Catching Up.. Again // Apr 9-19
As previously stated, I got to see my mom for a second time while across the pond. However, not in Praha. Instead we had a girls weekend in Budapest. I took a long bus ride to get to Hungary (yes, I was hungry from all that travel. Can you believe it? Hungry in Hungary. Jokes, I know.) Anyways we went on a walking tour the next day to discover both the Pest side, where our hotel was located and the Buda side which has a large Castle overlooking the Danube. Fun fact: the church pictured below is not only decorated beautifully, but the vibrant tiles on top are actually designed to melt the snow off the roof and are made in Hungary.
We walked along the Széchenyi Chain Bridge (below, first picture is facing the Buda side, 2nd is facing Pest) and after our tour finished we marched across it once more, enjoying the nice weather as we walked to the Great Market Hall. I have to admit, that was a let down. We had some not-so-great food and didn't get our ya-ya’s out with the shopping, but it was still an experience. Just maybe not what we had expected.
After spending the day walking about we decided to relax for a hot second at the hotel and plan something for later that night. We wanted to go out and have a little fun. And by ‘fun’ I mean we found a pub crawl and decided it would be a bonding experience. It did, in fact, turn out to be a blast. Before hopping onto the pub crawl which toured the famous ruin bars of Budapest we grabbed a brat and beer from one of the stalls at a spring market and headed off to meet our guide. We hit a few cool places, one was an old dentist office and we danced the night away there. It was funny, the two of us out together like that. This just further proves my theory that A. my mom is way cooler than your mom because she made me stay the entire time and even beat me in beer pong (it was her ‘1st time’) and B. that she is and always be my homegirl / older (soon to be younger, right?) sister.
The next day we woke up and decided that the aftermath of the pub crawl was leaving us a bit worn which meant we needed to hit up the famous thermal baths. We chose Széchenyi on the Pest side which was North, so we headed off on the ancient metro with swimsuits in tow. The underground metro is so old that when it was constructed the cars were pulled by horses (ew, can you imagine the smell?) but don’t worry, they’ve since upgraded it to at least the 20th century. The baths were really cool. You could dip your feet into one and realize it was cold and hop into the next and it was burning hot. We hung out at the baths basically ALL DAY. We tried every bath, both inside and outside. We relaxed, people watched, took some fashion notes and critiques, I even tried to get some sun and ended up taking a cat nap on the concrete. We finished our experience off by having a quick bite to eat at the cafeteria. We then trekked back to the hotel, hung out and had dinner at an interesting little place near the ruin bars we had been at on Friday night. It was a good but very plain and basic meal and I think in total probably cost $8 for the two of us to eat, and that included a glass of wine for JP. After the morning we had, we decided it was best to go back to the hotel, hangout and snuggle in the massive duvet.
Oh and I made a monkey out of a towel to try and win some free nights at Marriott because I’m a poor college student. See the picture below. After many years of cruising, I have found that I too have what it takes to wrap towels into animals hahahah
I got to snuggle with my momma, enjoy breakfast and a few meals with her, stay in a hotel (it’s such a luxury to have towels and linens when compared to some of these hostels I manage to find..) and overall just have a great and relaxing girls weekend. Sunday morning after we enjoyed breakfast she even snuck me onto her river cruise boat. Of course I had a cocktail at 11am and enjoyed some free lunch and candy before I shipped off to the bus station and began yet another long bus ride-journey home to Praha.
But wait, there's more. The Thursday after Budapest I was off to another destination...Irelandia! Dublin, to be exact.
The first night there we went to the Temple Bar and ended up eating at The Old Storehouse (I HIGHLY recommend if you ever have the chance). I got a Guinness and bangers and mash and may or may not have fallen in love with both. Plus, LIVE music. It was a great first night/meal and may have spoiled the rest of the trip for me. Except, not really, because... Ireland!
Friday morning we woke up to board our bus at 6:50am to the beautiful Cliffs of Moher. We had a long day ahead of us. We wouldn’t return until 7:30 that night. But we made many stops along the way. First in the small fishing town of Kinvara, pictured below. We wound our way through the beautiful green countryside and visited a church (I can’t remember the name. Super lame, I know!) before visiting what our guide called the ‘mini cliffs’ and stopped in Doolin for lunch where I got seafood chowder. After our lunch stop we arrived at the Cliffs of Moher and boy were we lucky. Not only was the view breathtakingly beautiful but the weather could not have been better/more clear. In fact, all weekend it was sunny with no sign of clouds or rain.
On the way back they played Warhorse and we all realized how tiring the 12+ hour excursion had been as we started dozing off. After we arrived back in Dublin we took quick naps and decided it was time to go out and experience some of the nightlife. We went to a few pubs with music before calling it a night.
On Saturday we followed the itinerary and advice from my old cheer coach and wandered around Dame St and Trinity College and surrounding areas. We got lunch at KC Peaches, took some more naps (traveling is exhausting! What can I say?) and finally pulled it together to go on the Guinness Brewery tour. It reminded me a lot of the Bacardi Factory tour that I did in San Juan last year. It’s like Disneyland but instead of rides there’s beer. The whole place was awesome. They had a lot of interactive areas including my personal favorite, “Pour the Perfect Guinness” which we received diplomas for after completing the ‘course.’ Afterwards, we headed to see some live music at the pubs in Temple Bar and by the end of the night had toured most of the area, seen a few acts and even scored some free food from what we deemed “The Real Housewives of Dublin.”
All in all the two weekends were just perfect, especially following my extensive spring break plans. My only wish is to have more time in each place. Heck, I never want to leave! So until the next overdue post, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed my random tidbits!