Budapest, Hungary: Part 1

Another night train out of Belgrade brought us to Budapest.  We arrived quite early and, amazingly enough, the folks in charge of the hostel/apartment were going to be up already at their bar next door.  We take the quick walk through downtown Pest to the spot on the map and find our host.  He takes us up through what seems a maze of building hallways and multiple keys to a nice room for the three of us.  Exhausted from two night trains in a row, we crash for a few hours with plans to take it easy the first day by visiting the Terror Museum and eating downstairs in the bar.  Turns out the museum is not open on Mondays so instead we did what we had planned to do on Tuesday and that was to wander the other side of the river in the part of town known as Buda.

A beautiful and partly cloudy day was with us as we headed towards the river.  Of course, we got a beer first at the bar along with some gulash and tomato soup with smoked cheese.  I think my tomato soup was the most amazing thing I’d ever tasted in a soup.  I think it was the smoked cheese.  Anyway, we wandered the river side on Pest a bit, admiring the river and view of government buildings and Fisherman’s Bastion on the Buda side.  We crossed the river and decided we didn’t want to spend 4 euro on the funicular up the hill and instead hiked up the side.  It sure was higher than it looks and the view was amazing.  Of course it got extremely windy and chilly way up high but we wandered all along the castle through the business/touristy area (1 euro postcards, bleh) to the Bastion and then back down.  Several hours later, we crossed the river again and swung by a market for some food stuffs for dinner and breakfast the next day.  We had access to a kitchen, computer and a TV!  So over pasta with tomato sauce and bread, we watched American television with German dubbing.  Wow.

The second day greeted us with seemingly fairer weather although it was still chilly.  We decided to head out and mingle at the large market that is well known.  I love markets and Rae was interested in hitting it for some paprika.  We tramped down a different way through downtown and found the huge building with the market in it.  Inside it looked like it should be a train station.  Huge paned ceiling with multiple stories and walkways crossing over from side to side had me wondering if a train would come through.  The market was a little repetitive in that every fourth stall would start the pattern of stores over again.  First was the alcohol (various brandy’s, palinka, vodka) and paprika store, second was the meat seller, and third was the actual fruits and veggies stall.  Interspersed, but with much less frequency, were baked goods or cheese/pate stalls.  Downstairs in the basement was where they hid the more aromatically potent stalls, which seemed counterintuitive since the stench was overwhelming.  We didn’t stay down there long.  The second floor held the trinkets and fast food stalls.  We partook of Langos which is a deep fried bread with various toppings.  So good with just garlic butter and cheese but you could also have it with the works.  Let’s carry on in Part 2....