Brasov to Budapest Baby!

First off, shout out to my student blog follower JR and sorry if my tales of vampires kept you up at night!  

Well, it was an interesting evening last night, but let me start with Saturday, my last day in Brasov.  It rained.  A lot.  I went to the train station in the morning to purchase a ticket.  Then I walked around Brasov for a while, sat in the Piata and read when it wasn’t raining.  I wrote some postcards, realized I had no stamps…  I also checked out the fortification of the medieval city (towers and walls).  The guilds of a medieval town used to be responsible for manning a different tower. 

Finally after a long day I headed back to the hostel to get all of my stuff together and head to the train station.   The train finally came and I went to my assigned car and seat and put my bag down… WAIT… my BAG… SINGULAR?!?!?  I realized I was missing my laptop bag, with my laptop, my iPod, my Kindle and my other credit card.  Does anyone recall the OJ Simpson Hertz commercial where he goes flying through the airport?  That was me (yes, just compared myself to OJ Simpson… ).  I raced out to where I had been sitting a low and behold, the bag was still there and then the train whistle blew!  I ran back and jumped on the train!  The ride was 12 hours long.  12 hours.  Do you know how long that is?!?!  I amused myself by watching the new reboot of Dallas, doing some reading and listening to any music that would keep me awake.  I ended up with about 2-3 hours of sleep (Passport Control on the border of Romania and Hungary woke me up).

I arrived in Budapest at 9:30 am and took a cab to the hotel to drop off my stuff since check-in wasn’t until 4.  Well guess what?!?!  The only room that was ready for early check-in was mine!  I dropped my stuff off, changed the clothes I’d been wearing for 24 hours and tried to take a nap (nap didn’t happen, couldn’t sleep).  Then I decided to head to the one of Budapest’s thermal bath houses for a massage and some time in the thermal pools.  IT. WAS. AWESOME.  I went to the Gellert Bath House, which is huge!  It has an outdoor wave pool an indoor swimming pool, a sauna, and a steam room and thermal baths from a natural spring!  Good choice!  Spent a chunk of the day there, then went on a dinner cruise along the Danube River and got the chance to see the sunset over the Buda side of the city.  Then I went to bed!!

Monday… Went on a bus tour around the city.  I hate taking subways because you don’t get to see anything, so usually I’ll hop on a bus tour and do one loop to orient myself.  I did a lot today… can’t recall what though (I saw the Buda Palace).  I do know that it ended by going to see an orchestra perform some Mozart, Liszt, and Vivaldi at a church.  It was quite good!! 

Tomorrow I’m going to hike up Gellert Hill (named after a priest who came to convert people and was killed when pagans (potentially practicing witchcraft) pull him in a barrel with nails and rolled him down the hill) and then on a train for 5+ hours to Prague for 2-3 days!! 

No pics tonight, but I will probably put a WHOLE BUNCH up when I get back.