Budapest

June 1st-4th, 2019

Hungary…I was, until I filled up on everything Budapest had to offer [pardon my cheesy opening]! This city gets me (and my tummy)!Walter’s taste buds don’t fall far from the tree either 😉

We had an early departure from the Kraków Airport, and easily arrived to BUD to get a nice full day of exploring in. After getting settled into our Airbnb, we headed to Mazel Tov within the Jewish Quarter for a wonderful lunch. The garden vibe of this airy café was just beautiful and the perfect place to unwind after an early morning over an amazing Middle Eastern mean – fresh hummus, olives, pita, Tahiti, shawarmas, and pastrami sandwiches! I couldn’t help but smile as Walter of course was a social butterfly and made more girlfriends relaxing on the patio of this stunning cafe. He had a blast giggling with the ladies next to us visiting from Germany and Russia. Before he turns two, I’m pretty sure he’ll have a lady friend in every country at this rate 🙂 The glass and metal framing of this space, mixed with such lovely garden elements really is done right. Definitely add to the “must do” list in Budapest!

 

We spent the afternoon roaming through the city – Budapest is the largest city we’ve visited on this trip, with an estimated population of 1.7 million spanning ~325 miles.  We stayed on the Pest side (the Danube river runs through the city, and it was previously separated/named as two separate cities: Buda and Pest), just north of the Central Market Hall. From our rental property, following lunch we walked our way to Heroes’ Square, a major square within the city that includes the Memorial Stone – similar to the Tomb of the Unknown Solider; and, huge statues of crucial Hungarian leaders. From here, we worked our way through the beautiful City Park. With over 300 acres, we only skimmed the surface of this grand area. But, I loved everything it had to offer…fun car styled paddle boats along the river, the zoo, one of the main thermal baths (Széchenyi Bath) often visited by tourists, and the gorgeous Vajdahunyad castle(which is actually the home to the largest agricultural museum in Europe). Outside of the great views, the parts I loved most about this adventure were 1) finding GIANT cotton candy in the park 2) stumbling upon the largest Rosé festival in Europe and 3) delicious pizza, drinks, and lovely company at said festival! We also witnessed a wedding reception kicking off and as we entered the castle grounds I couldn’t help but collect some of the colorful rose peddles that danced across the cobblestone path to help express my excitement for all of this! As a quick aside the Hungarian currency also has been making me smile at each transaction…with a 1:288 conversion, Hungarian Forints make on the fly conversion so interesting (e.g. our cab ride from the airport was 7500 HUF), and frankly I was feeling like I hit the winning lottery numbers when I peek in my wallet to pull out multiple 10,000 bills. I was excited to find my previously referenced fresh cotton candy in the park, but almost fell over when I heard the vendor request 1000 HUF for it! As a result, I’ve loosely adopted the “eat, drink, purchase…don’t worry about it” mentality, as most of what we’ve encountered has been priced pretty reasonable….so, back to the fun! At the festival, we saw the coolest method for smoking salmon (see included photo below), ordered a hot dog that ended up being GIGANTIC and covered in toppings (my translation to ask for a plain hot dog apparently failed) for Walter (he ate every last bite, so guess not a problem), and enjoyed meeting the variety of producers. My two favorite pours were a Sparking Rosé Brut from Garamvari & an amazing, easy to sip Rosé Cuvée (I should have brought a case of this home with us) from Dúzki Szekszárd (from a primary region in Hungary for rose production).  After a wonderful first day in the city, we decided to walk toward the river front to catch sunset and learned just how beautiful this city was at dusk. En route to the Danube, we stopped in a bakery because we simply couldn’t stop at their windows alone and took home a nut roll and cheery danish to share for breakfast the next morning (good choice). As we continued along the waterfront and the sun sunk further for the night, the city truly came to life.  Views from the Szechenyi Chain Bridge were lovely (and we liked the bridge’s large lions). Budapest has done an amazing job coordinating/planning to have the entire waterfront and many other buildings up lit for an amazing night time scene. Most places I have traveled I feel share some (even if minimal) similarity; but, the river, mix of architecture, up lighting, etc. really create a distinguishing uniqueness for this city (that I am LOVING). We finished off the night with a brief visit to a café in a cute outdoor area dressed with some neon signs (Ciao Bella, Piazza Budapest, etc.) before it was bath time for Walter followed by bedtime after our extra early start to the day.

(The breakfast pastry we picked up from this spot was amazing…but, still not sure how we passed up their cream puffs!)

