Budapest and the Danube Bend

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Day 10 (Sunday, September 14th, 2008)

After eating a quick breakfast in the restaurant below our hotel, Mike and I left Eger and took the 9:30 train to Budapest. We arrived in the city about two hours later where a taxi driver was awaiting our arrival from our bed and breakfast. The taxi driver was extremely nice and friendly, and spoke to us in broken Hungarian and German as we drove through the city, making sure to point out the famous landmarks. I was immediately impressed with Budapest and its beautiful architecture. I was also surprised at how big and sprawling the city was; it was so much larger than I had expected it would be. The best comparison I can come up with regarding the city is that it is a Paris in the making; it has all of the grand boulevards, gorgeous 19th century buildings, and outdoor cafes that the French city has but some areas of Budapest just need a little TLC.

We arrived at Bellevue Bed and Breakfast about 15 minutes after leaving the train station. Judit, one of the owners, greeted us at the front door and took us up the three flights of stairs to our room. Our room was of a decent size but the best part was the view of the Danube River and the Parliament across the river. After dropping off our things, we went downstairs and met Judit’s husband Lajos, who gave us a detailed map of the city and provided us with a ton of information on local restaurants, sightseeing, and public transportation.

We left the bed and breakfast and walked about ten minutes to the M1 metro line. From here, our first stop was the House of Terror Museum, which is housed in what was once the headquarters of the AVH/AVO (Hungary’s secret police during the Communist regime). The museum focuses on life in Hungary during the time of the Nazi invasion and after WWII when communism remained supreme. The House of Terror was one of the best designed and laid out museums we have ever visited. The displays were interactive, realistic, and visually interesting, and there was detailed English handouts in every room. The main atrium of the museum was covered with photos of the many victims who were tortured and then eventually killed in the building. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos within the museum; otherwise, I would have a picture of the atrium to show you as it was quite unique.

From the museum, we took the metro to a nearby stop and then walked to the Hungarian State Opera House. We arrived just in time to sign up for the 16:00 English tour, which was required in order to be able to view the auditorium. The opera was built in the 1890’s and the interior of the building is adorned with gold embellishments, detailed wood carvings, many frescoes and lots of marble. As gorgeous as the entryway is, it just cannot compare to the beauty of the auditorium, which has been lavishly decorated in reds and golds.

Next, we took the metro once again, this time stopping near St. Istvan’s Basilica. The church has recently undergone an extensive renovation and cleaning; as a result, the exterior of the building is a beautiful, creamy white color. I had assumed the church was built in the late 18th century as it seemed to be of the baroque style, but I later read that the church was not finished until 1905.

Afterward, we took the same metro line up to Hero’s Square, which is home to the Millennium Monument, Museum of Fine Arts, and the Palace of Art. The Millennium Monument was built in 1896 to celebrate the city’s 1000th birthday and contains sculptures of some of the most famous Hungarians. Even though it was cloudy, cold, and beginning to rain lightly, the square was filled with lots of people, both tourists and locals enjoying the beautiful surroundings.

From the square, we walked directly to City Park, which begins across the street from Hero's Square. Within the grounds of the park, there are many things to see or visit. We stopped in at Vajdahunyad Castle, which is a large complex featuring replicas of traditional Hungarian architecture; it contains a Transylvania castle, Benedictine chapel, and a Baroque mansion to name a few. Apparently, some people find the complex corny, but I thought it was actually laid out quite beautifully and looked extremely realistic.

From here, we walked down through the park to Szechenyi Baths, which is the location of one of Budapest’s many thermal baths. We were hoping to get some photos of the actual baths and pools as we were planning on going a few days later for a swim, but didn’t want to bring our camera with us. Unfortunately, the pool was closed when we arrived so I was only able to take photos of the exterior and a few of the entrance halls.

From Szechenyi Baths, we headed back to the bed and breakfast. We sat around for a bit, as we attempted to make a decision on a restaurant to eat for dinner. We left without deciding on a place to eat, but found one just five minutes down the street from our hotel called Restaurant A La Carte, which was a traditional Hungarian eatery. Mike ordered Goulash soup and pork with a garlic cream sauce; I had a potato soup and pork wrapped in bacon for the main course. The food was good, but not necessarily memorable although Mike said that the soup was quite tasty. After dinner, we hiked up the five million stairs back up to the bed and breakfast; I expected us both to have legs of steel by the time the trip ended!

