Since I’ve last blogged, I’ve visited two major cities in Europe. The first was Budapest in Hungary, and the other was Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Both amazing, and both very, very different experiences.

Budapest

The city of Budapest was never one of my priority cities to visit in Europe, but the decision to go was largely based on the fact that our bus ride was $40 CAD, and the hostel for $50 CAD. Thats a price we couldn’t pass up, so Hora and I figured we might as well, and also brought along a friend from the dorms, the more the merrier.

Hora and Greg at a Prague Metro station

I knew very little about Budapest before going to the city, the extent of what I knew about Hungary is that I have a friend from Vancouver who immigrated from it. Fortunately, we found a great walking tour of the city, which taught us a ton of cool things. The city of Budapest is actually split into two, Buda, and Pest. We stayed on the Pest side, where most of the main part of the city lies. The tour was not only one that showed us buildings and monuments, but our tour guide gave us information on the history of the city as well. We were told that the country of Hungary has long been a country that has been controlled by a major power for the majority of its history, always a pawn in the long history of European wars. It had been occupied by the Turks for many years, and only shortly after to be sucked into the Hapsburg empire. Later on there was a struggle for Hungarian independence, in which they were eventually defeated and turned into Austria-Hungary. When World War I came about, Hungary was finally independent, but only for a short while as World War II caused the destruction of a large part of Budapest, and which eventually lead to a communist takeover for the next half of the century. But I think that’s enough of a history lesson for now, and if I’m wrong, don’t get angry, I have a terrible memory.

Our awesome tour guide

When it comes to what I enjoyed most about the city, I’ll actually admit that it had less to do with the city, and more to do with the hostel we stayed at. We stayed at Carpe Noctem, and the people who ran the place gave us an opportunity to experience the nightlife of Budapest much better then I ever could have possibly done on a weekend stay. The hostel was called Carpe Noctem, and was run by Brits and Aussys, and it was definitely the best, and most informative hostel I’ve ever stayed at. Not only did they help us experience the nightlife, but they told us what sights to see, places to visit, and where to get the best food.

A view from Pest, taken on the walking tour recommended by the Hostel

The first day we arrived, I had the flu, so I didn’t go out at night, but during the day we went to get some real authentic Hungarian food. We were recommended to one of the restaurants across the street, and since we mentioned that Carpe Noctem told us about it, they gave us a free beer (the woman from the hostel said Hungary has the best beer, but so far, Prague wears the crown for me). We started off with an onion soup, which I found to be very tasty, but Hora was definitely given too many onions. Next for me was the beef stew, which was very different, but very good at the same time. There ended up being too much for me to swallow, so I packed the rest and eat it later. Hora and Greg were also very satisfied with their meals. After that, we took a walk around the city and headed back to the hostel to rest so we could pack in a full day of exploring for the next day.

Freedom Square

One of my favorite places that we went in Budapest was the Szechenyi baths, which are pools that are both indoor and ourdoor, but both are heated by the underground caves. It was really relaxing, I haven’t gone swimming for a while so it was really uplifting. Oh, and yes, I was definitely the hairiest one in the pool, by far.

Chillin’ with my homeboy

The nightlife in Budapest was great. I’m not so sure how great it would have been if I wasn’t with the guys from the hostel, but because of them, I had a great time. On the second night we were their, they took us all on a pub crawl of the most secret, cool underground places of the city that regular tourists would have a hard time to find. The second place was my favorite, with 400HUF (the hungarian currency, comes out to about $2) tequila shots and fooseball tables. I think after that, most places were a blur, but I distinctly remember having beer spilled all over me by a Hungarian at one point.

First pub of the night

The next night, they took us all out to a restaurant for dinner, but the amazing thing was, they knew the owner, so we were giving 50% off on all of the food, and this was a night end place, so you can imagine how happy I was. I had a salad to start, a steak for the main course, and pie for dessert, and with drinks the whole meal came to about $12CAD, a meal of that caliber would have easily cost upwards of $50CAD. Some of us then went on to a local pub where we drank beer after beer, only to go to another local pub to have shot after shot. That night, we hung out with some really cool Australian girls, and an American guy who’s job was to go all around Europe to every club and basically rate as many clubs as he can. We also ended up hanging out with a Hungarian couple, and half the night consisted of playing the classic drinking game “never have I ever…”.

We had three of these between four girls and two guys

All in all, I had an amazing time in Budapest, thanks Carpe Noctem! For those of you considering visiting, I would highly recommend it.

