03.

Today unexpectedly became a really fun day! I met Sarah at Szimpla to walk around the market and we ran into Caitlin, Mimi, Dianne, Valentine, and Marie there! They said they had seen my pictures from the week before and decided to come. Sarah bought some jam and chocolate peanut butter to bring back to her family, as well as truffle butter. We got to try all of it and it was really good - freshly made!

Szimpla from upstairs

Afterward we decided to make it over to the Buda side to check out an abandoned church that Sarah heard about. We explored the Buda side and finally ran into the church - it was the Tower of the Church of Mary Magdalene. On our way there we stopped and took pictures of a church we ran into called the Reformed Church in Budapest.

The Tower of the Church of Mary Magdalene

Reformatus Templom [Reformed Church]

It was nice to just walk around all day with Sarah - she's my adventurous travel partner. She's always down to just explore the city. It was gorgeous weather today - sunny with a nice cool breeze. After walking around for about three hours, we decided to go back to our favorite place as of Thursday, Pointers Pub for happy hour 1L beers. It's hard to resist when the weather's so nice! On our way over there, I ran into Seyda and I'm so happy I did because she's leaving really early tomorrow morning for Barcelona and won't be back to Budapest until after I leave. Seyda's from Turkey - one of the coolest girls I've met here! She has so much energy, always positive, and extremely caring! 

Seyda and I saying goodbye. I'll meet her again some time in my life on a visit to Istanbul. 

Sarah and I decided to get Ben before going to Pointers because we know his two flat mates, Anthony and Dany, are in Croatia so we were hoping he would be around in the flat. We rang up to his room, but we got no answer so we assumed he was out. Once I got wifi at Pointers, I texted him just telling him we were there and he said that he was on the free walking tour with a group of people, but would stop by as soon as he could. He got there right as we were finishing our beers - he said he left the tour early because it was kind of boring. We hung out for a little while longer and then decided to part ways to make dinner. We made plans to meet back at my place around 9 to go check out a outdoor pub, Ankert.

Pointers Pub Happy Hour! 1L beer for 490ft [$2.20]

Sure will miss how cheap life in Budapest is. Ben and Sarah came over around 9 and we headed down the street to Ankert - it was about a ten minute walk from my place. The pub was awesome! There was an outside area and then smaller inside areas with couches. The pubs here are all so interesting and different because they really don't have much to them. A lot of them are made from old junk and simple artwork, but that's what we love about them. They aren't super fancy, but just relaxing and interesting.

Main bar outside at Ankert Pub.

About 30 minutes after we got there it started downpour raining, thundering, and lightning. It was cool because we were already sitting inside, but we had an open window next to us so we could hear the rain and the thunderstorms. Camillo joined us after about 1.5 hours. We just talked and hung out there, and then ended up leaving around 12:30 when they were closing. It wasn't too busy because it was raining and because it was a Sunday night, so they probably wanted to close early. On our way home, Sarah and Ben stopped at the infamous falafel place by my flat and ordered falafels for a late night snack. I wasn't too hungry/didn't want to pay for it, so I didn't get one.

I've been having so much fun these last few days just exploring the city even more and continuing to find new places to check out. It would take me so many more months to see everything here in Budapest - it's such an  incredible city! Tomorrow I will begin packing up my things, and get ready for our last Monday Morrisons night! Morrisons was the first club I went to when I arrived here in Budapest, and it will be my last late night club here. Starting and finishing Budapest at Morrisons. Seems appropriate. Ben has been to every single Monday Morrisons except for two. I'd say that's some extreme dedication. I only went to about four or five over the course of the semester. Tuesday we are planning a pub crawl with a group of people to ruin pubs we haven't been to yet since they opened for the nicer weather. Should be a fun last day here in Budapest! See you soon, America. Not quite sure if I'm ready, but I guess at some point it was bound to happen. 

xx