Budapest - Day 1

Hey guys,

Today I flew to Budapest in Hungary with my dad for a little trip away :) I had to wake up at 5am, which is ridiculously early in my opinion! There was this insanely hot airport guy - definitely got the trip off to a good start! The flight was good though even if it was pretty early; I mostly just read my book and napped. I saw a photo on Zoella's Instagram of the view out of her window on a plane a while ago and thought I'd have a go too, although I don't think mine's as cool as hers!

It felt so warm when we landed, I guess because it was so sunny, even though it was only about 10C! While I was in the taxi from the airport to the hotel I noticed these strange houses in the woods on the outskirts of the city. I say houses, they were these odd tents made of tarpaulins with fires outside of them and duvets, clothes and mattresses hanging over a washing line. My dad said they might have been gypsies although he didn't see the 'houses' himself. I can't imagine living like that, I guess if they're happy and that's how they want to live then it's ok, but they must be so cold!

After we'd checked in at the hotel we went out for some lunch at this little traditional Hungarian restaurant down a small back street. The food was absolutely delicious! I had the fisherman's fish soup to start, consisting of these strips of fish (not sure which) in this spicy, tomatoey sauce. Then for my main I had veal slices in this paprika cream sauce with pasta. I deliberately went for dishes I'd never normally eat at home and I'm so glad that I did because they really were amazing. In between courses we were given slices of this rustic kind of bread with chilli/tomato sauce. I thought it was going to be super spicy but it wasn't too bad at all. I'm not exactly sure how to describe the taste, kind of salty and spicy but neither overpowered the other - it was so scrummy! My dad had a bean soup and then a schnitzel stuffed with cheese, bacon and mushrooms, which were both also really tasty.

After lunch I walked round Budapest with dad. It's so flat but also so spread out so you seem to walk for aaaages. The city is extremely beautiful, especially the architecture. I know that's not exactly a normal thing for a 17 year old to say, but I think anyone my age would agree if they saw it for themselves! The parliament building is particularly pretty I think - hopefully we can go round tomorrow or Tuesday as I think it'd be really interesting :) I took a picture of it because I thought it was just so amazing! It's even lovelier at night when it's all lit up, but my camera wasn't good enough to not make it look blurry at night!

We went for dinner at this gorgeous little Italian restaurant near this church. As we were walking up towards it, the bells were ringing (apparently to call everyone to mass) and it just sounded really nice. I had this lovely dish of chilli and garlic king prawns with spinach and ciabatta - it was absolutely amazing! My dad had a pizza - the first he's had since we went to Italy last year (he got so fed up of them he swore to not eat them for a very long time!). For pudding I had my first ever soufflé, which like all the food I've had here, was brilliant. The walk back to the hotel was seriously long but I didn't mind at all - it was just so nice to be on holiday just walking around and enjoying the whole atmosphere of the city!

The money here is so tricky to understand. £1~325 HUF so when the bills come in at about 10,000 HUF it's very very odd. Fun though I think :)

Anyways, I better get off to bed now as I'm so tired! I hope to write again tomorrow and hopefully include some better pictures :)

Lizzie
 xxx