We got to Budapest yesterday, and it's one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to. Pascale and I followed our roadmaps to find downtown Budapest, and asked for directions to the apartment where we were spending the night. Pascale runs a B&B back in France, so she was able to participate in a "home-exchange," where she's able to find free places to stay around Europe, as long as the owners of those places are welcome to stay with her in France (I hope that makes sense). She was able to contact a woman who has an extra apartment in Budapest, where we're staying for free. The woman's name is Zsuzsanna, and she's a tour guide here in the city. She's a super kind person, and she's been kind enough to show us around the city.
This is Pascale, my host-mother: (Because she's part of my third host-family, I only lived with her for a week before I offered to accompany her on her biking/camping trip. It's been really fun for us to get to know each other through a unique experience like this!)
We spent a lot of time with Zsuzsanna along the Danube, admiring places like the Hungarian Parliament:
We also went up to a castle up on a hill, with a view of the city:
This is Buda Castle, which overlooks the Danube River and Pest. I didn't know this until I talked with Zsuzsanna, but Budapest is just the compound name for Buda and Pest. They were each separate cities, divided by the Danube, until they were unified in 1873.