Photos: Budapest, Hungary

Picture 1: The incredible tomato basil soup I had the first day in Budapest. It had smoked cheese in it and the toasted white bread had melted smoked cheese on top. It was amazing and everybody should have soup this good.

Picture 2: Another statue that comes off the pedestal. This one had the figure of a woman fawning over the bust. This statue is in a park of statues next to the river.

Picture 3: The Parliament building. This picture does not do the size and grandeur of the building justice. It is so elegant and decorated that I can’t believe people actually work inside. I wish we could have gone inside to see.

Picture 4: An image of Buda from the Pest side of the river. The clouds this day were doing incredible things. I wish the ambient temperature had been a little warmer, that way when the Sun was covered up it wouldn’t have gotten so cold. After this pic was taken, we wandered over the bridge and hiked up and around the whole riverside Buda, from the government buildings on that side to the Fisherman’s Bastion.

Picture 5: From left to right, Palinka, Hubertus, and Havanna Club 7 year. The Palinka was amazing and I have definitely come to love Balkan brandys. The Hubertus was a bitter and Rae really likes bitters. She enjoyed it quite a bit and Jeff of course had to have some rum. Since we were splurging a little, he went with the 7 year.

Picture 6: Jeff and I walking around the Great Market of Pest oblivious to Rae’s camera. As I think I said in the blog, the stores repeated themselves after every 4th stall or so. It continues to baffle me how every stall in a touristy area stays in business when they all sell the same stuff.

Picture 7: The tank on a pool of nearly still oil in the Terror Museum. The images on the wall are of victims of the Nazi and Communist regimes in Hungary. This was the only place we could take pictures. The mirroring pool of oil had two sources underneath the tank and the oil very slowly pooled over the edge and fell down to the basement. It was a strange effect.

Picture 8: The Heroes Square. Very, very large. If you look closely near the center, you should be able to see Jeff and me. Rae was so far away to take this picture. The 14 statues along the back range from the 10th century up to, I think, the 19th century. There were large gaps in the dates but I guess the other leaders or guys didn’t make hero status. It was very interesting to walk along from right to left and see the change in clothing on each statue as the years went back.

Budapest, Hungary: Part 2

We were still pretty exhausted, especially since our trip had been going on for a bit.  We only did the market and walked around the river up to the massive Parliament building the second day.  The second night there, we were going to try and have another stab at the soup at the bar but it was completely packed.  Apparently Tuesday night is the night to go this bar.  Instead, we decided to attack one of the various Western eateries we had seen on our walk in which included BK, Mickey D’s, Subway, Pizza Hut and KFC to name a few.  Burger King was also packed for some silly reason and prices seemed high.  We settled on Pizza Hut and were soon terrified.  Pizza Hut in Budapest is like some sort of sit down place!  I couldn’t even glance at the menu in the huge room for the prices before I was being ushered to a seat and encouraged to take my jacket off for the coat hanger.  I didn’t even know if I wanted to eat here but it seems we were trapped.  We each ordered a medium and three guys (yes, 3) came out with our pizzas and served the first slice onto our plates for us.  I can’t say anymore, the experience was just bizzare.  I fear for any Hungarian who goes to a Pizza Hut in the States expecting all that.

The third day there we visited the Terror Museum, a building that is now a monument and the previous headquarters of two different terror regimes: Hungarian Nazis and then Soviet Communists.  Walking through was pretty rough at times.  They had movies of people telling their experiences and images from both regimes.  The museum even reconstructed the old holding cells in the basement and gave people a chance to experience what prisoners experienced including a room filled with 2 inches of water, a room that had a ceiling 4 feet off the ground so you couldn’t stand up straight and a room barely larger than your body so you couldn’t even sit let alone lay down.  We were there for several hours just absorbing everything.  We even sat for 15 minutes and watched the tapes from the war crimes trials.  It was hard to believe of course that this building had been the headquarters but it had been and instead of tearing it down, the people preserved it as a legacy and a reminder of how things should not be.  

We grabbed a bite to eat and then took a brief siesta before traveling up one of the largest roads in Budapest that led to the Heroes Square.  This giant pavilion area looked like it could host two farmers markets every Saturday.  14 huge statues commemorating the heroes of Hungary partially encircled a central pillar that stood watch over a tomb to unknown soldiers and heroes.  I’ll include the large picture soon.  Two museums, for art I believe, mirrored each other at each end of the pavilion.  It was already dark by the time we got there so we did not stay out long.  We grabbed food stuffs again from the market and had a snack dinner of cheeses, bread and meat with the remainder of some palinka and wine we had picked up earlier.

The next morning, we were already packed up and ready to go to the train station.  Interestingly enough, it had snowed and was still snowing as we left for the walk.  I’m certainly glad it waited because it was cold and dreary.  It’s probably a given that we will try to return to Budapest in the future and this time in a better time of the year.  I will say it was nice to not have a whole host of tourists around and that has been a defining aspect of our trip.  The train station greeted us as it always does and we got on what was the nicest train so far.  It was warm and had comfy seats.  We bid farewell to Hungary and continued to the final location in Slovakia.  More as always in the pictures once they’re up.  Cheers!

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....