The 14 of us started the journey at six in the morning, riding a mini bus and a car.
The main reason of this trip is to re-new our visa to stay another 90 days in Bosnia. This is one of the way, to go out from a country and re-enter Bosnia. The perfect thing is that, we got to travel to other country. Yeay!
Heading to Hungary, we went through Croatia. The journey from Sarajevo to Budapest took 8 hours driving. So, we arrived in Budapest around 3pm.
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| "Welcome to Hungary" in three different languages, Germany, Croatian and Hungarian. Don't happy, be worry as Hungarian words are known for its longest word in the world. So, tell me which one is in Hungarian? If you spot the word "Magyar", that's the other word for Hungary. |
Searching for the apartment was tough. According to GPS, we are already at the right place. But the thing is we still couldn’t find it. There is no number or any sign of it. We tried to contact the person who was in charge but our mobile phone could not be used to call local number and to use public phone, we don’t have any local coins since we haven’t got the chance to change our Euro cash to Forint money. Catastropha! We wondered around again and again to see if we took the wrong road. But, every GPS (we had two GPS since there are two cars) pointing to the same direction and same spot. But why on earth haven't we found that apartment???
After like two hours going around the place in a circle, we asked help from a local people to make a call to the apartment. And Alhamdulillah, we managed to communicate with the landlord of our apartments. Finally!
That night we went to Heroes Square. Just hearing that name would give you a hint of what kind of place is that.
Yup. Some sort of “Tugu Negara” of theirs. I was so excited when I came here because this place had been chosen as one of reality TV show, "The Amazing Race Asia" Season 2 for its task.
So, this is how this long word comes to relate with the task in the show. Those teams have to pronounce those heroes' name correctly as local people would check if it’s right. Hahaha..Don’t forget to catch your breath,dude!
The next day, we went to House of Terror. It is located in the city. The entrance fee is around 5.5 Euro.
It is originally a building for military headquarter and for collection center and prison during the occupation of Nazi Germany and Communist by Austrian-Hungarian. The building was never modified by its various owner. Basically, inside the building is the show room where they place an old tank, videos on the war and how was life back then, statues, the meeting rooms for the army, army suits for both Nazi and Communist and the most scariest part is in the underground floor which is the old prison. I got to enter and see many kinds of prison. From the tiniest prison that forces the prisoner to only stand in it to the mentally sick prisoner rooms with all the cushions covering the floor and walls. We also entered room where they hang the prisoners. One of us said that he can still smell blood scent. Alhamdulillah, I only smelled stinks.
After done with an indoor activity, we walked through Budapest city. We bumped into a morning market where they sell food, accessories and the most interesting part is we got to see a traditional dance on street! Wuhoo.
The currency for Hungary is Forint. For instance, if you read something like this, “450 ft”, to get the value in Euro, you will have to divide with 270 as I Euro equal to 270Ft. So, it will be 1.67Euro. Most of the stores don’t accept Euro cash but to try at non-local shops is absolutely worth trying.
We make a couple stops at Mozart Chocolate Shop and few souvenir shops.
Comparing to Bosnia, Budapest absolutely offers variety of international food, from Chinese, Indian and Japanese and food franchises such as McDonalds, Subway, Starbucks etc. But here, the only thing that they lack is the availability to find halal restaurant. It is limited unless you go into Turkish restaurant. For this reason, I miss Bosnia already. =)
That night, we visited Fisherman’s Bastion. This place is extremely beautiful for me! Looks like the palace from Disneyland just even better with the lights all over! MasyaALLAH!!
The history of this so called Fisherman’s Bastion is because in the old times, fishermen were protecting this area which is near the river and after them the place received its name. There are seven towers symbolize the tents of the seven tribe leaders that lead the Hungarians into their nation by the end of 9th century.
Since the night was still young, we made our way to the next destination. Here is the view that could stop anyone’s breath!
The parliament and the chain bridge. MasyaAllah like million times!
Random tips I want to share. Dear bride and groom to be, if you guys are reading this, I tell you, Budapest would definitely fit to be your place for honeymoon. It really does! See for yourself. Love is in the air haa…=)
For those who are still have a long way to honeymoon, just enjoy the scenery like us, the wicky wicky wacko Malaysian students. We were crazily snapping pictures that we had this feeling that people can easily recognize where we came from. =P There is a saying that Malaysian crowd is loud and crazy no matter where they are. We proved that it is indeed, true!
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