Budapest winter trip 27.12.2007 (Budapest)

The evening of the 27th in Budapest was fairly low key, after wandering up and down some streets during the day, Brian hit the sack for a power nap, while I updated my last travel blog. After that we headed to the basement of our creepy but cool courtyard style hotel (Note to Dylan-similar to Puebla).

Budapest, Hungary dec.2007

Gypsy Music in Budapest
In the restaraunt of our hotel

The evening of the 27th in Budapest was fairly low key, after wandering up and down some streets during the day, Brian hit the sack for a power nap, while I updated my last travel blog. After that we headed to the basement of our creepy but cool courtyard style hotel (Note to Dylan-similar to Puebla). In the basement we were served a giant Hungarian feast which included duck leg, goose liver, pork chop, hungarian sausage, and potatoes, these folks know how to stop your heart in terms of calories. Either way it was excellent, and it was accompanied by gypsy music and dancing, yes i succumbed to gypsy-ness despite them stealing my wallet in Rome 6 years ago. I guess time heals all wounds. They played numerous string and wind instruments and a timbalo, and actually played a song for me and Brian (haha, how romantic, right? lol, gack), and of course stuck out there hands for money after, lol. After feeling like blimps full of Hungarian food we headed off to a pub/live music venue called Fat Mo's which was really cool, and is styled after post-prohibition days, had some more food later there and a few Guinesses, of course we got suckered into trying a disgusting Hungarian shot that involved a prune in the bottom of the shot glass and prunelike jelly. When in Budapest...

Budapest Palace
Looking at the palace from the Pest side of the Danube River

Friday December 28th - Budapest is amazing, and the weather hasn't even cooperated... I can only imagine this place in summer, must be unreal. We were up at a decent hour to get the most exploring in... 9am. lol, ok early for me anyways. We had a good buffet style breakfast at our hotel restaurant and were off down the Danube to the Chain Bridge (famous bridge completed in 1848, it is in all of the Budapest pictures). After crossing the bridge we headed up the trolley to see Budapests Royal Palace. It is a huge, extravagant stunning building and now part of it houses the Budapest Museum, which we toured and were pretty fond of.

Note - one half of the city is Buda, the other is Pest - in the middle ages they were 2 seperate towns, now they are both large enough and bridge link the two

Now on the Buda side of the Danube River, we headed into the old streets of Buda, the architecture is

My New Friend

amazing and the cobblestone streets add a lot of character (it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Matyas Church was beautiful but under restoration, so we were only able to view it from the outside. We wandered around the old city a bit, walked down Lords Street, and headed into the old underground Labyrinths. After this was done, our afternoon was winding down and we had tickets for The Marriage of Figaro at Budapest Opera House, which again neither words or pictures can describe. The scale and beauty of the building is extraordinary. It was built in 1884. The opera was really good, but really long (started at 6, ended at 10:30). After that culture-enhancing experience we headed off to find something to eat, and located a good sports bar that served food. With food and drink in hand, we enjoyed a mix of soccer and the World Series of Backgammon on TV (not joking), lol, and the pub was also having a fashion show, so there were girls walking up and down the pub aisles, kind of weird, only in Europe. At about 11:30 we headed off to try and find a club to go to, our luck was bad, and my guidebook blows chunks (the ones it recommended either suck or have closed).

Budapest's Chain Bridge
Crosses the Danube River

So we headed back to the hotel to change back into casual clothing, as we were dressed up for the opera. The problem however, was getting back to the hotel, we got lost approximately 345 times, but had fun doing it, and saw a lot of the city that most tourists probably wouldn't see. After finally getting back with purple noses and ears, we headed to a club my guidebook recommended called A38, which is an old Russian troller. Pretty much they threw some lights and a dj booth inside this ship, and thats it, as there wasn't one piece of furniture, sitting area, etc...however the upstairs is a restaurant. The basement was where the club was and the manager let us in for free rather than charging us the regular $15, score. We just hung out most the night as the remarkably good DJ spun some euro-electronic stuff you always hear here, and saw a guy who thought he was Ali G, he also enjoyed dancing by himself. Thats when we called it a night.

Budapest Palace

Today is Saturday December 29th, probably one of the best travelling days in my life, and it was another action packed day. We got up around 9 again and ate breakfast at our hotel. After that we headed for one of the local Turkish baths, this one was called Rudas, and was originally built by the Turks in the 1500s. Again, an excellent cultural experience and I am pretty sure we were the only foreigners there. There was one large bath which was around 36 degrees, and the others were 28, 30, 32, and 42 degrees. Of course us not knowing how it works (didn't see the temp signs), we first went into the 42 degree water and pretty much scalded ourselves. After yelping like little dogs, we went to the 32 degree pool which felt great, and hung out there, then we switched back and forth between that bath and the main baths. Excellent experience, my only complaint is way too many speedos.

After the bath, we wandered though Vaci Utca (market streets), on our way to the Hungarian Parliament. The Parliament building is the well-known postcard picture of Budapest, it is in my opinion the most beautiful building in Budapest, during the day or night.

Budapest Palace Grounds

The architecture is astounding and again words and pictures don't do it justice. Next on our walk-about was St. Stephen's Basilica, which started being constructed in 1851, it is probably the most impressive building from the inside, but its size and beauty from the outside is also impressive. I would rate it one of the most impressive churches I've been to, hey who says religion isn't big business? :) Continuing on...next up was the largest Synagogue in all of Europe, this originally wasn't on our list of things to see, however me and Brian wandered across it the prior night when we got lost, and figured Uncle Rob should see it and that we wanted pics of it during the day. So we headed back there, unfortunately it was closed to the public because it was on a Sunday. But we got the pics we wanted and Rob was definately impressed with it. For a quick warm up we stopped for some tea in a small place across from the synagogue in the Jewish quarter. After our warm-up we headed for the Hungarian National Museum, which was built in 1802, and reminds me of Rome, again amazing architecture. Also the exhibits specifically from World War 1 to the Communist to Market Transition (1914-1990) were unbelievable, and overall I enjoyed this museum more than any other I've ever seen (including the Louvre).

Streets of old Buda

After a crazy morning and afternoon, we stopped at a place called 1000's Teas, which literally plops an encyclopedia of teas in front of you to choose from. We had a couple of different teas, one from India and one was a mix of green tea and a moroccan mint. Sooo good, and warms you up in this chilly damp winter they have on the Danube. After that we grabbed a few souvenirs to take back home. For supper we went to a nice quiet jazz restaurant called Avocado where a trio of musicians (trumpet, bass guitar and regular guitar) played and were excellent. After this we checked out ClubInside, which featured 4 seperate rooms, 2 for lounging with couches and 2 seperate dance floors, one with western and latin music, the other with electronic music and stage dancers, the place was absolutely packed. We met a couple people from Santa Barbara, California, who picked up on us talking English. We hung out with them for a bit of the night, one was a doctoral student and the other a professional pothead... can you say polar opposites. After that we headed home.

Shoulder to cry on

December 30th, a travelling day, which took us from Budapest, Hungary through Bratislava, Slovakia, and into Prague, Czech Republic. We got in around 5pm, grabbed a bite to eat at an underground restaurant which was pretty cool, thats all so far...update you on the next leg of the journey.

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