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The trained arrived in the station at just before 1 pm. When we stepped off the train we were greeted by 2 things both not pleasant. The first, and most noticeable, was my dear friend humidity. I do not like humidity; fortunately it wasn’t Deep South or Chicago humid. The second thing was the obnoxious taxi hockers. The literally tried to take your suit cases out of your hand before you even got off the train and wisk you to their waiting taxi. Between Jerry and myself I am pretty sure we said no about 20 times.
The train station is under some serious renovation and it took a bit to find the main lobby. Once we found that I went inside to covert some Euros to Forint’s while Jerry had a smoke. The guide book already warned us to watch out for those trying to offer to convert your money for you on the street. Ok, I probably didn’t really need to be warned about that, like I am going to give some stranger on the street money and expect them to give me 1) the right amount of their currency and 2) something that isn’t counterfeit. What I
didn’t expect was to be approached by these people directly in front of the legitimate currency exchange both. Again, I had to say no 10 times, as they shoved their calculators in my face with their offered exchange rates. Very luckily for me the woman at the real exchange booth spoke English (as Magyar is not a language we are learning any time soon) and was very helpful. I handed her 200 Euros and she gave me back 47,165 Hungarian Forints (HUF). Just to give you an idea of what a Forint isn’t’ worth 1000 forints equal just under $4.50. Our money will go much further here.
After that we then met our next challenge, the Metro. Unlike Paris or Vienna, they are not very good with signs here. If you don’t know where the entrance is you may just never find it. The entrance to the metro at the train station was simply an unmarked set of stairs going down. We figured it out and headed down. Metro Challenge number 2, buying tickets. Again, I stood in a short line to buy two single tickets (tomorrow we begin unlimited travel with the Budapest Card) again, I got lucky
and the ticket agent spoke English so I paid the 600 forints for our 2 tickets and we were off. Metro Challenge number 3, The Fair Inspectors. At the entrance of each and every metro stop are 2 to 4 inspectors standing guard to make sure you either have a valid pass or validate your one trip ticket. Evidently, tickets are very expensive and they show no mercy.
So, we have thus far managed to find the metro, buy a ticket and successfully get on the train. Challenge number 4 (maybe I should say test) Can you find the right exit out? Unlike Paris and Vienna and more like New York, you have to exit on the correct side or you end up in the wrong place. We failed part one of this challenge and came up square in the middle of the plaza. We failed the second part of the test by taking the longest route possible to our hotel, which is just off this main plaza.
We finally made our way to the hotel and checked in with no challenges. We are staying and an Ibis and everyone speaks English, they are even making all of
our dinner reservations for us. After we settled in to our room we loaded up all of our dirty clothes and headed for the Laundromat, it isn’t that type of Laundromat more of a fluff and fold service. To get there we took the tram, no air conditioning and very crowded. We found the place easily, the woman again spoke English so for 6800 forints we are having 2 big loads done and 4 shirts laundered and ironed.
From there we headed to pick up our Budapest Cards and found the place without any problems. The final test was finding our way back to the hotel, Metro Challenge (ok I have lost track now) we went down the wrong side so had to go back up cross the street and go down the correct side. The rest we did fine; got off at the right stop made our transfer and even came out the right exit to get to our hotel.
Finally, we went to the nearby grocery store to get some wine and a snack, snack was very bad too much mayo for Jerry and just not very good for me. The water was very refreshing and
we purchased 6 big bottles. We also bought 2 bottles of wine, white was horrid and got dumped red is ok. While I am typing this we are also picking out all of our dinner choices for this city. This is something we never really do, but the language is an issue and we need our front desk staff to make our reservations. I just got back from the reservation making adventure. It went pretty well and we ended up getting all but one of the places we wanted, but we did have backups. You will of course hear all about those later.
Travel days are always hard; there is the getting up packing and then getting to the train and from the train to the hotel. Also it’s the first day in yet another new city so we have to get our bearings and Jerry’s since of direction takes a bit of time to kick in. By the way, in Vienna I actually was right about a direction, this happens about once every 3 years. I apologize for the lack of pictures in this blog, but as I said the first day in a new city with a
new language can be a bit daunting. We will make up for it and of course there are the pictures from dinner. That is about it for now, the room is very comfortable, King size bed, large room and a bathroom you can actually use the toilet and shut the door at the same time. We are here for 4 nights and 3 full days, there is much more to come from this strange new world.
The First Dinner We did not get our first choice for dinner this evening, but we will be at that place on Sunday. Tonight we did have a wonderful dinner and experience. The name of the restaurant was Bagolyvár, (Owls) it is in an old Transylvanian manor house and tonight was the perfect night to have dinner in something Transylvanian. This place use to be operated 100%!b(MISSING)y women, it has since changed hands and is now a mix staff but all very young, and way to good looking, both men and women. This was two metro rides from our hotel, but very easy to get to. It sits on the edge of a park and Hero’s Square (more about that in
a day or two).
While I was waiting for Jerry to shower and change a huge thunder storm rolled in. Not a Portland thunderstorm but a Midwest thunderstorm. Huge flashes of lighting and loud thunder claps. It pretty much subsided by the time we left for dinner. We found the place with no problem and it looked like a Transylvanian Manor House. The interior had vaulted ceilings with exposed dark wood beams, marble tile floors of dark red and several tables throughout. There was also a large terrace but only set of diners were sitting out there.
The Meal
We had the tasting menu which was paired with Hungarian wine. It was the best choice we have made yet as far as dinning. Each course was a traditional Hungarian dish, slightly updated. It consisted of 5 courses and 4 wines. The only course that was not paired was the soup. Each dish just got better and better, the best part is I have they gave us a copy of the menu in both Magyar and English. The entire meal was 25,000 Huf, which is $110 for both of us. There is no way you could
have the same meal in Portland for anything less than 3 times that. The wine pours were also very generous.
While we were dining the thunder and lightning return along with a huge down pour. It was raining so hard the two men that were sitting outside had to come in, because they needed to retract their awnings, so they would not burst from the weight of the water. So imagine, you’re sitting in a Transylvanian Manor House eating a wonderful traditional Hungarian Meal with loud claps of Thunder huge flashes of lighting and a torrential down pour. The only thing missing was Dr. Frankenstein or the Count himself. It was a great end to a long day and a great beginning to our time in Budapest.
The Menu (in English) Foie Gras with Onion Marmalade and fried Onion Rings
Old Fashioned Chicken and Beef Broth with Semolina Dumpling
Harotbágy Style Pancake stuffed with Chicken Pariksah
Leg of Duck Confit with braised cabbage and onion mashed potato
Sponge cake Somló Style
I am sure we will be having wonderfully scaring dreams tonight. Hopefully it won't be about the toothless prositutes that were offering us there services, but more about that tomorrow.
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Shari Hughson
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Metro Challenges
It's a good thing you have so much big city experience with metros and subways. For a less experienced rider (like me) I would probably still be on the train. Maybe I would have ended up in a different city even! All the electrical storms sound exciting. I love those things.