I cannot tell you the breath of relief we all let free the second we left Italy. Something about the country seemed like it wanted to hold onto us, and if it did we would never leave. Before we even got into Hungary we decided for a layover in Vienna, Austria. After surviving the dangers of France and Italy we celebrated with sleep in one of Europe’s safest cities. I think we slept for hours, I can’t even tell you what the hostel looked like it was such a blur.

We arrived in Budapest in the afternoon, and settled into our Hive themed Hostel. We shared the room with several other women, and slept in pods inserted into the walls. We decided to keep to ourselves in Budapest, I think we were mentally tired of making and losing new friends in a single day.

We found a botanical restaurant nearby where our waitress taught us how to say ‘thank you’ in Hungarian. There were plants covering every surface of this restaurant.

That evening we headed out to several bars. We wanted to see the ruin pubs up close, the first one was bright red and had umbrellas hanging on every surface. We found a 50’s diner which served burgers and beer. We then went to an English karaoke bar, everyone sung songs from Oasis, my friend went up and rapped to Eminem.

The best club in Budapest had a giant oak tree growing through the middle of it, it was so open, dark and loud. There was neon everywhere. When we finally got back to the hostel, there was music playing in the centre. If I had to describe Budapest in one word, it would be ‘loud’.

We stayed up until the cafe opened and we had a huge English breakfast, and pancakes. It was a lot, but we actually ate it all.

We spent our remaining time in the city seeing as much as we could. We went on a Ferris Wheel, where I discovered I was scared of heights. We could see the whole city from that rickety wheel. The rest of the day was spent on a small island in the city, it had a Japanese garden, and many roses.

Budapest was old and classic, every building has hundreds of years of history wrapped up inside it. Although it was ageing, there was also this breath of fresh air, perhaps it was the newness mixed in with the old. Instead of destroying the old and building something new, Budapest instead mixes the two together, nothing is either one of the other - it’s both.