I went to Copenhagen and Budapest with one of my childhood friends since the larger friend group trip we take in April was being rescheduled to later in the year and we both wanted to get out of the country for a bit. The two cities were chosen because we had heard good things from everyone about Copenhagen, and how it did not require much time, and Budapest was a good alternate location to combine given weather, activities, and cultural/aesthetic contrast. We thought Copenhagen was a nice city to spend a weekend in, but both of us enjoyed Budapest a lot more and wished we had structured the trip as 2 days Copenhagen/4 days Budapest instead of the even split we did, both to see more things we did not get to see and also to hang out with the amazing people we met in Budapest at our hostel. Overall, think this was an amazing week off and it really got us excited to return to Eastern Europe in the future and to live in more hostels moving forward.

Day 0: Red Eye-Flight from JFK to CPH via KEF on IcelandAir

Day 1: Copenhagen

• Head to Next House using the 5A bus from the airport

  • You will need the Rejsekort App to take all public transportation in Copenhagen; the app works with a toggle for when you get on the mode of transport and off to calculate the price to charge

• Unpack and walk to Tivoli Gardens

  • The entry to the gardens ticket is roughly $25 to not do any of the rides and closer to $50 if you want to do all the rides -- just walking the gardens and having a drink or some food will take roughly 2 hours so perfect for an evening activity

  • There is a light show that happens along the lake inside the gardens at 10:30 PM for roughly 10 minutes. It's nice, but wouldn't bother staying extra late to see it, only if the timing works out

• Head back to the hostel to unwind after a long day of travel before a very active Sunday

  • We ended up meeting a couple girls from Switzerland and played various games with them like foosball and shuffleboard for a couple hours

  • When they left, we ran into a group of 4 girls from Glasgow that were on spring break and talked to them for another couple hours before heading to bed

Day 2: Copenhagen

• Grab a quick bite at Espresso House before signing up for walking tour that Next House offers in collaboration with Politically Incorrect Tours, a funny company that operates solely on tips and visit:

  • Bishop Absalon Statue

  • Kongens Nytorv

  • Amalienborg Palace

    • We ended up meeting a couple cool people from our hostel on this tour as well, including a girl from Notre Dame that was studying abroad and a woman from London that was in town for a concert

• Walk to Rosenborg Castle through the park for a 1:30 PM entrance to see one of the old royal castles

  • To be honest, this castle was not that cool and if you go to the Christianborg Palace, this can be skipped

• Stroll through the Botanical Gardens and Butterfly Park for some nice photos around natural Danish wildlife

• Climb the Round Tower which is an old observatory to get a nice view of the city before heading to Aamanns 1921 to try the classic Danish dish

• Walk to Christiana Freetown to see the independent society that the people there have created among the various displays of grafitti, statues, and signs that explain how they operate and their values

• Head back to the main part of town to grab some famous pastries from Buka before heading to the hostel-hosted happy hour where you get a free beer

  • We ended up meeting a girl that was the younger sister of one of the people we went to high school with, which was a crazy coincidence

• Grab dinner at Gaza Grill in the meatpacking district before coming back to the hostel to sleep a little earlier to go on a run in the morning

Day 3: Copenhagen

• Attend the Tips and Tricks session from the hostel where they answer any questions you have, which we angled mostly towards learning the best route to run and what places to grab coffee and pastries from on our way back

• Run to Nordberg along the water and then towards the middle of town to Sankt Peders Bageri to grab a raspberry danish and O12 coffee, roughly a 4 mile run

• Walk quite a while to get to Reffen, a Smorgasborg-esque place where you have multiple street vendors from all over the world and drinks in a open area

• Take the 2A bus to Nyhavn, which is the iconic Copenhagen canal with the colorful houses before boarding the canal cruise

  • It was actually freezing on this cruise and I had to buy a hat from a souvenir store right before just to get some comfort

• Grab a small bite from Cocks and Cows near the cruise dock before heading back to the hostel for a night of hanging out with people

  • We met a group of 4 from the Midlands in London, a pharmacist from Uruguay, and a fashion designer from Paris and played various card games with them all night before heading to bed ahead of our flight in the morning

Day 4: Budapest

• Uber to CPH in the morning ahead of a 8:55 AM flight to Budapest on RyanAir

  • Make sure to triple check that your bags will fit in RyanAir's bag limit testers to avoid extra fees

• Take the 100E bus straight to the center of the city -- this bus does take Apple Pay but the general trains and buses in Budapest require the BudapestGo app

  • The single pass is a ticket valid for 90 minutes and can be reused as many times within that period, for around $1.50

  • The airport ticket is a one-time $4 ticket for single use

• Drop things off at hostel and go on an afternoon of exploring:

  • Shoes on Danube -- literal shoes on the Danube River as a memorial to the murder of many Jews

  • Szechenyi Chain Bridge -- most iconic bridge that connects the Buda and Pest sides of the city

  • Buda Castle and Castle Hill -- all the iconic, architectural marvels of buildings on the Buda side of town

• Take a quick break at the Flat White Art cafe with some coffee and pastries after walking so much and starting so early

• Head back towards the Pest side to kill some time and check out the Gresham Palace

  • This is a beautiful palace on the Pest side of the Danube, right on the water, that is now the 4 Seasons

• Cross back over the bridge to go up Castle Hill and see the sunset/night lighting of the Hungarian Parliament Building from an aerial view

• Go back to the hostel to start tonight's activities with the OneFam people:

  • Drinking games -- every night there is a round of games played that involve drinking with everyone including beer pong, stack cup, twin towers, and pizza box

