Day 6

Today we slept in and indulged ourselves until about 9. We finished our packing and said goodbye to our One Hope guide and new friend, Dora. It was finally the last of the painful goodbyes (until tomorrow at JFK but we won't talk about that yet). We rode in a van for three and a half hours into Budapest, Hungary, signed into our rooms and got settled in and then hit the metro. We had dinner at TGI Friday's. Not very Hungarian food surprisingly and we all needed comfort food anyway. Afterward we took pictures and some of us exchanged more money. Hannah paid 100 fortines for use of a bathroom at Burger King. (If you keep the receipt from that, you get 100 fortines off your BK purchase as long as its that day). I was too cheap to pay, so I waited until we found a free place. haha We bought souvenirs and Suzanne scouted out the area to get her bearings. We walked along the Danube River, taking pictures of the parliament building and everything else in sight! We crossed the Chain Bridge. We rode a trolley lift up the side of a mountain and saw the city and river we had just traversed. Once we reached the top, before we could reach the parliament building there was a violinist who answered Carly's request for the Chicken Dance. Being the Americans we are, all 8 of us broke out dancing. After paying him 100 fortines (ironically the amount I had refused to pay at BK) we went through the gates to a beautiful palace-the parliament building.
We took pictures and enjoyed gelato-a favorite treat of ours- and then continued on our journey. We walked further across the city to Saint Matthias Cathedral: BEAUTIFUL at night all lit up. After that we grabbed bus 16A instead of 16. We thought we'd just stay on until it brought us to where we started so we could try again. But that's not how the public transit system does it here in Hungary. We got stranded at the bottom of the big hill waiting for what seemed like forever. When 16 finally came everyone got off and before we could get on, the doors snapped shut in our faces! Melissa banged on the door. Thanks to a kind lady who pointed us the right way, we found the bus stop on the other side of the street going the direction we needed. We took the bus all the way back to the metro and rode back to right outside of our hotel. Without knowing a lick of Hungarian we navigated our way through the city. Needless to say us 10 women felt empowered!
When we got back to the hotel we all met for the last time in mine and Julia's room as always. We debriefed about plans for the cab ride in the morning to the airport, what to expect in reverse culture shock and then we affirmed each other. It was a good final meeting. Tomorrow we fly straight from here to New York. From there Hannah flies to Kansas City, Carly flies to Baltimore (I think??) and I fly to Charlotte. Charis, Laura, Julia, Bailey, Jordan, Melissa and Suzanne all fly back to Tampa. So today was our last full day together. Tonight is my last night with Julia, my little snuggle buddy. We're both taking it pretty hard.