Relaxation is a good thing.

Day 47. Today I woke up with a terrible headache, TERR-IBLE. My headache lasted all day long and it seems that I unknowingly only made it worse and worse (my bad). After drinking a liter of water I made some new friends, Becky and Sigrid from the States (It only took one Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings reference later at the park and we were instant best friends), and we headed out to a flea market up in City Park. We passed through Heroes Square which I thought was super super cool. WARNING: the following sentences depict my nerd level to be extremely high, read at your own risk. Imagine a video game selection screen where you are choosing the type of character you want to play. A cleric, a warrior, a mage, a scholar, an assassin, and now add columns next to them and turn those characters into statues with real names and dates with a massive statue in the center and you have Heroes Square. Cool right?? We continued walking through the park and came across the Vajdahunyad Castle. It is right in the center of the park and surrounded by what used to be a big moat (I love castles!). Budapest has got lots of white fluffy things flying through the air that seem to target your eyes and mouths, so sunglasses served as a shield of sorts. Next to the castle was a statue of Anonymous (like from Assassins Creed!) which was again, super cool. The flea market was small compared with the one in Portugal, but still good and they had Legos everywhere and even Bionicles! It was well into the afternoon at this point and I hadn’t eaten anything yet (I just wasn’t hungry today) so we grabbed a burger in the park which was surprisingly so good. Then we went to the Szechenyi Baths!! They were amazing and so incredibly relaxing and nice. Imagine 3 swimming pool sized hot tubs that were outside. One was an adventure pool with water jets and a whirlpool at its center, and one was just for swimming, and the other for relaxing. Now picture the thermal bath house with varying temperatures in smaller baths and sauna rooms. I went into one sauna that smelled like mint and really cleared the sinuses, one that smelled like brownies (no joke) and one sauna that was so incredibly hot it literally hurt to breathe (After the incredibly hot sauna I jumped into a 15 degree Celsius bath, talk about freezing!!). I also treated myself to a full body massage that cost 14,000 HF (How many people can say they paid 14,000 for a massage??  =P). It was incredible. It seemed his hands were everywhere at once and the pain hurt so good. The man giving my massage said, “ummm… wow”, referring to the huge kinks in my back and shoulders. It’s a real problem for backpackers. After the massage I went back to the baths and then laid out in the sun for a while. I walked home feeling so relaxed, but incredibly tired and all this time I have had my headache. I should have taken something for it in the morning before I left. I should have drunk far more water during the day (I drank at least 4 liters and that wasn’t enough) and especially after my massage, I should have eaten more, I shouldn’t have eaten at Macker’s the night before (it just happened!! Don’t judge me!). My headache…ugh. I got some ice cream for dinner (don’t say a word), and collapsed into a comfy chair when I got to the hostel. I couldn’t be bothered to do anything. I hung out with my Swedish friends for a while as they danced, then I watched Becky and Sigrid play Guitar Hero as I tried to find a way to contact my Mom so we could Skype. Yippee!! I got to Skype home (Thanks Julie and Anthony!)!! It was so great seeing everyone even if they couldn’t see me, and I loved being able to catch up with them and tell them all about my adventures and get updates on what was going on with them. Yay family! After I finishing Skyping my headache was POUNDING to the beat of my heart. It was the worst. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t do anything. I took meds and just thought “bed, can’t be bothered, nothing, can do nothing, sleep”… and I eventually fell asleep. Sweet, sweet release.   

Day 48. Today was a very chill day. I slept in like crazy and my headache was finally gone. I wanted to see more of the city so went out and explored with Becky and Sigrid. We walked all around Budapest, and I got a good feel for the city. It really is quite amazing, the architecture is fantastic and everywhere you look there is something new to see. It is also super diverse as Hungary was always on the losing sides of the wars it lost a lot of its land and had to bring in so many foreigners. We walked to the Opera House and found out that Carmen was playing! I decided I wanted to try and come back to when the ticket office was open to see if I could get a ticket even though the sign said it was all sold out. Right close to the Opera House is the Basilica, where we got a great view of the city. You could see for miles in all directions and could see both the Buda and the Pest side quite well as you walked along the domed basilica. We walked along the river to the Parliament building. It’s the third largest in the world and is quite similar to the Houses of Parliament in London (same architect and as a joke he made the Budapest Parliament one meter longer). We walked to one of two remaining originally soviet monument, now altered of course and saw more awesome buildings. Then we walked all the way down to the Grand Market through the city and then Vaci Street (the main touristy street) only to find the market closed on Sundays. Drat. As we were deciding what we would do next a pigeon crapped right on my head! It’s not funny, stop laughing!! Haha, I was just standing next to a building and though it was a really big rain drop… and it was definitely poop. Oh how lovely. With the help of Becky I got it all cleaned out of my hair and we walked back to the Opera house (I got my ticket!!) and then across the river to the castle. There was a bread festival going on at the castle so we got to try so many delicious free samples. We also tried some Langosh (deep fried breaded dough/hash brown like substance covered in garlic and sour cream and usually cheese and cottage cheese as well), it was tasty but would definitely give you a heart attack if ate on the regular. This castle is only an outside castle. It was gutted several times as control of Budapest changed hands and the windows are even plastic… but it still looks cool and it was the castle that Katy Perry used in her Fireworks music video (which I thought was pretty sweet). We continued walking and got to the Mathius Church and the Fisherman’s Bastion. The bastion is awesome and looks like a castle-like entrance with long stairs and pillar in white stone. And there is an amazing view of the city. The Buda side of the river is beautiful and very hilly compared with the busy and city like Pest side. I didn’t realize how late I let it get and I had to rush to the Opera (It was all the way down the hills, across the river very close to the city center. But I am a Walker and learned early on how to walk fast and get where I am going, so I made it with 4 minutes to spare. As I got one of the very last tickets for the show I wasn’t in a prime spot. Way up in a balcony to the left of the stage, but from the bird’s eye view I spotted an empty seat in the 8^th row which I definitely snagged for the second half of the show. Win! Not as classy or high tech as the Vienna Opera house there wasn’t any English I could read to follow what the French singers were singing, so I had to follow the show through the expressions and body language and luckily I knew enough about Carmen to enjoy the music and performance without the English help. The show was excellent, not as good as The Barber of Seville, but I still loved it and the singers came out to bow about a million and a half times (my hands were tired of clapping). Humming and whistling Carmen all the way home I had a chill night and got to Skype with Anthony for 5 hours before calling it a night and heading to bed.