I arrived at Budapest-Keleti station in the afternoon. When I exited the station, some guy approached me asking for money so that he could buy some Xanax. There were a lot of homeless people in Budapest. It wasn’t all bad, though.

I checked in at a great hostel for only $19. I did some laundry and went out to find a grocery store for some dinner. Unfortunately, nearly everything was already closed (and the time was just after 8 PM). Luckily, I did find one small grocery store after a lengthy search. I went back to the kitchen in my room and made some pasta and fried the sausages I bought. Then I realized that the sausages were encased in plastic. Probably not the healthiest meal I’ve eaten on this trip…

There was an old Canadian guy living next door to me. Officially he still lived in Canada, but in reality he had been traveling for over 2.5 years. We had some interesting conversations.

I woke up quite late the next morning, at around 12AM. Some people from the hostel came in to inform me that I should have checked out two hours ago. Seeing as I would have had to pay $10 as a late fee, I decided to just stay another night.

It was time for some coffee, so I walked to Gerbeaud, a grandiose coffeehouse in the center of the city.

I had a coffee and a delicious ice cream sundae. I read a bit of Getting Things Done in preparation for college and working to pay for it.

Then I continued on towards Castle Hill. it was definitely not worth paying 10 euros to take the funicular up the hill, so I walked the short distance instead.

I was rewarded with some great views across the river to Pest.

I walked around and admired the architecture for a bit and then decided to head back.

I was going to purchase a Pick salami at the grand market, but it was unfortunately already closed. In fact almost every store was closed. However, just as I was about to reach the hostel, I found a small store that sold Pick Salami. Combined with bread, cheese, and tomatoes, it made for a great dinner and lunch the next day.

The next morning, I got up early and took a train to Vienna.