Sav: So today we set off to explore the area around our hostel. We are staying right near a main center of the city called the Octagon which is all hustle and bustle and fun. We found some traditional Hungarian Pancakes down the road which turned out to be a very thin folded crepe filled with chicken and smothered in a fluorescent orange sauce… Which is about as fun as it sounds.

Meaghan: Her first reaction to these orange chicken pancakes was “Um…are these supposed to be lukewarm?” She was not all that impressed, but I thought they were pretty good!

S: They weren’t the worst but it was a very weird breakfast. Next we sat down and mapped out everything we wanted to do in Budapest and how long it would all take. We quickly realized that what we had booked here would not be enough time. After a quick chat with Fables and Minion (a couple of the people who run the hostel) we had booked a few extra nights. With our accommodations taken care of we went on to our next adventure!

M: We went caving! I had visions of being sandwiched in a long tunnel, unable to move. We got all geared up in coveralls and helmets and walked through the woods to the cave entrance. I was pretty shaky at the start, which Savanna found endlessly entertaining. After about five minutes and a few deep breaths, I was loving it. We crawled, slithered and we sucked in our toast and beer bellies to get through all sorts of tight spaces. There were a few particularly small spots that I thought “Nope there is no way I am fitting my head through there, let alone my shoulders!” It took some teamwork to get through. At one spot in particular, the wedgie, you have to slide up a slanted and slippery narrow opening for a bit, then grab a handhold and be pulled straight up by another person. There was a lot of wiggling around and bad words. The tight spots were challenging but it was so exciting to come out the other end.

We also stopped in what our guide called the theatre. It is a big cave about 50 metres under Budapest and looks like a theatre, complete with a stage and seating but all completely natural. The group gathered around, we turned off our headlamps and we sang a few songs, like “In the Jungle” from “The Lion King”. The whole experience was surreal.

S: Every singe minute was so much fun. I knew Meaghan was worried in the beginning, but I also knew she would love it afterwards. And straight off the bat you could tell she was having the greatest time. It was a huge sense of accomplishment to do something so different. Our guide, Solid, was such a jokester! He bounded around in the cave, and chanted and cracked jokes constantly, which brought a great feel to the whole thing and relaxed the nervous people quite a bit. Also I was behind a girl named Maddie who was afraid, but hilarious in her colourful repertoire of swears. The combination of Solid and Maddie resulted in me laughing my way through tiny tight spaces. I had a moment where my arm was stuck underneath me and my shoulder felt like I needed to dislocate it to get through the tunnel, blood was rushing to my head and all of a sudden I hear Maddie up ahead of me say something totally shocking and I just laughed in disbelief at my situation. Stuck in a tube. 50 meters underground. Laughing.

As a group we all felt so invincible, it was incredible for all 12 of us to feel like this all at once. We went to a restaurant after this and ordered 12 waters and 12 Hungarian Goulashes, which turns out is kind of like beef stew. Laughing and learning about our new friends has been such a highlight of this trip. Then we made our way back to the hostel to meet up with a bunch of the other hostellers who were heading out to some ruin bars.

M: The ruin bars were so cool! Apparently they’re called ruin bars because the buildings were abandoned after WW2 until the early 2000s when people started putting in bars. They were huge and every room was so different. At one bar, there is a person who walks around selling carrots…why? We’re still unclear on this one. Savanna wondered aloud what her job title is, so we had some fun with that.

S: We started at Retox, but ended up at one in particular I loved called Szimpla (The carrot bar. Again… Why?!) Every new room had crazy stuff in it and there was an open courtyard and just the coolest decorations everywhere. Minion described it well, saying that “It’s kind of like Instagram and Pinterest just smeared everywhere.” She was so right, there were a million things to take pictures of, but unsurprisingly my phone was dead so I was out of luck on that front.

Guess we’ll just have to go back! No complaints from me…

S&M