Bittersweet. Last Day.

SO EXCITED! Throughout our planning process, we knew we would schedule Friday to be our free day. We could meet with people in the area or plan an event. As a class we ended up choosing the Budapest Zoo.

The Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden

Sheryl was able to work her magic, and we met with Zoltan Hanga, spokesperson at the Zoo. He gave us a private tour, giving us all the details about the Budapest Zoo. He told us about the history, architecture, animals. He seriously can sell this all with his passion and desire to inform people.

Zoltan giving us our private tour!

We started our walk to the Orangutan and Gorilla exhibit, where Zoltan told us the history of the zoo and Botanical Gardens. He also talked about the new baby gorilla, which is now ready for visitors!

Baby gorilla with momma – absolutely precious!

We were able to watch the animals interact, not only with the new baby, but also with each other. We also witnessed the zookeepers cleaning one of the exhibits and the interaction between the zookeepers and the gorillas.

Zoo keepers and gorilla interacting during the cage cleaning.

After a lengthy informative time in the monkey area, we meandered outside to view other animals. The zoo is open year-round so there are buildings at each exhibit for the animals. Outside we were walking passed the hippopotamuses. I rushed ahead to a low-fenced area to get relatively close to where they were napping. Apparently I interrupted their sleeping and they woke up. Once they raised their heads, I realized just HOW close I really was.

I accidently woke the hippos.

They opened their mouths, and I literally could have brushed their teeth. Well, to be honest, my first reaction was to scream like a little girl ­– which I did – and then I began taking a lot of pictures. Really, they just wanted to be fed, something completely frowned upon in the Indianapolis Zoo, but not so much at the Budapest Zoo.

Hippo want a teeth cleaning?!

I have watched plenty of documentaries with my Dad, and I have learned that hippos aren’t really as friendly as they appear to be. Truthfully, they enjoy snacking on people.  So I was a bit intimidated.

We cut through the Hippo building, and they followed us in. We got to watch them swim around, which really consisted of them bathing themselves and just lying in the water.

Very observant hippos, they watched our every move – perhaps they were contemplating dinner?

Outside, on the other side of the exhibit, we passed the zebras and pink flamingos. The Budapest Zoo has one of the largest flamingo exhibits. Here, we also passed the elephants, which were very playful. It may have had something to do with the people next to me chucking apples over the fence for them.

Elephant exhibit – most playful elephants I have seen.

I wasn’t expecting the rhinoceroses to be so tame, or quiet. I am not sure what I was expecting from them honestly. One was circling his pen, while the other napped. A large quantity of food was in the middle of each pen for the rhinos.

The white rhinoceros is the featured animal at the Budapest Zoo.

The zoo is in the middle of the city, near Heroes Square, Vajdahunyad Castle, the Grand Circus, and the Széchenyi Bath, which I talked about last night. Walking through the exhibits you wouldn’t expect to be inside a city. Each exhibit is divided into a different region: African, Arctic, etc.

We stopped outside the giraffe house for some more history and information. Again, this is another day where I am glad that all information is being downloaded onto my computer so I can go back. Thinking about it makes me realize that this sound and my pictures will allow me to relive my trip. I am ecstatic about this realization.

I felt so small compared to this longneck giraffe.

On our way over to our next stop, we passed lions, hyenas and bears, and a handful of other animals. I can’t get over the size of this zoo. With more than 2,700 mammals, birds, and reptiles, it is no wonder that this zoo gets over a million visitors each year.

Beautiful lions. Posing, of course!

The bears playing in the water!

We walked into another building, over a grate and through large flaps that reminded me of a carwash entrance. Stepping inside felt like a sauna. I soon found that the large flaps and grate were both used as mechanisms so the animals in this exhibit couldn’t exit. Lemurs and birds roamed freely in here. I was able to get relatively close before they would jump or fly away.

We had a staring competition – the lemur won.

Zoltan not only gave us a private tour, but he was also able to pull some strings to get us behind the scenes with animals. Leaving this exhibit, he tells us he had a surprise! We met up with one of his zoo buddies who took us behind the scenes. We got to go into an exhibit and feed tapirs, alpacaa, and some goats. The tapirs weren’t the most attractive, but they are like dogs. They LOVED belly rubs! We fed them all apples, which was a lot of fun. I felt famous for a hot second; other families were taking pictures and videos of us with the animals.

Tapir getting a belly rub from one of the zoo staff members.

The charging alpaca.

After feeding the tapirs and alpacas, the tour guide told us he had one more surprise for us. I, at this point, was in heaven. I LOVE animals, which is why my original major was zoology. Long story short I am now journalism – but my love for animals has never changed.

Our tour guide pulled a red head boa out of its cage. Then we all had the opportunity to hold it.  Jenny, Jessica, Molly and I all took advantage of this. I didn’t realize just how much I enjoy snakes. Holding this one made me realize that are a fascinating reptile – although I could never own one because I couldn’t handle feeding it.

Me and the boa, who was constantly trying to go up my shirt –photo thanks to Molly.

