
My arrival in Budapest by Malo
Article published on 27 February by Malo
It’s now almost been two weeks since I arrived in Budapest, and in this blog post, I’m going to share a bit about my experience.
My travel
For ecological reasons and because I enjoy this mode of transport, I decided to travel from Angers to Budapest by train, using Europe’s railway network. So, I left Angers on Tuesday, February 18th, in the early afternoon. After a two-hour layover in Paris and a short metro ride to change stations, I took a train to Stuttgart (where I had a one hour and half layover in an outdoor station at -2°C it felt long!).
Once in Stuttgart, I had a brief moment of stress trying to figure out which train I needed to take (the signs weren’t very clear), but I eventually boarded a train heading to Salzburg, Austria. From there, I was supposed to take a night train (which was leaving at 5 AM). When I saw a sleeper train, I was relieved. However, when I reached the car indicated on my ticket, I found out it was just a regular seating carriage. So, I spent five hours on a bench. Spoiler alert: I didn’t have a great night.
The first days
Upon arriving in Budapest, I went straight to my accommodation, where I first got acquainted with my bed. Shortly after, I met one of my flatmates, Damian, who quickly invited me to go out with the rest of the flatmates to an event organized by Erasmus Budapest to meet other international students. We went to a bar, and it was an amazing first evening.
The next day, I had to go grocery shopping since I had nothing to eat. I took the opportunity to explore Budapest a little. I walked along the banks of the Danube a very beautiful and vast river. The bridges were also stunning. I highly recommend taking a walk along the Danube at sunset it’s quite a spectacle.
First day of class
A few days ago, I also attended an "orientation meeting," where I met the people who will be in my class this semester. I was a bit disappointed to find out that they are all French.
I’m glad to be living in an international shared apartment, as it will allow me to practice my English with my flatmates and meet many other people from different backgrounds.