April Fools?

This trip was a joke… right?  This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit the city of Budapest in Hungary, and it was definitely a memorable experience, but maybe not for all the right reasons. Coming out of it, I can definitely say that I appreciate home sweet Olomouc more than ever.

I’ll start with the story of my 21^st birthday. On the Wednesday night before we left for Budapest, yours truly came of legal age in the states, so we went out to celebrate at the local bars and our favorite club in Olomouc, Belmundo, after which we walked home in the middle of the night with no qualms about our safety on the street. Budapest, however, is a slightly different scene. While breathtaking during the day, I must admit it’s slightly less secure when the sun goes down. I didn’t have the courage to go out to the clubs any of the nights we were in town, but from the sounds of it, they were targeted for a very different (and more party hearty) crowd than I run with.

Even during the day, Budapest pushed us to the edge of our comfort zones when one of our girls was robbed by a homeless man (don’t worry- a kind stranger chased him down and got her money back) and another hustled out of twenty bucks by a wily cab driver who gave her change in deceptively Hungarian-looking Indonesian bills.

Not to discredit the city- we did have some positive experiences, as well. Our walking tour guide on Saturday morning was truly charming and gave us a very honest, light-weight, and energetic view of Buda and Pest, the two portions of the city located on either side of the Danube. Later that evening many of us experienced historic Budapest at night on a high-class river cruise, and it was majestic enough to make us forget about the mishaps of the day for a couple of hours. There are two side to this city, and it definitely took its sweet time showing us its true splendor.

After a night on the river, we headed for the Szechenyi Thermal Baths for a day of relaxation, and I caught myself comparing our Hungarian excursion to darling Olomouc yet again. While it may be true that Olomouc is a much more comfortable place to spend a semester, I can’t say I regret our weekend in Budapest because in spite of innumerable mishaps, it was an incredible adventure with some truly unique experiences that I never would have been able to find in our little university town. I had only intended to stay at the baths for half a day, then hit up some other attractions, but once we arrived, it was a struggle to leave. The healing minerals in their water create an almost transcendent experience for everyone there. Many of us have been sick for quite some time, but for a few hours in the water, we were flying high.

I’ll make one more note of cultural comparison before I tap out: it’s about clothing and body image. In America, people seem to worry a whole awful lot about how they look and what they wear, but here in good old Budapest, I’m not entirely convinced that the general populous knows what body image is. In the baths we were accosted by hoards of individuals, young and old, slender and wide, meandering about in just about every manner of swimwear imaginable (much of it quite smaller than American styles…). I’m torn between pride of these individuals for wearing their bodies with such confidence, and horror at the sheers masses of skin being shamelessly flaunted.

In hindsight, Budapest was not as horrific as I made it sound in the beginning. Just because we had a rough time doesn’t make it any less beautiful of a city. Though it was nothing I expected, it was everything I needed to get a true taste of European culture. I think we as Americans often get in the habit of viewing Europe through rose-colored glasses, an abode of historic palaces and fancy desserts, and we forget that it’s not that different from the land we call our own, home sweet ‘Murica.