We should have stayed in Zagreb to see the sites. I even have a friend living in the city, but thanks to our magnificent timing (as always) she was out of town for the day. With the hostel prices so high (Seriously, Fancy Hostel, you charge extra for coffee in the morning?) and both of us anxious to get to Budapest, we hopped on one of the first trains out of town and arrived in Budapest late in the afternoon. We were excited to get to the little apartment we rented out for our stay, but that enthusiasm quickly vanished when we found ourselves locked in the courtyard of a building that had signs up for the hostel/guesthouse office but no one indoors to take us to our apartment. This would have been a lot funnier had I not needed to go to the bathroom. We knocked on doors. We tried to break into the locked wi-fi networks. We finally found a nice neighbor to call another neighbor to call the guy we needed to talk to. We were in the wrong location, and had to walk a few blocks, take a tram, walk a few more blocks to get to the right location. Halfway there, we discovered the tram wasn’t running. We weren’t even surprised and hopped on a bus hoping not to get caught without a ticket. We made it, and even better, found a Thai restaurant around the corner from our place and promptly splurged on dinner.
What’s with the plastic cups in the window you might wonder? It was around the corner from our place and I was so impressed with the creativity in these window displays. It’s not the greatest shot (with the reflection and all) but I wanted to share and remember it for later. I told Andrew that I needed cheap decorating tips for our future American home. Don’t be surprised when you come to visit if our apartment is covered in plastic cups…