Amsterdam

Now, Amsterdam is the complete opposite of Budapest in terms of how we had to have our fun (not to mention that it is a completely different city overall). This time, our hostel was terrible, but there was enough to do in the city that I didn’t mind. The city itself is quite beautiful, with the canals in almost every street, and with its unique Architecture, although its not as clean as Prague; I’ve yet to find a city that is. Amsterdam is one of the most liberal cities I’ve ever been to, and it would be the last place I would recommend to my Dad. The thing that I found about Amsterdam is that the bars and clubs aren’t very good, I wasn’t very impressed, but I wasn’t at Amsterdam for the nightlife, I was there for the biking. It is a very different, but interesting city, Austin Powers was right to call them the “freaky deaky Dutch”.

Canal of Amsterdam

One of the first things we did in Amsterdam was going on a Heiniken tour. Heiniken is the most famous brand of beer to come out of Amsterdam, and while in my opinion, Heiniken isn’t the best tasting beer in the world, somehow it is one of the most famous. After going on the tour, I realize its due to its superb marketing, not not necessarily the taste of the beer itself. It cost us 15 EURO to get it, but I wasn’t complaining as I was given about five free beers throughout the tour. Most of the tour was in English, which doesn’t seem to be a problem for the Dutch because it seems like most of them know English as well as their own language.

Taken on the Heiniken tour

One of the most interesting things about Amsterdam was the fact that you could go to a shop, and look at a menu of what type of Marijuana you wanted to buy. People call Vancouver the weed capital of North America, but it doesn’t even come close to how well weed has been interwined into the culture of Amsterdam. Coffee shops are the places that sell weed in Amsterdam, and they are regulated by the government, and taxed accordingly. The philosophy is that people are going to get marijuana whether the government allows them or not, so the only practical solution us to regulate and tax the drug so that it eliminates any criminal influence. I’m surprised these set of laws hasn’t been tested out in other countries across the world.

A menu at one of the coffee shops in Amsterdam

Prostitution is another big part of Amsterdam, something that is legal and regulated here. The area that is most famous in Amsterdam is arguably the Red Light District, where there are hundreds of doors made of glass with women standing waiting for men to approach them and pay $50 EURO for their “services”.The Red Light District is the only place in Amsterdam that I’ve seen that kind of stuff go on, and so if my dad ever had to Amsterdam, I’d know which direction not to take him to prevent a heart attack. It is definitely not a conservative friendly city, I can tell you that much.

Not quite the Red Light District, but close

On one of the nights, we went on the most famous pub crawl in all of Amsterdam, and I would like to recommend all of you not to go. It was 15 EURO, and while I got my moneys worth in drinks, the pubs were terrible. They played mad music, all of them were way to crowded and small, and the people weren’t nearly as interesting as the people in Budapest and Prague (although maybe that was just shitty luck, but maybe I like Eastern Europe more, your call). Oh well, what Amsterdam lacked at night, it made up for during the day.

Dutch pizza pancake, delicious

The food in Amsterdam was great, and the biking was even better. We rented bikes for three days in Amsterdam, two of the days we used them to get around the city, and one of the days we spent on a Bike tour that we followed from a brochure. The city of Amsterdam is one of the most bike friendly citys in the world, quite possibly the most. The biking trip was one of the funnest things I’ve done in Europe yet, the tour was suppose to take us to many historical sights, but really, we only saw one, which was a windmill, and the rest of them time we spent going to two different cities, Oudekerk and Amstelveen. Oudekerk was a small village with lots of smaller houses, it was exactly as you would picture “Dutch” without thinking of Amsterdam.

Now entering Ouderkerk

Then we decided to keep venturing, and we landed in the city of Amstelveen, which was much larger and more residential, but very different from Amsterdam. We stopped to get food at a restaurant we found at a shopping district, and it was very wierd to have real service again, somewhere that I could actually get a cup of tap water. We also ended up biking by a church that was in session, and tried to get in but the doors were locked, I guess in the Neatherlands, if your late for church, its game over. The bike ride was incredible, we biked 25-30 KM of pure flat lands, riding by canals and meadows, it was a great experience, my favorite in Amsterdam by far.

A man and his windmill

I had a great time in Amsterdam, and although it blew a big hole in my wallet, it was definitely worth it. Amsterdam is a beautiful city, there is a ton of things to do and see, and even if you are easily offended, avoid looking at the Red Light, grab a bike, and have a great time.