Leeds to Mannheim

Most of my sixth week in Mannheim was actually taken up by Budapest! After a few days of studying and lecture notes I was more than ready to set off on my long weekend away and, after a 13-hour bus ride, we finally arrived! Despite a distinct lack of sleep and an initial one-hour walk to our hostel, we decided to set straight off into the city and see everything it had to offer.

After wandering round some of the smaller streets and admiring the Budapest architecture we searched for the first building on our list; the central market. This was a huge three, floored market building with an Aldi in the basement! It primarily sold usual market items such as fruit, veg, meat and fish but the upper floor was full of Hungarian souvenirs including traditional dolls and dresses. Nothing really caught my eye, but Raina found lots of things she wanted to go back and buy with the Forint she had left at the end of the holiday. Once we’d looked round we searched for food. This led us to a small restaurant on one of the side streets which served traditional Hungarian food. We shared an appetiser plate which was full of salad, bread and cured meat. We then both had a bowl of goulash which seemed like a must-try. The goulash was lovely and very warming because the day was pretty chilly. The whole meal also only came to about 6 euros which was cheap considering the amount of food.

Once we were full we headed to a free walking tour that was advertised by the hostel. This was a 2-and-a-half-hour tour around the city which explained Hungary’s history and took us round some of the main sights. On the tour we saw Saint Stephen’s Basilica, Hungarian Parliament, Buda Castle, the Prime Ministers House and Fisherman’s Bastion. The tour guide told us all about Hungary’s history; the fact they have never won any wars they were in and how communism affected the country. At the end of the tour we decided that more Hungarian food was in order, so we set off to find a traditional Chimney Cake (Kurtoskalacs). The chimney cake was by far the best thing I ate all holiday and I’m definitely going to try and find a recipe online! The hostel we were in also did a free tea which was a good way to end of the day.

On Sunday morning we left the hostel for 9 to get to the Szechenyi Baths before it got full of tourists. The baths were a highlight of the trip. The area around is a huge park full of beautiful buildings, museums and a lake. Inside the baths are all ornately decorated and have been kept in perfect condition. We were able to try out all of the thermal baths which were each heated to a different temperature, the order pools and the saunas as well as the ice-cold plunge pool. The outside was definitely the best as the surroundings were stunning and it didn’t smell. The inside was lovely, but I hated the smell of sulphur throughout the rooms and didn’t see how people could ignore it and relax in there!

After 3 hours at the baths we set off to find food and explore the city a bit more before our tour of parliament. Every time we walked, I was surprised about how huge the city was and how many new buildings we found. The parliament tour we had booked on was in French as the English tours were sold out and Raina is Canadian so speaks French. I was a bit worried about the tour being in a language I don’t know at all but was really glad that we did it because even without understanding what was being said, getting to see inside was incredible. The building is decorated with 40kgs of gold and there is a room with the crown jewels from when Hungary had a monarchy. That was my favourite room because there were guards in there that did a little presentation thing every 5 minutes which was quite amusing. At the end Raina translated all the facts she could remember and there were a few posters written in English, so I still learnt quite a bit.

That evening we took part in the party hostel activities. We ate tea with the other guests which was vegetable soup and then we went to the pre-drinks. Despite me not drinking, everyone was really friendly and let me join in. It was fun to meet so many people from all over the world. At around midnight we set off to Szimpla which is apparently the cities best ruin bar. The atmosphere there was amazing, and I was so glad I went. There were a lot of rooms, all decorated differently with graffiti, art, plants and random decorations. The music there was terrible though, so I didn’t feel like staying too long. Before bed we went off to a pizza place and I had a Nutella pizza slice because drunk food is always good, even if you haven’t had a drink!

Despite the late bed time, we got up early Monday morning to make the most of our last few hours in Budapest. We went to a lovely café for breakfast where I had a cinnamon roll and Raina had a panini. We then went back to the central market for Raina to buy her souvenirs and we realised that they actually made Hungarian street food there. This gave us a place to come back to get lunch. To make us hungry, we climbed Gellert Hill which is a steep hill with a statue commemorating Hungarian freedom at the top. The view from the top was perfect but unfortunately the sky was too grey to take a good picture. After sitting at the top for a while we went back to the market for food. I had a traditional Hungarian pork dish with cabbage and potatoes which was delicious. We both wanted to try Langos but were too full immediately after eating so we went to Aldi to get tea for the bus first. All in all, my snacks from Aldi came to the equivalent of 80 cents which was amazing. The trip to Aldi had left just enough room for Langos which is a fried dough which can be eaten savoury or sweet. I had mine with Nutella and it was perfect.

We then had an hour-long hike to our bus which was a bit of a pain but was needed since we would then be sat on it for 15 hours! After two buses and a train we finally arrived back in Mannheim at 8:30 am Tuesday morning. Just in time for a shower and quick nap before 5 hours of non-stop lectures!

Me and Elena had also signed up to the running dinner Tuesday night, so I had no free time at all. After I got in from uni she came around to mine so we could start cooking. A running dinner involves going to a different place for each course of your meal and meeting 4 new people at each. We had been given the main and made BBQ chicken, chips and roasted vegetables. After roasting the potatoes for a while, we set off to the first house for our starter. There we had Bruschetta and spent an hour talking to three Germans about the University. At 8, we had to rush back to cook the chicken ready for our guests. We ended up with 5 other guests as one brought his girlfriend. They were all really nice, three from Germany and two from Taiwan and we compared different stories about where our home countries and experiences in Germany. Finally, it was time for my favourite course. We were a bit worried as others we had spoken to had just bought ice cream, but when we arrived we were not disappointed! The cooks were two Canadians and they had made salted caramel dumplings. This was my favourite house too as everyone was so talkative and interesting. The other guests were from Singapore and were really making the most of their semester with one only having attended three classes and instead deciding to visit everywhere possible. I had a great time and didn’t even feel tired despite only having four hours sleep.

The next few days will again be spent working since I’m going to Cologne and Dusseldorf this weekend.