 

We arose to another beautiful day in the city, and enjoyed breakfast right at our rental property (the wonderful pastry picked up for the night before pared with a fresh coffee from the café across the street).  Our day started with a nice walk across the river to the Buda side of the river (the great view we had been taking in from the opposite side). Looking down the river on our walk across the bridge, we noticed how different each bridge was – yet, somehow they all have a nice harmony as you gaze down the waterfront. As we crossed the bridge, we also enjoyed the view of the waterfall that greeted us on the other side, and could see a variety of statues embedded throughout the side of the mountain that stood ahead of us. We were focused on reaching the Buda Castle, so turned the other direction vs. making the climb up Gellert Hill (but, will have to return one day to explore the Gellert Hill Cave, and climb to the top to see the Budapest Liberty Statue up close/catch the amazing aerial views of the city). We could already tell, it was going to be an amazing day ahead. The weather was PERFECT – blue skies, temperature in the 70°s and climbing, a comfortable breeze and pretty mild crowds around an area that we’d expect to be dense with tourist. The castle gardens provided a lovely walk toward the castle, and we caught our first view of the House of Parliamentpeeking around the archways throughout the garden (wow, even more stunning in person than photos can capture).  In addition to being a nice area to leisurely stroll, we noticed a unique theatre (outdoor) and just before entering the gardens spotted a movie being filmed (plus, Bryan was excited to find the “spy machine” pictured below). As we made the gradual climb to the castle, we examined the significant structure walls and discussed how challenging life must have been (back in the 1200’s when this was started)  – in particular how frustrated I would have been dedicating my life to building something that took 200+ years to construct and I would never see finished. With the weather so delightful, we decided to hold on entering the castle (now the National Gallery and History Museum) and grab a bite at a café overlooking the river and House of Parliament. While it may have been a “tourist destination”, the views just warranted the stop. Regardless, our salads, bruschetta and drinks were the perfect pause (and, we ran into a funny translation disconnect. Bryan requested no dressing/dressing on the side for his salad, and the waitress giggled…but, knew enough English to help explain he had requested no dress (female attire) with his meal. Glad we all had a good laugh 🙂 before continuing our day). After lingering here a little longer, we made our way up a grand staircase and found the upper level of the Buda Hill Funicular and Sandor Palace, official residence of the Hungarian President, staffed with guards at each entrance point. Walking alongside this building provided nice views of the other side of the city, giving us a glimpse into the more rural parts of the city. Ultimately, we made our way to the striking Matthias Church (the colorful roof tiles are just astonishing in person) and beautiful terrace and dedication to the fishermen’s guild, Fisherman’s Bastion (which provided even better views of the House of Parliament, leaving us quite awestruck). Suddenly, a big rain cloud rolled in; so, we decided to head toward the funicular for a possible “quick escape.” Luckily, as the rain started we found easy shelter alongside a building and could tell it was going to be very short lived. As it lighted we made our way inside the ticket stand and boarded the funicular for a much briefer cruise down than our walk up had provided. It was the perfect reprieve from the quick passing rain cloud, so we could continue our walk over the bridge and back into the city center, rain free! We made reservations the day prior to secure space at the Aria’s rooftop lounge – good choice (second rooftop we’ve encounter on the trip that we wouldn’t have been able to access without a reservation). As we entered into the main lobby of the hotel we were really impressed by the sophisticated baby grand piano. It’s digital, vertical displayed provided a preview to the player’s keystrokes and when we passed by we noticed the music was being read from a tablet. As we made our way off the elevator to the rooftop level, we all smiled as the cute “Welcome, Gorgeous!” sign that greeted us.  The views were lovely, including the vantage point of St. Stephen’s Basilica right next door! We had the perfect afternoon snack with fun cocktails – a veggie plate with a collection of Mediterranean style dips, sweet and spicy sausage over cucumber salad, falafel bites, and mini churros with a spicy hot chocolate dip. Following our down time, we walked through the breathtaking St. Stephen’s Basilica, one of the two tallest buildings in Budapest (same height as the House of Parliament to represent that worldly and spiritual thinking have the same significance). While walking through this beautiful space, we also saw many choir groups and concerts advertised and learned the Basilica has always served an active role in the music community of Budapest since its consecration (1905). We secured recommendations for some favorite dining spots from the employees at the Aria, and settled on dinner on Aszu‘s patio. This modernized restaurant provide a tribute to tradition, and was a wonderful place to try chicken paprikash (one of two dishes I wanted to ensure I tried while in Budapest). I’m spoiled to have a mother that loves to cook, and have enjoyed excellent paprikash my entire life…but, it was even better than I could have imagined. Fresh, flavorful and accompanied by the most amazing cottage cheese dumplings that were nice an fluffy (and much lighter than I expected). Bryan equally enjoyed his lamb shank here and the patio vibe was the perfect balance of upscale and relaxed.  While none of us really “had room” we wanted to check out the gelato shop we had spotted down the street, so lingered around the main market square just outside St. Stephen’s Basilica for a bit after dinner (and even happened to run into another family we had met on Day 1 in the City Park, so our boys had fun running around the cobblestone square together) before it was time to place an order at the counter of Gelato Rosa. After having a large meal, this more petite serving of gelato (I opted for just two flavors) was the perfect sweet treat…although, really almost too pretty to eat! We decided to take an evening riverboat cruise, so as we awaited our boarding time we explored various stores in town (including BUDAFCKPEST), a variety of vendor stands throughout Erzsébet Square, stopped at the Ferris wheel (Budapest Eye) that was installed in 2017 (Walt finally met a girl friend his own age at this park), and made our way toward the river. Choosing the 9PM cruise was perfect – as we boarded we cut the tale end of the golden hour/dusk, just on time to watch the illumination of all buildings take over the show as the sun slipped away. There was a tragic boat accident (involving a River Boat Cruise & smaller ~30-40 passenger tour boat similar in size to what we were boarding) that occurred just days before our arrival to the city, so I was feeling a little squeamish about this tour. Ultimately, decided it was a once in a life time opportunity to be here and take in all we could (plus, it was one of the first times in 70+ years a Viking River Boat had this type of incident). I’m glad we embarked, as the views were amazing (I mean really, check out the photos of the House of Parliament alone if you were wondering if one of these brief cruises are “worth it”) and the hour ride provided a nice end to our evening (seriously…what a day! I don’t think we could have possibly gotten into any more fun.).

