Apart from the near miss of our flight due to the train's delayed departure from Barcelona Sants, the morning went relative as expected. The heat didn't make transporting our luggage any easier, but we survived the 10 minute drag from our hotel. Despite it's hiddenness within the network of Barcelona streets, I adored our stay at the Live&Dream. Definitely Jessy recommended for our next trip here. You will be missed, Barcelona.
The rush was as quick to leave as it was quick to come. We were soon waiting in line to board our plane to, you guessed it, Budapest! I didn't really have much of a chance to become all excited because I was too busy looking for a postbox, except, none could be found. So, I activated the last resort: ask someone local to post them for us. That moment, the scene of the sales girl texting on her phone panned across my view as I skimmed for a potential person to do the job. I observed a little while before approaching, noting her smile and friendliness. There was a good chance she would grant the favour, so I made the move. What great profiling- all she asked was, "are they all ready to send?", and accepted the request in no time. Phew! Done and done. That's one more reason why I hate being in a rush, because imagine how much it would suck to have a stash of postcards all written and ready to go, but no where to post it?! *nightmare* But anyway, no need to freak out- it has been taken care of...this time. Now, the worry is that the girl forgets to mail them or lost them in the process of posting them. Oh, stay positive!
(could this get ANY MORE sketch than Air Asia?)
(that's about as much English as this trip will get...)
(Where we waited while Ivy dealt with the big booboo)
(first thought: Hungarians are BIG people?)
(enjoying my nice cup of hot mocha, though I usually skip all the cream!)
So, Budapest eh? Certainly not where I had expected le Sister to choose out of all the potential cities, but I was as excited as always. I love going to new places, especially those places with tons of history. What's the best way of hearing all the stories and secrets? Walking tours, of course! But before all that could happen, we had to find our place of stay, and you would never guess what big booboo le Sister did this time. Actually, instead of a hotel or a hostel, we went for something else as the time came too close to book anything convenience- an apartment! Booked with Budapestay, the unit was definitely a surprise, because the space was amazing! It felt like home away from home, and probably better than my home in Malaysia because...it had a KITCHEN! Talk about being inspired from seeing a kitchen~ all the things I can whip up for breakfast and dinner! It easily saved us the hassle to find a place for a proper breakfast, and we could have anything we can make! Though, keep in mind, they have several units all over the city, so do make sure you have the right one. The photos below were taken from the Central Gellert Apartment in Buda.
(this looks so mysterious...ly scary at night!)
(our dining table, with the most important WIFI password!)
(what an awesome lighting for the bathroom, except I didn't get to take a nice hot bath :( OH! and they have this super adorable mini washing machine, which took Ivy almost till 2am to figure out how to load and wash. Yes, it had pictured instructions, but HUNGARIAN pictures~)
(what a nice bedroom with the headache aircon that we couldn't get functioning! it's alright though, we survived on fans. no biggie!)
(the living room: yes, that's how we "settle in", everything on the couch)
(if only I had a kitchen like this, I would cook EVERYDAY, or maybe every weekend at least :P)
Side note: To save yourself from all the troubles, book your transportation to and from your stay with the Airport Shuttle service, which can be found just as you exit the baggage claim area. It will be easier than attempting to take the public transit because trying to decipher Hungarian even with a dictionary would be more than a challenge. So, don't bother. Sometimes, it's fine to spoil yourself a little when you travel. After all, you're suppose to be enjoying yourself, and the last thing you want to be doing is panicking because you have no idea where you have taken yourself to.
Getting back to the day, we had such a lazy afternoon that we didn't leave the house until 5:30 despite having arrived around 3pm. That's what happens when you slow down: you slow down some more. So we had to leave the house and just GO somewhere, except, not much research was done about the place. I didn't even know that "Budapest" is actually made of two 'areas': Buda and Pest. I guess people weren't too creative when it came to naming places. Can you imagine if they just ended up combining parts of the names to make the full? "Kerrikitsbroadtown". Horrendously done. But luckily, 'Budapest' turned out okay. The rest of the first evening was spent postcard shopping and riverside photo-sessioning. I just have to say, Budapest has got one of the nicest selection of postcards! Beautiful scenes lined with royal red, blue or gold borders. Those must have been the proudest set of postcards I've sent: well-represented the nice place I had visited!
Except, I didn't keep any to show how pretty they were! *facepalm*
(trams: the easiest way to get around the city! and u wouldn't miss the view~)
(I believe this is the opera house?)
(that had got to be the most hilarious way of preparing pork..."it's like chewing blocks of fat", oh so appetizing @@")
Sidenote: the city of Budapest was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987 that included the Banks of Danube, the Buda Castle and Andrassy Avenue.
(walking along the Danube River for the night view of the city. if you wanna be romantic, here's where to go. from the side of the parliament building, you'll be able to see the Buda Castle better)
(super close-up of the Hungarian Parliament Building~ such a magnificent sight! one of the oldest legislative buildings in Europe and currently the largest in Hungry, this is also where the crown jewel calls home, but the line up for tickets in the morning was too much of a turn off :P maybe next time~)
(Buda Castle- also listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site along with the others in 1987: there's no way of taking an ugly picture from here!)
(Officially listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002, the 3rd oldest metro system in the world, after London & Paris, Budapest Metro Line 1 is also the first system on European mainland. Considering how old it is, not sure how safe it is going at the speed it's going!)
(super escalators that travel at twice the speed of all the other "normal" escalators. this is how they should be, or else we'd never get anywhere!)
("whoo, I wonder what they're selling?" = "I want one" = "Jessy will end up eating most of it"
Chimney cakes- a MUST eat in Budapest, especially original and chocolate :) Day one in Budapest, survived!