After waiting for a ride out of Budapest for two hours I was seriously questioning our decision hitch hike in the first place. |
I could go into great detail and spend hours describing our foray into hitch hiking (by the way its now called Mitch hiking), but I'll save your time and just say that it was an adventure to say the least. It was an ambitious undertaking; over 800km round trip, about 20 hours of travel/waiting time, seven different rides, three different countries, and most of the time we had no back up plan. If we hadn't have found rides we likely would have been stuck in that deserted rest stop at the Hungarian border, or left standing in the pouring rain and hurricane force winds at that gas station outside of Zagreb (where we eventually got a ride into the city and opted to throw in the towel and take a train the last leg back to Ljubljana). We met countless people along the way, some young, some old, some spoke great English some spoke none. We even got a ride from a convicted criminal who was just awaiting his sentencing (thats another story in itself). But through all of it, I met some of the nicest people I've ever met and what's even better, is that Julian and I both made it the whole way without being murdered or abducted. Oh and except the train at the end it cost us nothing.
The Hungarian Parliament buildings sit prominently on the east bank of the Danube river and are modelled after the British Parliament. |
Of course, the whole point of this crazy endeavour was to visit Budapest, which, in case you're wondering, is a pretty amazing place and one that I will certainly have to go back to in the not too distant future. A day and a bit is not nearly enough time to see and do half the things there are to do in the city. We walked around for hours and covered a ton of ground but only just scratched the surface. Although, the main attraction in Budapest is the architecture, which includes basically every different style from every period. I'm no expert on the subject, but I can appreciate a nice looking building.
Due to the grey, overcast weather that we had the city looked much better at night. Most of the buildings are impressively lit as well. |
I've wanted to see Budapest ever since I first saw the movie I Spy with Owen Wilson and Eddie Murphy when I was little. The movie is set in the city and as I walked around quotes from the movie were stuck in my head. It was hilarious and awful at the same time.
The spire of the Matthias Church lit up at night. The sky had been grey and bleak all day but at sunset it was finally clear and blue. Bad luck I guess. |
Anyway, that's all for my impromptu Mitch hiking adventure to Budapest. While it wasn't exactly a resounding success it was a trip I will never forget. Things don't always go the way we plan, but then that's where the adventure really begins.
Thanks for reading,
Mitch
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