Budapest first – written by Nicole Krakower

Coming from America, the thought of hopping on a plane for $30 and flying to a different country for the weekend is so exciting. In the U.S., you fly for 5 hours and you’re still in America, and it will put you back hundreds of dollars. It’s easy to get carried away with planning weekend trips, and forget to explore Budapest. One thing I wish I could tell myself at the beginning of my study abroad experience is, “actually enjoy the city you chose to study abroad in instead of traveling every chance you get.”

While this semester has been incredible, and I have traveled to so many new and different places that I never thought I’d get the opportunity to go to, I definitely regret not spending more time in Budapest. As the program is coming to an end, I am realizing how in love with this city I am, and how sad I am to leave. Unfortunately for me, I realized this too late.

After traveling to seven new countries, and only staying for two weekends, I wish I could go back to the beginning of the semester and tell myself not to book so many trips before getting to know Budapest. Traveling every weekend is exhausting and I saw the weekdays as my rest days, which caused me to lose out on exploring a lot of Budapest until now, close to the end of the program.

I would never tell anyone studying in Budapest not to travel, there are so many amazing cities just a short bus ride away, including Ljubljana, Bratislava, and Vienna, but Budapest truly is the most amazing city in the world. It is worth missing out on traveling to a couple other cities to take the time to fully get to know Budapest, you will not regret it.