A Special Semester in Budapest

Right after a wonderful trip to California, it was time for me to start my abroad semester in Budapest. While I flew from California to Budapest, my parents also flew from Thailand to the same destination. We planned to meet and travel before the BSM (Budapest Semester in Mathematics) began. It was my and their first time traveling to Budapest, and it was quite special because they had never been with me when I needed to move in before.

I arrived a day before my parents and someone from the program picked me up and dropped me off right in front of a creepy building where my surprisingly fancy room is located in. I also met Lauren, my roommate, on the same day, and we went to explore the area near the apartment together. A day after, Maria also arrived at the apartment. We had chatted for a bit before telling them I would go on a trip with my parents for five days. (Disclaimer: we all arrived at the apartment like two weeks before the language program started, and the language program was 2-week long, followed by the actual math program.)

My parents and I met at the apartment where I stayed. We then walked around the area to see if any places could be helpful for my study, for example, Ervin library, which was right next to the apartment, small cafes, supermarket, and the language center where I would start my language study. I marked all the places I wanted to go on the map, and I believe that I went to all of them. Our strategy was to travel to spots that are closed together, and you can clearly see from the map. However, I would love to recount my memories without the order of places I have been to because I simply forgot what I did.

New York Cafe is a place that we didn’t expect to visit because we are not cafe people. However, the place had gone viral on the internet even before we went to Budapest. It was claimed to be one of the most beautiful cafes in the world, and people were right about that. The place was gorgeous, and the atmosphere was perfect for hours of sipping and enjoying desserts. A band played some classical music also, but we, unfortunately, were seated behind the band.

Well, that was one place in Pest. Geographically, Budapest was separated into two parts: Buda and Pest, by the Danube river. Pest is more lively and packed while Buda is more peaceful and where the fancy houses are. I stayed and went to the BSM program in Pest, but my roommates and I loved to walk across the bridge from the central market to the park in the Buda side. The first places we went to were the Matthias church and the Fisherman’s bastion, where we could see the view of the Danube river very clearly. From there we could walk to the Buda castle, but we didn’t do that on the same day yet. The rightmost picture was when we walked along the street to the Buda castle and was stopped by several lovely shops nearby.

When we went to the Buda castle on a different day, we decided to go into the museum of history, which is huge and full of an incredible collection of paintings. I went to the Buda castle with my BSM squad after that too, but we went to a smaller museum that is more about the Hungarian culture and the history of the castle construction. Besides that, there was another museum that we went to, the museum of fine arts around the Heroes’ square. That one has an even more extensive collection of paintings, sculptures, and also Egyptian antiques. We also went to the cafe of the fine arts museum and ordered some hot chocolates because of the cold weather outside. Hungarian hot chocolates were really rich and quite creamy, but I was not a big fan of that much fat in a drink.

Talking about moving in, my parents didn’t actually help much because I was there earlier, so I had finished most of the tasks I had to do. However, they did help me with grocery shopping. We went to the minimart downstairs and bought lots of ingredients for cooking. And, even better, we went to the central market, which is 5 minutes from where I lived, and bought fresher vegetables and paprika. They had like a ton of paprika sold in the market.

One of the things that people should do when they visit Budapest is to go to a thermal bath. We did go to the Széchenyi thermal bath but didn’t go inside. (However, later, I went there with my roommates and spent like 4 hours in their 38 different pools there.) The thermal bath is close to the Heroes’ square, which is very spacious and beautiful. Nearby the square is the Vajdahunyad castle. It is also called the Dracula castle because it looks like one. The castle was so old and pretty, but there was nothing much inside. We enjoyed the castle from the outside more. Behind the castle is the ice rink. It was winter when we were there, so we could see hundreds of people ice skating. None of us could skate, so we just went to the corner of the rink to get a hot cider and hard pretzel instead.

Some restaurants that we went to were Tom George and Japanika. The first one serves Italian foods and has a good review on Google. We ordered a pizza and pasta, which were really nice. Japanika was okay for us but definitely not the best Japanese food we ever had. I know you may wonder why I wouldn’t talk about any Hungarian restaurants. I did go to some with my friends but not with my parents because they were not very keen on trying different cuisines. Moreover, Hungarian restaurants A Hungarian restaurant that I went to that I felt like the price was reasonable is Kek Rosa (blue rose). The savory pancake there was awesome!

One of the gorgeous places we went to is the parliament. The view outside was very pretty when I went with my parents in the evening. The sky was purple, and the golden lights from houses were so bright. Peem (my Thai friend in the program) went inside together later and got to see the meeting hall and the famous crown. My family and I had a wonderful time in Budapest. Little did we know that the time in Budapest would be the last international trip in 2020 and 2021.

There were a couple of places that I went with my BSM friends, and one of them is the Busójárás, the Mohács Carnival. I went there with Peem, Davia, and Yichun by bus. The carnival was meant to be frightening because the meaning of the carnival was to scare off the bad things. People there would wear demon masks and run around teasing the tourists by pouring feathers and powder to them.

Another interesting place we went to was the Buda caves. Surprisingly, Buda has a lot of caves underground. We went inside the caves to see natural stalagmite, stalactite, and several deep holes there. After visiting the cave, we went to the 58 cafe where we tried Galoush (Hungarian soup) and sweet Hungarian pancake. In the backyard of the cafe was where the cable car to the Elizabeth lookout is. A bunch of BSM kids went on the cable cars and climbed up the Elizabeth lookout. The view up there was so amazing that we stayed too long, and the cable was already closed. We thus had to walk down a bit and took a bus home, but the day was overall fun and beautiful.

We got kicked out of the country on March 15 because of the COVID-19. It was sad for all of us to leave, but that was the best for us. We continued all the classes online through Zoom. Although that online learning was fine, we did miss out on many experiences that could have happened. We need to revisit Budapest someday!! Let me end the post with pictures of myfriends and me preping for our dinners!