I didn’t think celebrating New Year in a strange foreign place like Budapest was going to be any fun, but I was so wrong.
We were planning to finish sightseeing in the evening, then return to the city square to join in the festivities at 11.30pm. But as we were walking back to Sofitel at 6pm from St Stephen’s cathedral, we heard some loud sounds and saw fireworks in the sky! So we headed down to the square and saw a crowd forming a circle around a small clearing, and realized that the fireworks were being launched by civilians! In Hungary you can buy your own fireworks and launch them, how cool! And it was only 6 but the celebrations had already started! But we didn’t want to hang around for 6 hours til midnight, so we returned to our hotel.
Fell asleep after showering because we had spent the whole day on the Buda side at Castle District on Gellert Hill. Haha did I mention that the area on one side of the Danube is called Buda and the other Pest? That’s how Budapest got its name. I thought Aloy was kidding when he first told me that, but there you are, it’s true. Anyway, it was so cold even in the day that I was awfully reluctant to get up at 11pm to go to the square for the festivities, but you simply CANNOT spend New Year alone in a hotel room in Budapest. So I went.
When we arrived at the square, we found it was even more crowded than before. People were setting off fireworks nonstop and I was so enraptured I just started snapping photos indiscriminately.


So we watched the fireworks as we heralded the arrival of 2009. People were blowing some horn-like thing nonstop and making a lot of noise, drinking and partying. I thought standing around was rather boring, so Aloy, Gerphy and I decided to go join in the dancing in front of the live band. It was so fun! People were making merry and the atmosphere was great. Suddenly a strange man reached his arm out towards my head and I was like erp what’s going on? I leaned away so he wouldn’t get me but oh..I realized he wanted to just tap my cap for a bit all in good fun. Then I realized he was kinda cute. (PS. Hungarian boys? Super cute!) After dancing for a bit more, people started to get really into it and a conga line formed! We were so amused and decided to join the conga line! It got longer and longer and longer, until it finally broke up when the song ended.
All in all, it was such a great celebration. Fireworks and people and fun, what more can you ask for?