pringles...

Chicken salad aka chicken nugget salad.

Traditional Hungarian cake, yum.

At night, we would walk around and explore the city some more. We would come to this spot, sit down along the river and just admire our surroundings. This bridge alone was so beautiful to stare at.

If you look carefully, you can see people sitting on the ledge. That's where we climbed up to

to catch this view... It was beautiful.

I swear European money feels like Monopoly money. Too bad its only forints

The day before I left Budapest, we all made a visit to the famous thermal bath, Szechenyi.

Everyone is in their bathing suits and come to rejuvenate themselves, relax, destress. We dipped our bodies and faces in these pools to rejuvenate our skin, then realized later that these pools could actually be really dirty. Good job guys.