Just chilling in the great cities of Budapest! For those who don't know much about Eastern Europe, Budapest is the capital of Hungary. It was originally three different cities on the Danube River - Buda and Pest - which were united in 1873. I didn't know it the first time I went, but it also incorporated (i.e., ate) the city of Óbuda. As far as what to know about Hungary? People from Hungary invented a ridiculous amount of things, such as:
Have more inquires? Check out this great article! For our first day in the city, we met up for breakfast at the hotel at 7:30 and were ready for a city tour by 8:15. We loaded up on our bus and started touring both the sections of “Buda” and of “Pest”. Budapest is a city of 1.8 million people (population numbers are dwindling so the government is monetarily incentivizing couples to have 2 or 3 children to keep population up) and is known for its 7 bridges. During WWII, Budapest was under siege for almost 2.5 months, which led to all 6 of the bridges at the time and 60% of the city to be destroyed. Afterwards, they were able to create these seven new bridges which still stand today. Hungary is 60% Roman Catholic, 30% Protestant, and only 1% Jewish today. (Yes I realize this does not add up to 100%!) It is also a city of many statues. In 1990, many of the Communist statues were moved and are now housed in the Statue Park which has 42 statues in all. They have a strong public transit whereas all of the buses are blue, trolleys are red, and trams are yellow. The importance of colors is also evident in their flag: The red stripe stands for power, the white stripe is for royalty, and the green stripe is for hope. Enough history/lecture for now. :) If you’ve never had the pleasure of coming to Budapest, it is very clean, beautiful, and the citizens take great pride in it. They are working on a 10,000 new trees initiative by incorporating more trees alongside all of the roads and buildings. Our tour guide O told us also about a famous author named Jenő Rejtő. He wrote many different stories, plays, etc. and was known for having an odd sense of humor. Here is just a little taste: A man was walking down the street with his small dog. A second man walks by and says, “What a good looking cat you have!” The first man replied, “It is a dog not a cat, even though it is small.” The second man said, “Oh, for a dog it looks horrid!” O took us all the way up to the Castle District where we were able to be free for 40 minutes to walk around, check out the spectacular views of the city, and eat at O’s favorite pastry shop. We got an apple strudel, Dobos Torte, and a Black Forest Cake; in case you’re wondering they were absolutely delicious and feel free to drool at their photos below. Afterwards, we had an hour before embarking on a “bites” tour of Budapest. Luckily bites meant to eat, not literally being bitten. We started at a local market with a table white wine and Mountain cheeses (coming from the North East section of the country. It included a blue cheese, goat cheese, red wine rind cheese, very aged cheese, and a spread of various jams. Additionally there was some hot pepper paste, which A got only a drop of on his cheese and refused to eat the rest because it had been so spicy! Next, we sampled some different local salames - one of which came from the local long haired Mangalica pig! They are the only living pig that grows a thick, woolly coat. Regardless of how furry or fluffy, the salami was delicious. We also got to try pork fat (lard) that was mixed with milk and deep fried - it tasted kind of like a cross of mozzarella sticks and pork rinds. Then, we stopped at a bar to take a shot of Pálinka. This is a local alcohol that is bottled at at least 37.8% alcohol content. They can go much higher but our tour guide B wanted to make sure we could make it the rest of the way walking. :) Lastly, we went to a little dessert shop that is award winning for their ice cream. We had a small bowl of the raspberry red wine ice cream (yes, this is the award winning one, and no it didn’t taste heavily like red wine that I was wondering about), a small slice of chocolate layered cake, and a walnut cream layered cake with apricot jam inside. With our heavy stomachs and happy hearts we headed back but saw some statues along the way. One is of President Reagan, whose hand is now shiny and gold because people believe that shaking his hand will bring good luck (and yes, I did shake it and no, I don’t think it will help but...?). Another was a 1900’s policeman. Similarly to good ol’ Reagan the police man’s large belly was shiny and gold because people also felt that rubbing it would bring them good luck. Interesting note here is that many statues were introduced around the city to help propagate the idea that statues should be on the ground, not on the stand, so people can better enjoy them. Afterwards we took a quick walk to the 2005 installment "Shoes on the Danube Bank" Holocaust memorial. Between December 1944 - January 1945 the Arrow Cross Party Police executed Jewish persons (estimates are around 20,000) along the Danube by shooting them and their bodies fell into the river. These killings stopped when Soviets liberated Budapest in February 1945. The artist created 60 pairs of iron replicas of "period appropriate shoes". I hit up the gym and started to blog in an effort to NOT SLEEP and MESS UP MY SCHEDULE! Despite sleepy eyes I made it and we hit up a few more tourist areas such as the Hard Rock. Tomorrow we are at Budapest for the first part of the day (take a gander since we will be going to a spectacular Synagogue) then taking off onto the first days of our river cruise!
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Our first "day" includes all of the excitement - plastic cups, really tight spaces, and smells one can only imagine if they have been on a long airplane trip before. It took us 30 hours, 3 flights, 2 layovers to make it from the US all the way over to Hungary! Our journey began by flying to the Land of Nice - Minnesota. We were starving by the time we got off this first leg of our journey and so we were trying to figure out where to eat. Little did we know that once we got to the gate, the entire seating section (with the exception of maybe 15 seats) were - no joke - a bar run by iPads! Which is terrifying if you are a fan of iRobot movie and pretty awesome if you are tired of waiting for service to get food and drinks! We were able to order delicious drinks, foods, and crush at playing silly free games. Our second leg of the journey took us to my "favorite" place in the world - Amsterdam. People who know me well know that I have a strong dislike of Amsterdam (this was my 9th time going there / flying in and out of there). We got off our plane and had a measly 60 minutes to go gate to gate and get through customs which was already a tight squeeze. Amsterdam had a sinister plan waiting for me. We finally got through customs and did a really lovely speed walk to our glorious destination, Gate C6. We had just barely caught our breath only to realize that in the time we had gone through customs, our gate had changed to B35. Now with under 25 minutes until our flight, we had to perform what I have dubbed the "Amsterdam Weave". This is a true traveler's art form. You must take your luggage and go as quickly as possible from one location to another while "weaving" in and out of the putrid clouds of hot sweaty flesh, pot, and heavy smoke lingering around the large blobs of people simply standing around and idling chatting directly in the middle of all walkways and straightaways. In the end we did make it onto our flight though: Amsterdam 0, Me 1. I tell you, Amsterdam nearly wipes the wanderlust right out of me. :) Once off the plane in Hungary, our taxi guys picked us up and dropped us right off at the hotel, which ended up being this lovely hotel right on the Danube River. The evening was warm, passersby strolled arm in arm, and the lights began to light up the Capitol Building and sparkle on the river waters. We ate some quick Hungarian bites (including delicious goulash!) before splitting off into groups to get more sleep, walk around the city, or go to the casino. In the end we got to see the city at night, take in some fresh summer air, and pick up a few trinkets and such for friends. It is now 10:56 PM and the challenge is real -- will jet lag set in and we won't be able to sleep properly? Or will we be so exhausted that we fall asleep for the night? Tune in tomorrow for our adventures in the city of Budapest, same bat channel, same bat time. :) |