Budapest

On the Chain Link Bridge

Hello everyone! Orry and I have been in  Budapest the past couple of days and are having a great time. Budapest (pronounced Buda-pesht) is a beautiful and up and coming city. Although communism has been gone for over twenty years in the country, the government in finally just now trying to bring the city up to par with the rest of Europe (being head of the EU this semester may have something to do with that), which means there is a lot of construction going on around the city.

St. Mathias

We arrived in Budapest after a long night train from Poland in which I did not sleep very great on. After we arrived and checked into our hostel Orry and I had some lunch and this really great Hungarian restaurant called Frici Papa. Orry had goulash and I had chicken in paprika sauce with home made noodles. It was delicious! After we did a free walking tour of the city with a tour group just to get a feel for the city and its history. The tour took us throughout Pest (Budapest was actually once two different cities separated by the Danube river, today the two cities are now one and connected by a series of bridges.) and then across the picaresque chain linked bridge to Buda, where the royal palace, "white house", and oldest church in the city lies. Unfortunately we didn't go in any of them but seeing them from the outside was enough. The royal palace now holds a museum full of Hungarian art, the "white house" is where the president of Hungary holds diplomatic meetings, and St. Mathias is the oldest church in the city, built in the 13th century.  The roof of the church has beautiful colored tiles, which really make it stand out. I kind of wish that we went inside it now but I think this church is best admired from the outside (plus we are a little churched out already).

Sight from top of the hill

To get to all of these sights we had to walk up a long, steep hill (steeper than the hill to get to Prague castle). When we got to the top of the hill though, we had a beautiful sight below us of the chain linked bridge, the Danube,  St. Isvan (Stephen) Cathedral, and the parliament building. This sight alone (yes the sight from the top of the hill) has been named an UNESCO World Heritage sight.

Szechenyi Bathes

When our tour was over we headed up towards the thermal bathes, which is one of the main attractions that Budapest has to offer. Budapest has a few bathes, but the one that local say is the best is the Szechenyi bathes, which can be found in the middle of the park. The bathes have two parts, one is inside and the other is outside. First we started with the outside part, which contains three large pools at about 90 degrees. Each pool had different themes. The first pool was a relaxation pool, the second for laps and the third for play. The third pool had a whirlpool in the middle of it and jets popping out from the bottom. We liked this pool the best.

Inside the they had smaller pools at different temperatures ranging from 60 degrees to 105 degrees. Some of the bathes also contained mineral water that gave of a sulfur smell and had a yellow tint...we stayed away from these. The bathes also had saunas too. Orry really like the aroma therapy sauna but it was too hot and smelly (a good smell not bad) for me. In the other sauna that we went in there was a guy standing on his head and breathing through an oxygen tank...it was a little strange. Overall we found the bathes to be very relaxing after a long day. I think Orry and I both agree it was probably our favorite thing in Budapest.

Parliament

Yesterday we did a lot of walking. From our hostel we walked to the parliament building, which is the 4th largest in the world and also very pretty. Although we did not go inside the building (it was a little expensive and probably not worth it) we admired the architecture from the outside. Surrounding the parliament building there are various memorials and monuments dedicated to the men and women who lost their lives during the communist era. It is safe to say that Hungary is proud to a democracy and that we won't be seeing the communist party return in the government here anytime soon.

Margret Island

After our tour around the parliament building we walked to an island in the middle of the Danube called Margret's Island, which contains parks and recreational activities. We walked a little into the park and relaxed for a while. It was really warm out yesterday (probably high 70s low 80s) so we did not want to walk too far into the park and have to walk all the way back.

Once we had a little rest we walked back to main land and continued our journey along the banks of the Danube. We walked down to the market which contains fresh food and souvenirs. Here we also got a gigantic hamburger for lunch.

Hungarian Goulash 

After the visiting the market we returned to our hostel to rest for a while and then went out for a Hungarian dinner.  Orry got homemade noodles with  scrambled eggs (from the menu's description he thought he was getting egg noodles) with lettuce and vinegar. I got Hungarian goulash with homemade noodles, making it the third goulash that I have had in the past week.  I have now tried the goulash in three different countries (Czech, Poland and Hungary) and it is neat to be able to make comparisons and differences between them. I think my favorite goulash though was the goulash I had in Prague, the dumplings on the side made it the dish extra good! We also got a sour cherry strudel with poppy seed ice cream (this one is for you Nicole). It sounded better than it was.

Sour cherry strudel with poppy seed ice cream

Although Budapest is known for its nightlife, Orry and I really did not get to experience it. Its really hard to stay awake past 2 am when you have been walking all day, and we are also not really the club types. However we did go out for a bar for a little bit last night (everyone at our hostel goes out at night, we did not want to look like losers going to bed at 12am, peer pressure). We had a good time at the bar. We met a Danish couple from Copenhagen and talked with them for awhile, and then we went back to the hostel because the smoke in the bar was irritating us. We really hate that you can smoke in restaurants and bars in this part of Europe.

In a couple of hours we are off to Vienna. I am looking forward to going to Vienna because I really did not like Budapest too much. It is a nice city, but it is just not for me. I think Vienna will interest me more historically, and also I heard from others who have been that it is a gorgeous city.

-Melissa and Orry