"Don't mention the war!" Budapest - Hungary

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We left Ljubljana just on lunch time deciding to get some distance behind us before we stopped for lunch. We stopped at random at the town of Turnišče. We had a bowl of soup each, two mains (I had turkey, while Eileen had bratwurst) a 500ml beer and glass of wine for 11 Euro. Our waiter Davorin with his semi Mohawk haircut was very helpful talking us through the menu. The pumpkin seed oil dressing on the salad was ‘yum’. If you are passing this nice restaurant, Gostilna Varašanec, it is well worth a visit. You can’t miss it, just stop at the sandwich board with chalk writing.

We decided to do the “Hop on Hop off” bus in Budapest as it is a big city and the attractions are well spread out. This worked out well as it gave us two days transport, commentary on the main attractions, an hour and a half ride on the Danube, a couple of walking tours and a night bus tour.

For those of you familiar with “Fawlty Towers”, we had a Hungarian “don’t mention the war!” moment. We were on a walking tour of the Parliament district of downtown Budapest and the tour guide was explaining some Hungarian history. She recounted a dark day in Hungary’s history under communism when “the Russians” rolled in on tanks and shot peaceful protestors. She then remembered one of the young women on the tour was Russian. This prompted a lengthy explanation about the difference between Russia and the Soviet Union and an equally lengthy apology for her saying “the Russians” when she meant “the Soviets”! She then repeated the same mistake 3 more times each with an increasingly embarrassing apologyeach time . “We don’t hate the Russians,” she said, “it was the Soviets!” To quote a famous NZ beer advertising campaign ... yeah right!

One of the places we spent time in was the Synagogue and Jewish museum. It was an interesting visit and we were informed by two guides describing past events.

On our last day Eileen purchased a couple of tops for the Greek Islands. I said “do they use tops there?”

Budapest is a large city that deserves more time than the couple of days we gave it.

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