 (See the outdoor theater)

(How about these earrings!? Didn’t grab anyone this souviner, sorry!)

We all decided a low key last day in the city would be the perfect way to wind down before our journey home the next day. We made the brief walk to the Central Market Hall to explore the three floors of produce, souvenirs, and decided we had to eat lunch here before moving on for the day! We dove into a slightly earlier lunch (after snacking on an tasty, apricot filled cookie earlier) – sharing more stuffed cabbage, a rice/sausage mix (almost like a non-spicy jambalaya), and trying our first langos (deep fried dough, almost prepared liked a pizza). We tried a savory lango option vs. sweet…and it was really flavorful (almost reminded me of a cold veggie pizza commonly served as an appetizer in the U.S.), and topped with a similar feta cheese to what I had sampled in Kraków. Yumm…with full bellies we thought about embarking on the walk to the House of Parliament to tour the inside; but, it was just so beautiful out we decided we needed to just relax along the Danbue and take in these final moments in an incredible city. We had fun spotting some of the local statues throughout the city (Walter especially was fascinated with this after his earlier encounter with all the gnomes in Wrocław; so much that when we passed a statue surrounded by a local group of students, he went right through the crowd to pet the doggies head – see photo below). After this relaxing day, we ended it on a high note by retreating to the  Gellért Thermal Baths. Gramma & Ed were kind enough to spend some time with Walter at a local park to give Bryan and I a little downtime which allowed us a chance to check out all the baths (various temperatures, indoor and outdoor, etc.)  and enjoy massages followed by dinner out (date night for our final night in Budapest…as relatively “new parents” I cannot express how much we appreciated this kind gesture!). I only wish I would have found my 40°C (104°F) bath sooner (if you like HOT bath/showers, this is a treat)! We had another great meal (seriously lucky, didn’t run into disappointing food anywhere along our trip) at Salt & Pepper, which we simply stumbled upon during our walk back to the rental property.  While I wasn’t largely hungry after such a big lunch; I was on a mission to still try Beef Stroganoff in Budapest and smiled when I spotted in on the menu. I also caved on ordering soup, as I saw quite a few people enjoying small cups of what looked to be a yummy bisque…I inquired with the waitress to confirm which soup I had spotted; but, then made a last minute decision to try the “cold fruit soup” listed on the menu. It was refreshing/delicious (almost like a smoothie bowl); but, check out the size (this is NOT what others around me were enjoying their soup in) so Bryan and I had a good laugh over my ordering choices for “not being too hungry [in Hungary]. Needless to say, even with both of our best efforts we left some soup behind to save room for our fabulous meals! Bryan thought his steak, paprika style (over potatoes, onions, peppers, etc.) was one of the best meals he had on the trip and my stroganoff was decadent. Two big differences to what I’ve been accustom to with this dish – 1) it also had ham in it (which seemed a little more like a prosciutto) and 2) upon ordering I was asked if I wanted it served over rice or potatoes. I’ve always had this meal paired with egg noodles, so asked for the local recommendation and the insisted potatoes. While I ran out of room for all the potatoes (even though I definitely liked this new companion and will consider when making at home in the future), I somehow found a way to nearly finish off my stroganoff. Truly a great way to sign off from one amazing trip!

 

While Poland obviously holds a special place in my heart given my heritage, Budapest really was a show stopper and I feel fortunate for experiencing so much of the city in a short time. Hopeful to see it again one day, and encourage you to add it to your travel list!

 

Until next time…