On our way to the exit, we got to see arctic wolves and camels – albino camels at that.  I love the layout and energy in this zoo. The zoo has always been one of my most favorite get-away locations, but being in one in another country adds a whole new excitement and meaning behind my joy.

Most beautiful animal in the world – arctic wolves!

Camels – albino camels!

Ball State PR alum Julia Sabatine asked us to meet her for lunch, down the street from Avantgarde Group where she works.  I got cold soup, which was amazing; it was like a fruit salad.  I also got a mixture of vegetables, which turned out to be something like the inside of a potpie. It was still, once again, absolutely delicious.

Delicious fruit soup.

We have the rest of the afternoon free. Jenny and I decided to take a little nap –except I couldn’t nap, so I packed – before heading to the Central Market, to finish our shopping. Once we decided to head that way, Sheryl was ready to go as well. The three of us set off down the street to my favorite shopping location.

On our way a lady tried to shove linens into our hands, telling us to take them. I thought this was a bit sketchy. I mean, did she steal these and trying to pawn them off to us? I don’t need another run in at the airport. Turns out she was trying to get us to buy them. She just failed to mention the fact that “take this” meant, “Here, aren’t these nice, BUY them.”

After wondering around for a few hours and bargaining for the best prices, I left with plenty of souvenirs and a beautiful hand sown tablecloth for my mother. It was by far the best sale I received and the most expensive item as well. However, it will look perfect on her table, and I know my mother will love it. I lost Jenny almost as soon as we started shopping, but I ran into Kelsi, Anna and Jess when everything was closing down.

We left for our smorgasbord dinner at 7:30 p.m.  Sheryl was going to meet a friend, so we ventured to the dinner on our own.  You got to choose from 125 combinations of different plates of food, for only  4999 HUF/person. All you can eat and drink for $25!  I am pretty sure we all tasted everything they offered. I’m not sure how we all managed to try it all and still fit in our pants, though.

There was an array of alcohol that was also included in the price. So we had a few, about nine bottles of champagne to celebrate our last night in the beautiful Budapest.

Trófea Bar –Smorgasbord of delicious dishes and free alcohol!

After three hours of relaxing, eating and having a great time, Jenny, Jessica, and I headed to the Inztant, a ruin Pub that Jessica had visited with the Hungarian student from dinner. Anna, Kelsi and Molly decided to head home after dinner – ready to pack and sleep before the adventure home.

As we arrived at Inztant, Jess realized she had left her bag at the smorgasbord, so we drove back to retrieve it and headed back to Inztant. This place was everything that Jess had made it out to be, but I think my heart belongs to Szimpla. 🙂 We left after a few drinks and headed over to Rudas Turkish bath for our night swim from 11 p.m.-4 a.m.

When we got to the bath, we ran into Jacob – one of the guys we met at Szimpla on Tuesday. The four of us hung out. He gave us a tour of the entire bath. The bath has six thermal baths, an underwater massage, a swimming pool, drinking cures (natural water – water fountains), along with both dry and steam sauna chambers. The steam rooms were so hot I couldn’t breathe. The ice baths were so cold I couldn’t stand in them. The different pools were heated at different temperatures. They even had a sleeping room – to sleep. Most amazing place ever!

Throughout the week it is divided every other day for men and women to visit. On Friday and Saturday both genders are welcome to come at the same time to swim from 10 p.m.-4 a.m. We swam around and visited each area more than once. I wondered off at one point to test the different temperatures of the thermal baths. I am pretty sure my relaxing in these spas turned into catnaps.

Around 3:30 a.m. we decided it was best to leave because we realized not a single one of us had finished packing. I was the only one that had started, and I didn’t have much of a head start. We jumped in our taxi, bid farewell to Jacob, and went back to the wonderful Raday utca.

Scrounging around and throwing this and that in each of my bags, trying to remember the protocol of security to make sure I didn’t have a bag too large, too heavy, or something inside that would get me busted. I flew down the elevator just a tad after 4:45 a.m. Oops! Late again. :-\

Levente, our driver from the city tour on Thursday, came to pick us up and packed all of our bags into the back of the van. One of the customs I still haven’t got used too – and even one that I even questioned, I had to ask Csaba and Levente about – is if it is rude to open doors before they opened them? As an American, I am not used to men opening doors. It doesn’t matter where we traveled to or what we were doing, men always opened doors.

We left Ibis Centrum on for the last time. Less than a half hour later we arrived at the airport. Thankfully, we made it in time to beat the crowd to the check-in station. It was too early to deal with a lot of people. Lucky for me, they didn’t weigh my suitcase; however, some did have a few difficulties with the suitcases being too heavy. Rearranging was in order. We ended up switching things into each others bags – or in Jenny’s case wearing extra layers!

Security was a different story. My wish to not deal with crowds soon ended when we it took about a half hour to get through security. I suppose that isn’t too bad, and by now – after six security check-ins – we all have mastered the technique of making it through all the checks quickly.

The departure was seriously depressing; I was not ready to leave. I could stay here forever.

The bittersweet goodbye to the cities of Buda and Pest.