Hungary Trip 4

We enjoyed the 3-hour train trip to Budapest - we fit right in with our packed lunch and bottles of water. We arrived at Nyugati (Western) Station about 1:30 and quickly followed Kelly Kratky's advice and rang Teletaxi, who picked us up with an English
speaking driver! (Apparently taxi fraud is common in Budapest so it was comforting to know who to call!). I was hanging out the cab looking for my first view of the Danube and it happened! We crossed the Danube, an experience close to the one I felt when I was on a boat on the Mediterranean - see Barcelona post from 2007! - I am really here! We were then in Buda, having crossed from Pest, and soon arrive at our destination on Sasadi Ut. Kelly, Terry, and Katelynn are Americans living in Budapest and we connected through the PEO International Yahoo Group. We were going to meet for dinner and then they emailed inviting us to stay with them. How wonderful is that! So, we were greeted by Kelly and Katelynn (age 2), Sasha the dog, and Kinga the babysitter - so much fun. We had a good visit, and moved in to our elegant digs - on the upper floor which we had to ourselves - and shared with their computer room. We had been in withdrawal from the scarcity of computer time so far in the trip! We also began our wonderful relationship with Katelynn - she is a very precocious and talkative 2 year old, and seemed to accept us right away - she was a joy. We also got well acquainted with Sasha. Unfortunately we did not get a picture of Terry - sorry - nor one of Sasha, but quite a few of Katelynn, which you'll see as we go on. We settled in and then walked down their street to have a nice dinner in a small restaurant - where the proprietor gave us complimentary glasses of palinka to welcome us to Hungary.









Saturday, with Kelly's good advice, we got on the bus 1/2 block from the house, rode up the hill to a tram stop,rode down a bigger hill to Muskova (Moscow) Ter (above) with which we became very familiar as the transportation hub to everywhere from Buda). We bought a 3-day transportation pass and hopped on the number 4 tram to Pest. Crossed the Danube again!!! (This is the boat we didn't ride because of snow - maybe next time). Got off and walked along the Danube, by Parliament, which is an amazing building, so you get several shots.

Walked all the way to Vaci Ut. the renowned shopping street, and walked down it to the Central Market. This is a huge indoor market - 1st floor is all food, 2nd floor is crafts (and some tourist traps!). We enjoyed it very much, but didn't buy too much as we had the rest of the day to go! Walked back up Vaci Ut. to Gerbeaud - a famous pastry/coffee shop. This was our one huge breaking of the diet - we feasted on gorgeous pastry and loved it.



The rest of the day we did our favorite touring activity - we rode trams randomly around the city and got a great overview of nearly everything. (We looked in to a hop on hop off, as we do in most cities we visit, but out of season they only made a few stops and didn't sound like a good deal, so we just invented our own!). We first rode all the way around Pest, got off, and rode back around. The we went back to Muskova Ter and rode Tram 61 to a very high point - the end of the line. It looked like a ski resort in the Alps, and we did see people with ski poles and sleds. Back to Muskova Ter and tram 41. This adventure was good - we saw lots more of Buda, and then were clearly getting in to some more "working class" areas. We rode and rode, and finally, as dusk came, decided we should get off and catch a tram back. Well, we chose poorly - we just missed the tram back that we had seen (we were in time to take a picture of it!), and found ourselves at a tram stop in the middle of nowhere - not even a path seemed to lead to anything. We finally found a sign and figured out where we were and hoped for the best. Finally a tram came (it was pretty dark by now, and cold!). As we sat down on it, I said "Now this is a fun adventure again!" - for a few minutes it hadn't seemed like that. We got off at the Geilert Hotel and Thermal Baths - very elegant. Then we rode back to Muskova Ter, back up the hill to near home. We were tired, cold, and hungry, so stopped in the first restaurant we saw. It was tiny - 2 tables and a bar (probably more upstairs, we didn't check), but was warm and had a toilet and and English menu, so we settled in. Well, what a menu - it had hysterical menu translations. We're pretty sure they weren't a joke, as this restaurant seemed too small to have such a thing. We were so tired, I got sort of hysterical and feared that my giggles were going to hurt someone's feelings, but that didn't happen. We actually had a very nice dinner and had only a short walk back to the house. A fun day after all. Some of the menu choices were:
*green stuff roasted (this is what I had - it was a pretty good veggie plate)
*buttery green stuff boiled
*bulbous roast
*fungous beef stripes
*biddy bast
*ham spent cheese
*swine roasted noodles (dana had this - it was the trad Hungarian pork with paprika)



Sunday Kelly and Katelynn went with us to Castle Hill. We rode the funicular up the hill - Kelly, Katelynn, and MFE at entrance to funicular. The picture above is the palace looming above the Danube. We walked around the beautiful area of the huge palace, explored Fisherman's Bastion and loved the gorgeous views. The pictures are: mfe at entrance to a large library housed in the palace; a statue in front of the church near the palace, the large mural, and our very independent 2 year old on the palace grounds.













We had a nice lunch, then K&K went home and we went to the Cave church - you can get the idea from this picture of the entrance, but it was difficult to get pictures inside because of the low light. It was pretty impressive, carved right into the mountain. This ornate wood altar was in this church.

I wasn't going to climb all the way up to the Citadel, but I got tired of waiting and was glad I did - another beautiful view. The Citadel is a fortress overlooking the city which was used to intimidate the people during the Soviet occupation - and the cannons arrayed there intimidated me!

This statue is iconic to Budapest - you can see it from almost every vantage point - but for this one we were up close! Another adventuresome effort at public transportation eventually got us back home, where Dana cooked dinner for all of us.





Monday - last full day of this 15 day adventure - are you tired of reading yet?? We went to St. Stephen's Basilica (above) and viewed the "Holy Right Hand" - they truly have a mummified hand is displayed (you have to pay to get the light turned on) and carried through the streets every St. Stephen's Day; no picture, sorry! The basilica was beautiful and the historical exhibits were very interesting.






We then rode a tram to Heroes Square. This is a large square with a semicircle of life-sized statues of many of the Hungarian heroes, including Kossuth and St. Stephen. While wandering around we came upon a castle - as we approached it I felt like I was in Dr. Zhivago!








Next we went on the tram to the Opera House (no pic - impossible to get an angle in the crowded street) and found out that the tour would be in about 2 hours. So we walked up the street and found a really nice and fun restaurant for lunch. Then back for the tour of the wonderful Opera House. A point of interest was that they had a guide for each of 6 different languages! After this did a bit more exploring on foot, had a cup of tea (we did this very often - usually twice a day looking for a place to rest, warm up, and use facilities!), and then .... you know, M. Ter, up hill, down hill and home. We ate left-overs and started packing.

Tuesday, it was snowing againso we decided on an inside event - a tour of the art museum in the palace. This was an excellent display of all Hungarian art and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We ate in Muskova Ter and headed home to pack, rest, say our goodbyes, and take the taxi to the airport. All of this went smoothly and we arrived in Dublin about 10:00, got our car from LT parking, and were in Tralee by 3:00 am. What a great adventure - dental work, friends, holiday and all for less than dental work alone would have been here or in the US!!