  • Hoff House -- karoake bar where you get a free shot first and everyone sings a song

  • Instant-Fogas -- insane nightclub with a bunch of different rooms, each with their own music and some are outdoor and some are basement level

    • What made each of these nights so fun and this experience great was the people we met at this hostel specifically including backpackers from Australia, England, Germany, India, California, Canada, Idaho, Illinois, Georgia, and more -- each of these people somehow became a part of our daily lives for a whole city's worth of memories which made them even more special

• Head back to the hostel around 5 AM and recover

Day 5: Budapest

• We slept through our initial Hungarian Parliament Building reservation at 8:30AM and went to them to ask if we could reschedule for now (11:30AM) to which they said no and we had to buy a new ticket in the moment

  • Repeating the advice of if you plan on being a degenerate in Budapest and enjoying the nightlife, plan nothing before noon

• Walk towards Heroes' Square to make the day feel slightly more productive, stopping at the MagNet cultural center first for a couple sandwiches and coffees

• Behind the Heroes' Square is a giant park that has castles, lakes, running trails, the thermal baths, and a lot more -- it is too large to explore, but wish we had time to bike around it

• Head back to the Hungarian Parliament Building to get the 4:30 PM tour, stopping along Pine Coffee to get a pastry and drink first for some energy

  • We wanted to be mad at them for making us pay twice, but it was actually beautiful inside and was definitely worth walking through as it is the third-largest parliament building in the world and beautifully designed

• My cousin is currently at Semmelweiss University studying medicine in Budapest, so the next chunk of the day was dedicated to hanging out with him, getting a tour of the campus/dorm rooms there and grabbing dinner at La Botte together

• Go back to the hostel to start tonight's activities with the OneFam people:

  • Drinking games -- every night there is a round of games played that involve drinking with everyone including beer pong, stack cup, twin towers, and pizza box

  • La Siesta -- a very cool bar where every hour they light up the bar with kerosene and fire and put on a show

  • Instant-Fogas -- insane nightclub with a bunch of different rooms, each with their own music and some are outdoor and some are basement level

• Head back to the hostel around 6 AM and recover

Day 6: Budapest

• We slept until around 10AM and then decided to head straight to the Szechenyi Thermal Baths to hopefully sweat out some of the alcohol and recover

  • The baths are really cool because there are 18 different temperature pools, most of them indoor, some of them with salt-infused aromas and others with a whirpool

  • Flip-flops and towels are not provided and are required, so be sure to bring both (you can rent from the hostel)

• Walk towards Margaret Island, stopping at Retro Langos to try the Hungarian deep-fried pizza first (surprisingly very good)

  • Margaret Island is Budapest's version of Roosevelt Island in NYC, featuring a giant park, restaurants, bars, and a full track to run around and it is located off of one of the bridges in the city

• Continue towards the Buda side of town to grab coffee at Coyote Coffee and Spar, the grocery store, to put together a makeshift dinner ahead of the unlimited prosecco tour

  • This tour is a must-do activitity, not just because of the potential to get really drunk, but also because the sights of Budapest once it becomes dark are insane as every building and bridge gets lit up

• Go back to the hostel to start tonight's activities with the OneFam people:

  • Drinking games -- every night there is a round of games played that involve drinking with everyone including beer pong, stack cup, twin towers, and pizza box

  • Szimpla Kert -- a series of bars and clubs inside a building of ruins, each with their own vibe and music

  • Instant-Fogas -- insane nightclub with a bunch of different rooms, each with their own music and some are outdoor and some are basement level

• Grab some gyros with some of the hostel friends from Melissa Biztro before hanging out even more with them in the common room around 5 AM

Day 7: Budapest

• Wake up at 10 AM frantically ahead of a 2 PM flight back to Copenhagen, pack everything, say goodbye to everyone, and stop at a quick souvenir shop to grab a couple things

• Take the 100E back to the airport, getting there with an hour to spare

  • I met a girl from Ireland in line during security screening and made friends with her, so the three of us got food together before our flight back to Copenhagen and hers to North Macedonia

• Instead of the 5A bus, since we were staying at Steel House this time, we took the train to the central train station instead

• After putting our stuff down, we ubered to Superkilen Park, a creative architectural park in the middle of the city and then walked around before heading to Kahani for some Indian food

• Join the Copenhagen Pub Crawl

  • 4 total bars and 1 club which includes 4 shots and 1 beer in total, starting at Bar Celona and ending at Old Irish Pub

    • We met a few people on this crawl including some college kids from Connecticut, a teacher from Spain, a neurologist from Germany, and others, but because of the size of the group, it was hard to have long conversations

• Head back to the hostel around 3AM

Day 8: Copenhagen

• Wake up and pack all bags to put them in the storage locker downstairs and check out

• Grab breakfast at Emerry's and head to Christianborg Palace, where we bought the all-inclusive ticket, which includes

  • Reception Rooms Tour -- this part alone made the ticket worth it as the rooms were some of the coolest antiques and artwork we had seen

  • Ruins Tour -- underneath the main palace, there were the preserved structures from when the palace burned down the first two times

  • Royal Kitchen Tour -- nothing fancy here, but cool

  • Royal Stables Tour -- unfortuntately, this doesn't open till 1:30 PM, so we were unable to see anything as we had to head back for our flight

• Walk around aimlessly for a few hours, stopping at some more bakeries and enjoying the weather, before going back to the hostel

• Pick up the bags from the hostel before taking the train back to the airport and taking a flight back home to JFK via KEF