My feet hurt!!

That was the theme for all of Budapest because, well, my feet hurt A LOT! All I did in Budapest all day long was walk and walk and walk. I got kind of lost getting to the hostel, but once I did I took a shower, got ready, and headed out for an adventure in Hungary with my Hungarian Forints (10,000 Forints is about $62 USD). So, with 10,000 Forints in my pockets, I set out, first for the Great Market Hall.



It was cool, but a lot of food and stuff, which I wasn't looking for, although there were some crazy fruits. But I kept on exploring....

I basically climbed a mountain on my way through a park. Somehow I made it to the top, tired as hell after climbing stairs and paths through bum-laden territory. I felt a lot safer here than I ever did in Bucharest. I had already seen a few tourist groups. Documentation of my climb up the mountain:





Statue at the top:


And a view of Parliament across the river:


I ventured down the hill and through a residential area (which was beautiful and people were out, watering/mowing lawns, walking dogs and kids -- it was nice). Through another park and some streets I came upon an elevator. Yes, an elevator. I looked up to a massive cliff face on top of which I knew was Castle Hill. At first I told myself no way was I going to pay for an elevator when I could walk. But then I remembered that I could barely walk, and paying 200 Forints ($1.20 ish) didn't sound that bad.

On top of Castle Hill all of the museums were closed (Mondays.....) so I basically just walked around for a couple hours:


That's the hill I climbed




There were these guys dressed up funny with their hawks:


That part was real touristy.



Walking back across the river...


By this point I was SUPER tired and all I wanted to do was sit down or something. THEN I remembered that Budapest is built over a complex system of hot water springs. What this meant for me is that scattered throughout the city are public baths (pools, basically) that are naturally heated by the springs underground. I wanted to be in one of those at that very moment. I checked my bag and realized that I had forgotten my "swimsuit" (gym shorts) at the hostel, which was far away. So I set out to find a real swimsuit.

An hour and a half later, after I had given up twice, I actually found one. It was small and very European, but I settled because I just wanted to swim. Badly.

On the way to the pools I saw this:


Happy to know the Hungarians like Spongebob!

At the baths I changed into my suit, took a rinse off shower, and got into the warm, clean baths. I sat there for over three hours and it was AMAZING!!! Just what I needed for my feet and for my tiredness. It was beautiful. On my way back home I came across the Heroes' Plaza.



Which is a huge circular plaza of columns, kind of like St. Peter's Square only not as big. Or with a church. At any rate, I got home, met this cool New Zealander and a French couple, and then happily fell asleep as it began to thunderstorm and rain outside. A nice end to a nice day....

The trip to Vienna the next morning was gorgeous: rolling meadows and plains, wildflowers, deer and rabbits, and these wind generators actually made it more picturesque:



I was excited to get to Austria, be back on the euro (except for the whole more expensive thing) and see Vienna, a city I have heard a lot about.