Buda is the pest

Consistently inconsistent... and I'm sorry for it.

Well in the past week, I have been in four countries, taken 5 flights and got stuck in metro under Budapest. Busy I know. So busy in fact that I'm writing this a couple days late but was determined not to miss a week because so much has happened. We left Athens two Friday's ago and I went with Josh, Cj, Zoe and Emily to Budapest. Flying in to Budapest we saw so many colorful farms of what I am assuming was lavender. It was raining when we got there of course. We took a 30min bus to get to the metro which we took for another 30ish minutes to our destination. We stayed in an apartment about 200ft from the Basilica. To get to our apartment we had to enter a code for the main gate of off one of the main streets in Budapest. From there you walked across an open courtyard to our cozy yet elegant apartment. No one else was staying in that building. Of the 50 or so apartments that must have been in that building only 4 or 5 were occupied including ours.

Budapest was a whirlwind of action and looking back on it, it kind of blurs together. I chose Budapest because I thought that the likely hood of me going back to Eastern Europe was very unlikely and when I left I was looking up housing prices for district 5 in Pest. So yeah I loved it. It's hard to communicate through writing how a city or a culture impacts you, but Budapest had that "it" factor that left floored after every steps (trust me there were a lot steps, we walked a lot, on our feet, it hurt). The Hungarian people are so tall! The average height for the men must have been over 6'2". Also the people in Budapest were so fashionable. Even the little kids had matching clothes or even sport coats.

We went to the public baths in Budapest which was incredible. It's pretty much a water park exclusively for adults. It far exceeded any expectations that I had going in to it. While I was there I got my first message. The other days were spent exploring both the Pest and Buda sides of the Danube. There was one bar in Pest that was insane. In Budapest there are garden bars that convert empty courtyards in to bars. The one we went to was huge. It had 8 different bar counters and held over 600 people. The vibe of the bar really reminded me of Austin. It was very grungy with weird art but really fun with really nice people. The next night we went to the old castle on the opposite side of the Danube and looked out from the castely walls over the Pest side of the city. It was very picturesque. and sis something that I will remember for the rest of my life. We also went to a wine tasting festival held at the old palace. It was a very classy affair and kept anticipating a run in with James Bond.

Currently I am in Italy but all of those details will come this weekend (Lord willing). I love and miss you all.

Continually blessed,
Chris Costenbader