Life, Death, Love; Budapest, Romania, Paris

The fact that this blog has lacked being updated in such a long time means that it will be a great struggle to do it now. But I will try. The first of my springs break was a trip planned by myself and my roommate Colleen to visit Romania, Paris, and Budapest. On March 27th we ventured out the front door onto a flight from Larnaca to Bucharest, Romania. After entering the biggest joke of an airport, we shuffled outside into the night. Taxi zoomed past and men ran up to us begging us and shoving us towards taxis. All of it overwhelming we tried desperately to find what looked to be the most realistic taxi and jumped in. It was painted bright yellow, had the black chequers, and a taxi light box on the top. By any NORMAL standards a taxi. Once in the taxi the driver turned the meter around so we couldn't see it (red flag number one), asked us if were from america traveling alone (red flag number two), and if we were prepared to pay the 300 leu price (ding ding ding red flag number three). Three hundred leu is the equivalent of 100 US dollars to drive 5 minutes. We began to refuse tell him we weren't prepared to pay that amount and that it should only be about 15 leu! Then the door locks slammed and we realized in panic we were locked in a fake taxi in Romania at midnight. The driver began yelling at us saying he was going to drive us to an ATM so we would take out more money. We refused again this time screaming for him to let us out. At one red light he even took off his seat belt whipped around and tried to grab at us. We had enough and pleaded with him to let us out at the next stop. He obliged only letting us go if we gave him 100 leu (still a ridiculous amount). So there we stood two young american girls, stranded at midnight in Bucharest,Romania. Nothing was open, street lights were few and far between, and communism hung around every corner. Throughly frightened and unprepared we called the hostel where a wonderful employee stayed on the phone with us until we finally made it. The hostel wasn't much better unfortunately and we ended having a room that also served as a hallway for guest........no sleep gained of course. But one thing was gained that I wouldn't discover till later, a parasite. From the bed I gained HUGE welt bug buts covering my body that continued to multiply the whole trip. The next morning we woke at 4:30 am and loaded into a real taxi and off to paris we were!

Paris was a completely different animal. I fully understand why it is called the city of love now. Its just a purely magical city with so much beauty and charm. The first day we landed we visited the district of Montmartre. A small village area at the top of parisian hill with a HUGE church at the top. You can see the whole city from there and it was extremely breath taking. We hit the hay early in a lovely hostel with our crazy roommate. A middle aged women returning from her two month trip to India. We lovingly called her crazy pants even though ironically she never wore pants in the room, gross. The next day we decided to indulge in a guided hop on hop off bus tour. A great way to see all the main monuments in the city. If you can think of a parisian monument, chances are we saw it. Its cliche yes, but my favorite was the Eiffel Tower. At night especially there is nothing to compare it to. We even saw a couple get engaged! Another success of the trip was adventuring into the Louvre for free! As long as you have an EU student ID it is completely free. We had already hear the stories of the endless Louvre and so we decided just to hit up the highlights. Although all the statues were amazing, one stands out for me, the winged victory. Very moving, and very large. Stepping a little outside the comfort zone we also entered the Parisian catacombs home to literally thousands of skeletons. The walls are literally created out of skulls. It was long and tedious not too mention the tightest spiral staircase ever, but really amazing to see.  And last but not least of the Parisian adventure..........WE SNUCK INTO A JUSTIN BIEBER CONCERT. Yes and I enjoyed it thoroughly, I regret to say but its true. Just came up randomly when we searched Paris and the date but how could we resist a slice of home?!

Our last leg include a trip to Budapest, a city I was truly amazed by. I had never really heard that much about the city before jumping on the plane and so my expectations were relatively low. But this city was honestly so completely wonderful I can't believe I had never heard about it before. There was so much to do and see I could have spent a month there easily. It was really lively and just all around fun. The hostel we stayed in really made a difference, its called The Loft, and honestly I would never stay any where else. The staff is amazing and the location impeccable. We did our own tour Budapest seeing as it is a walking city. And we even got to go in the thermal baths they are famous for! So relaxing and gorgeous, they are outside and modeled after the roman baths. One more important note is the FOOD! So insanely good! The hostel suggested this one restaurant and we literally almost ate every meal there. I can't get over how cool this city really was.

However travels back were not so easy. After our time in Romania we wanted to avoid it as much as possible but we knew we had to go back through it for our flight home. So we ventured to the train station to try and get a train to Bucharest. Turned out it was a 15 hour train ride and we ended up loosing a day in Budapest just to get to our flight. Such a major bummer, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Throughout the night we encountered many passport control points, men banging on the doors yelling romanian, and a very unfriendly conductor. Overall I'm not a huge fan of the romania I experienced. I'm all for second chances but this time I'm not so sure.

This is the abbreviated version of these journeys as to write it all down would be an impossible task. However, I look forward to sharing more with you all on my return home. Love much, MoMo


Next trip: MALTA

Eiffel Tower

Example of Famous Hungarian Stick Work

View from Fisherman's Bastille, Budapest