A couple weekends ago we killed not just two, but
three birds with one stone. During a visit to the Hungarian capital city we celebrated our two year wedding anniversary, were able to meet up and spend time with our friend Greg, from Portland, and I finally got to visit the city that has been sitting near the top of my travel list for many years. Also, we made new friends with a local, Annie, and Greg's traveling partner, Chris. So really it was more like four birds.
It's difficult for me to pinpoint why I've had such a fascination with visiting Budapest. I think after my initial trip to Prague ten years ago, I just knew that seeing and experiencing Budapest was a must for me. All reports from previous visitors led me to believe that it was a beautiful city recovering from decades of oppression by foreign powerhouses. That it's a little rough around the edges, severely loved by its inhabitants, steeped in history, and offering some incredible, if not insanely heavy cuisine. I was pleased to find out that these reports were accurate.
Three days was not nearly enough time to see and experience everything on my list. Although, because of the heat (over 100 degrees and oh-so-humid) and an injured boy, the slower pace we set was just perfect for this trip. Also, we might have spent 6 hours on Monday at a thermal bath alternating between soaking in medicinal pools and drinking beers on the patio.
Might have, who's to say...
Saturday
After an 8.5 hour train, Josh and I arrived in steamy hot Budapest. A few weeks before, I took a bit of a risk and rented a downtown Pest (Budapest used to be two cities, separated by the Danube River) studio apartment from a private person online for 45 Euro a night. Fortunately, it was as advertised and in a great location. We had a couple hours to kill before meeting up with Greg, Chris, and Annie for dinner and decided to do a meandering sight-seeing walk in the direction of the restaurant.
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| St Istvan's Basilica |
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| Josh befriending the local police |
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| A Holocaust Memorial |
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| The Royal Palace and Chain Bridge |
Annie took us to her favorite Hungarian food place. Fish soup, goulash, stuffed cabbage, fried duck, chicken-fried pork topped with sour cream and lots of grated cheese, and croquettes. Homygod, my mouth is watering just thinking about that fatty, delicious meal. Actually, it was two meals since it was
so good that we all went back on Monday night. After dinner Annie took us to City Park for some night touring and beer drinking.
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| Heroes' Square |
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| Vajdahunyad Castle - a replica of a Transylvanian castle built for Hungary's millennial celebration in 1896 |
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| An outdoor bar in City Park where we finished off our evening |
Sunday
Sunday proved to be even hotter than Saturday. Unfortunately Josh had been experiencing some horrific back pain leading up to this trip and after riding on a train the previous day for so long, he was basically confined to the couch for the morning and early afternoon.
I, on the other hand, went out into the scorching heat to unknowingly hike up hills. I met up with the others, and Annie took us over to the Buda side of the river to check out some monuments and great city views. There are two hills on that side of the river and the first one we walked up, Castle Hill, was no problem. However, the second one...I'm not sure what it's called...Hell, perhaps? was a bit intense. Especially since the temperature read 100 degrees
before we started hiking up. Also it was significantly higher and steeper than the other.
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| On the Buda side, at the base of Castle Hill. |
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| The funiculars at Castle Hill. We didn't ride up, however had they been available at the second hill I wouldn't have hesitated. |
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| At the top of Castle Hill |
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| The Parliament Building |
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| See that monument on the hill in the background? That is what we hiked up to in the heat of the day. |
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| Annie, Chris, Greg. Without Greg's gentle coaxing that I "could do it!", I would have not been present at the summit of Gellert Hill to take this picture. |
Our efforts were not without rewards upon reaching the top! Matching awesome souvenir shirts that might potentially rival the artwork of "Three Wolf Moon" and deliciously cold ice cream treats. From that point on, it was all about Nogger and Hungary Horses the rest of the trip.
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| Our trip's sponsor. |
After successfully avoiding heat stroke, we collected Josh from the couch and went to a ruin pub for lunch. Ruin pubs are watering holes in the Old Jewish Quarter of the city that are housed in dilapidated old buildings (I sincerely doubt that these are "up to code"). You can wind your way through a maze of rooms and find places to drink, or go towards the center to find an open-air courtyard of boozy awesomeness. We only visited one, and I think it was on the nicer side, but I plan on checking out more next time around because the concept is just too rad.
That evening we found ourselves on an island in the Danube for dinner. It was much cooler down by the water and as we walked down to the island we saw many locals leaving from their day at one of the swimming beaches. We were only there for a short time after dark, but Margaret Island needs to be explored further as I'm sure it holds many fun little treasures.
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| Buda |
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| We caught a beautiful sunset as we were walking to the island. |
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| Water fountain fun on Margaret Island. Everyone took a turn. |
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| Budapest at night. |
Monday
Our anniversary!
Awww. This was a perfect and relaxing day. Unfortunately, Annie had to work but we met up with the boys and checked out the Great Market Hall, an indoor marketplace with three floors. The basement has booths with a variety of pickled items and live fish tanks. I'm sure you can imagine how horrid it smelled down there.
Briny. The main floor had many produce and paprika stands and the second floor had food stalls and an overwhelming amount of elderly Brits shopping at the souvenir booths.
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| Inside the Great Market Hall |
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| Pickled, um, items. Some have faces! |
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| Even Greg was able to resist the allure of the cheese filled, bacon wrapped sausages. Not that we ate something much healthier... |
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| Let me introduce you to Langos. Essentially it is an savory elephant ear topped with garlic sauce, sour cream, and grated cheese. If you can get all the proportions right, it might be the perfect food. |
After the artery clogging lunch we made our way to
the Szechenyi Baths (who doesn't want to get into a bathing suit after a meal like that??). We were there pretty much all day and it was absolutely glorious. I didn't even
think about the damn camera so you'll just have to follow the link above to see pictures. It's pretty impressive.
"I don't know if you know this, but...it's kind of a big deal".
That night we feasted until we hurt. I had a food hangover the next day. Not exactly the condition anyone would choose to be in on a long train ride home.
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| 8 plates. 5 people. |
If anyone is planning a trip to Europe within in the next couple years and is interested in working Budapest into their itinerary, totally do it! We will be going back for seconds, and it's always more fun with friends.
Also, if you're a bit of a history nerd or just like an interesting story, I recommend brushing up on Budapest's and Hungary's past. It's nothing short of tumultuous and fascinating, although not without it's tragedies.
Sorry for this extremely detailed post, I'm not quite sure what came over me. A young love?
