Budapest

On August 13th, at 11:40pm we left Munich and took an overnight train to Budapest. We were having so many problems carrying around the enormous and heavy backpack that we had resulted in dragging it along the floor of the train station.
Right before entering the train, while waiting on the platform, I sat on gum!! I was so tired at this point that I didn´t want to deal with cleaning it until we arrived in Budapest, so Mikaela gave me an old receipt she had in her purse and I covered the gum in the receipt so I wouldn´t stick to everything I sat on. Needless to say I looked a bit ridiculous walking around with a receipt stuck to my butt.
We had tried to reserve a private, 2 bedroom, room on the train for us, but they were all sold out. So instead we had to reserve a 4-person room and sleep with strangers. Luckily there was only 3 of us in the room: me, Mikeala, and a random German Lawyer man.
Once we arrived in Budapest, we left our stuff at the apartment and set out walking to the Central Market, Budapest´s largest market, built in 1890. The ground floor sells all types of foods, including typical Hungarian specialties (paprika, Palinka, Unicum, Hungarian goose liver,  kolbasz, pastries, etc), as well as fruits, vegetables, cheese and meats. The upper level houses a number of souvenir and typical Hungarian merchandise shops where you can buy embroidered tablecloths, painted kitchenware, hand crafted boxes, leather goods, and many other products.

  We bought some souvenirs, food, and some poppy seed (makosh) pastries.  From there we walked across the Liberty Bridge (also called the Freedom Bridge) to get over to the Gellert Hill.

We climbed up Gellert Hill to the Liberation Monument, which was erected in 1942 after World War II.  The monument is of a woman holding an olive branch (a symbol of peace).
We had a great view of the city:
Our original plan was to eat the Hungarian pastries at the top of the hill, but unfortunately it started raining while we were climbing up. Before we realized it would rain, we wanted to go to the Szechenyi Baths, so we both had our bathing suits and towels in our bags.
Since we really wanted to eat the pastries on the hill, we sat, wrapped in our towels, on a bench to enjoy our delicious treats.
Later that evening we went out for a night on the town. We got off to a rocky start when we arrived at the metro station closest to the apartment and realized it was closed. We decided to take a taxi. Taxis in Budapest are tricky. In order to get a fair rate you must call a taxi company and order the taxi. If you hail a taxi off the street they will rip you off and charge you outrageous prices, unless you bargain with them before hand. So after bargaining with a few taxis we finally found a taxi driver who would take us for a decent price.
We had a great time dancing in the Hungarian discos (aka. clubs).
The following day, August 15, we went to the Szechenyi Thermal and Medicinal Baths, the largest medicinal baths in Europe. The bath complex consists of many different baths, both indoors and outdoors, all of different temperatures with different healing and medicinal properties, and the water is supplied by two thermal springs.

We spent the day relaxing in the baths and soaking up some sun.
After the baths we got ready for a night at the Sziget Festival, one of the largest music festivals in Europe and the world. It is a week long festival that takes place every August on an island in Budapest, and generally has about 1000 performances each year. It attracts international bands that perform on 5 large main stages and 14 smaller stages throughout the week. This year it attracted almost 400,000 visitors, where 70% of them were from outside of Hungary. Many people buy full week passes to the festival and camp out in tents on the island for the whole week.
Some of the well known bands and performers this year included: Lily Allen, Snow Patrol, Fatboy Slim, JET, The Prodigy, Placebo, The Offspring, Faith No More, Armin van Buuren, Eric, Prydz and Paul Oakenfold.
In previous years it has bands such as: Foo Fighters, Green Day, Oasis, Bloodhound Gang, Shaggy, Basement Jaxx (which I saw when I was at the Sziget Festival in 2004), Scissor Sisters, Good Charlotte, Sean Paul, Nine Inch Nails, Pink, The Killers, Alanis Morissette and MGMT.
The island was completely packed full of people!!

  Mikaela and I had an amazing time! We saw bits and pieces of many different bands, but stayed for the entire performance of Eric Prydz (which was amazing).
  We also had a chance to go for a ride on a mechanical bull:

But the bull quickly kicked us off:
The night was amazing, we had so much fun!
Mikaela left Budapest early the next morning and I was sad to see her go! We had a great week together with so many adventures!
I spent the rest of the day with my brother, his wife and his kids.


That evening I met up with my cousin Jolan to go to the Sziget Festival again. I was so tired from the previous night at the Sziget festival that I didn´t last too long at the festival this time! I still had a great night and it was so great to see Jolan for one last time before I left for Toronto 2 days later.
August 17th, my last day in Budapest, was extremely uneventful as I spent the whole day sleeping, packing, cleaning the apartment and shopping for some last minute things.
On August 18th at 6:45am my brother picked me up at the apartment and brought me to the airport. I had accumulated so much stuff over my 2 month travels that I had to split my belongings into two luggages (I borrowed one from my brother).
I was completely amazed at the amount of stuff I had somehow accumulated during my travels. I left Toronto at the beginning of my trip with a total luggage weight of 18 kg. Half way through my trip I sent 15 kg home with Chad in a duffel bag, and then on August 18th on my way back to Toronto my backpack weighed 19.2 kg and my extra luggage weighed 22.4 kg, making a total of 41.6 kg. Which means that I came home with 56.6 kg in total (including the duffel bag I sent with Chad), which is 38.6 kg more than I had started by journey with. How on earth did I buy 38.6 kg worth of stuff (and carry most of it around with me on my back)??
My flights went well (Budapest-Amsterdam 2 hours, Amsterdam-Toronto 8 hours). When I arrived in Toronto I was completely exhausted from my journey and was not looking forward to going through Canadian customs and waiting for my luggages. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at the customs counter and found Jon Borrelli, my friend Dan Borrelli´s twin brother, as my customs officer!! We were so surprised to see each other (the first thing I said to him as I walked up to the counter was ¨what are you doing here??¨). So needless to say, my trip through Canadian customs was a lot more pleasant and hassle-free than I had anticipated.
My parents were waiting for me when I came out to the arrivals hall and I was so happy to see them! It was good to be home.
I had a wonderful trip filled with many new adventures, good friends, amazing experiences and an endless amount of incredible memories. I am so grateful that I was given the opportunity to take this absolutely amazing trip and these memories will stay with me forever.