It was my second day in this amazing city.

While everyone at the hostel slept in with a hangover, my new friend Ngoc and I woke up to a full day of exploring Budapest. Having just gone on a tour the day before, I acted as a tour guide for her, and shared whatever fun facts I could remember. We decided to begin by grabbing some Hungarian food at the Grand Market Hall, which was a three-story building with all kinds of produce, pastries, and even souvenier shops. While everything looked great, Ngoc and I couldn’t not find Hungarian dishes being served anywhere. We roamed through the entire first floor and explored the bottom floor to no avail. We were so hungry at this point that we gave in to buying a pastry to hold us over. The pastry was a Hungarian specialty with sour cream and cheese filling and was surprisingly really good. But while it satisfied our taste buds, it didn’t satisfy our aching stomachs. We still wanted a full meal, so our last hope was to climb the stairs to the top floor, where only gift shops were visible. Finally, we came across food huts with all kinds of Hungarian dishes to choose from. So our next challenge was to decide what we wanted to eat. I opted for the chicken paprikas, which are meat-filled bell peppers. It was so good! Happily full, Ngoc and I were able to start our real adventure, which was walking up to the highest part of the city, Gellért Hill.

Gellért Hill was on the Buda side, so in order to get there we came across the Szabadság Bridge. We noticed while walking through the bridge that everyone was sitting on the metal arches, just hanging out and enjoying the view of the Danube River. It looked nice, so Ngoc and I attempted to hop onto the arch, only to find out that it was harder than it looked (and I’m tall!). While we struggled to climb up, a tall meaty Hungarian guy walked over and offered to lift us onto the bridge. Ngoc and I could not stop laughing as this burly Hungarian man hoisted us up on the ledge, but we were so thankful that someone came to help us. The Hungarian man even offered to take a picture for us! In return for his generosity we took a picture of him and his girlfriend with the Danube River in the background.

After enjoying our spot on the bridge, we continued our journey. The end of Szabadság Bridge brought us to the cliffs of Gellert Hill. Built into the cliff in front of us was a castle, which was intriguing to me. It reminded me of something I would see in the Lord of the Rings. At last, we reached the trail that would take us to the top of the city. Luckily, along our way up, we came across a cute little pump, so we were able to fill up our water bottles. It was a steep walk and we sweated in the heat the whole way up, but we knew the view at top was worth it. And it was. The pathway up the hill suddenly opened up into the Citadel, where Budapest’s Statue of Liberty is erected. We walked both sides of the Citadel and were able to see the entire city. From where we stood we could see the Parliament, all of Pest side, the river, all five bridges in Budapest, Buda Castle, and we could even get a peek at the neighborhood of mansions on Buda side. After soaking in the gorgeous view, we made our way down to Buda Castle.

We roamed through Hungarian neighborhoods using just our hostel map – and got a little lost – but finally made it to the Castle. It was nice being able to walk through the Castle District again, this time more slowly. I was also excited to take Ngoc to Mathias Church. Without realizing it, we even visited Fisherman’s Bastion, which is a line of castle walls that protect the Castle District. It looked like a fortress, with towers and long walls encasing the grounds we stood on. Within the walls we found stairs that winded through arches down to the area below the castle grounds. We followed the stairs down to a residential. Along the stairway, a cherry tree hovered above us. Ngoc – being quite small – hopped onto the stair ledge in order to reach up to a branch and helped herself to a couple of berries.

Back on Pest side, Ngoc and I ran into a sort of summer festival. We decided to check it out. We noticed everyone around us drinking these sparking drinks (yes it’s legal to drink in public here). Curious to what the popular drink was, Ngoc and I walked up to one of the outdoor bars and asked about it. We were told that the drinks were wine spritzers – with the choice of white or rosé wine – which were called Fröccs. We ordered the rosé of Nogyfröccs (which is the same thing, just larger) and found a spot in the grass. The drink became our all time favorite and we continued to order it for the rest of the trip.

Buzzing from our lovely summer drinks, we used our hostel map to direct us to a dinner spot for more local food. Kiado Kocsma is a great spot to check out for some good grub. The restaurant has more of a pub-like feel to it, and is small and comfortable. Ngoc went for duck and gave me a bite. The best part was that the great meal was so cheap compared to other places in Europe. Duck is about $20 in the U.S.A. but here it was only about $10.

Like every night, hostel Carpe Noctum Vitae had an event for its guests. Tonight it was a pub crawl through the ruin bars. The best part about visiting Budapest in the summer is that the outdoor bars are open. I decided that night that the bars in Budapest are the coolest bars in Europe. Our first bar, Fogas Ház, was decorated with lights strung through trees high above our heads, and was surrounded by the walls of rustic building walls. And that was only the first bar. Each bar was unique its own way, with an artful and colorful ambiance.

During the pub crawl, I made many new friends from California, Alabama, Australia, Ireland and more. I began to see why traveling alone is so great – you’re more open to meeting people! And people are more likely to gravitate towards you. I befriended a couple of the hostel workers as well, who always join in on the nightly fun. They had funny nicknames like Cyclops (who had a head full of dreads and glasses) and Norway (who was from Norway, naturally). I had to give myself a high-five for jumping into this idea of taking a solo trip to Budapest. I was having a blast.

Already so in love with this city and the people I’d met, I was excited for what my next day would bring.