Day 11 (Monday, September 15th, 2008)

We awoke this morning to a wet and rainy Budapest. After eating breakfast, our first stop of the day was the Hungarian Parliament, where we hoped to take the 10:00 guided English tour of the interior of the building (you can only view the interior via a guided tour). We walked around the massive structure of the Parliament (only 1/8 of the building is occupied by the legislature), and eventually saw a long line of people. As it was only 1It didn't take us long to figure out their system; we had to wait in a line with all others who wanted to buy tickets for a guided tour. However, the line for the tickets was hundreds of yards away from the actual room in the building where the tickets were purchased. The guards would only allow four people in at a time to buy the tickets, and for some reason, it would take ten minutes for each group of four people to buy their tickets. Under normal circumstances, I generally have patience when it comes to having to wait to enter a structure, especially when I know it will be quite beautiful and worth the wait. However, on this day it was pouring down rain with a slight wind and although we both had the proper weather attire (rain coats and an umbrella) it didn’t quite help the fact that we were both cold and miserable as we waited.

10:00 came and went; we hoped that we could still at least purchase tickets for a tour time later that day. Finally, 45 freaking minutes later, we were allowed to walk into the building to buy our tickets (only after many people had cut in front of us; DON’T get me started with this one!). When we walked up to the ticket window, the lady walked away for a few minutes; no wonder why this stupid process took so long! When she came back, we put in our request for two tickets for an English tour but were immediately informed that the English tours had already been sold out for the day. To top that off, we were unable to purchase tickets for any of the following days; tickets had to be purchased on the day of the tour.

Standing in line and wasting 45 minutes for a fruitless effort was bad enough by itself, but the fact that we had done so in the cold rain REALLY pissed me off. Why couldn’t they have mentioned to the five million people in line that some of the tours had sold out? It would have saved us a lot of time and aggravation. As we walked back out towards the line of people, I announced very loudly to the crowd that if they planned on taking an English tour they should turn around, as they were sold out. I don’t think many of the people wanted English tours though as they all looked at me quite strangely; oh well, at least I tried!

We continued on, heading back to the metro where we bought some delicious pastries at a shop in the subway. Mike had a pastry stuffed with hot dogs and mustard; it may sound gross but he said it was delicious. I had a sour cherry strudel, which was literally the most delectable cherry dessert I have ever consumed. We then took the metro and got off on a stop near Vaci Utca.

Vaci Utca is one of the main pedestrian boulevards in Budapest and is filled with many stores, boutiques, and restaurants, most geared towards tourists. Along the street, many of the buildings have attractive facades; these were once the town homes of the aristocracy and most have been beautifully restored to their former glory. Being a huge architecture buff, I attempted to take photos of the buildings but most of my attempts were generally ended with frustration as either I or the camera lens was sprinkled with rain drops. Not only that, but in my opinion, most everything just looks better with blue sky as its backdrop. A creamy limestone building doesn’t photograph as well against a gray dreary sky; you really need the sun to fully appreciate its beauty.

Eventually Vaci Utca met up with the Great Market Hall, which is a massive food and souvenir market that was originally built in 1896. Mike and I were looking very much forward to visiting this facility as we hoped to see and try a lot of new foods. The main artery of the hall was filled with paprika stands, butcher stalls, bakeries, produce stands, and few other random stalls. Upstairs, there was a large selection of souvenirs, both traditional (linens, glass, traditional toys) and non-traditional (key-chains, magnets, t-shirts, etc). I took a ton of photos upstairs of the many colorful objects. We also walked into the basement, which was mostly filled with fish stands and pickled items, along with a grocery store and a few places to buy a quick snack. At the end of our visit, we walked back up to the main hall, and bought a selection of items, including salami, prosciutto, bread, cakes, and pastries. We really enjoyed our stop at the market and probably spent close to two hours during our visit.

After the market, we walked back into the cold streets of Budapest. If you didn’t know what month it was, you could have sworn it was at least November or December; it was bitterly cold out! Along the way, we stopped at a small restaurant that served gyros, where I had the tastiest chicken gyro ever!

We walked down several blocks muddled with construction mess from the work on the new Metro 4 line, (scheduled to open in 2010), eventually arriving at the Great Synagogue. It is the second largest synagogue in the world, after the one in New York City and was originally built in 1850, but has been recently restored. The interior of the synagogue seemed to resemble a church, but then I read that when it was built in 1850, the Jews wanted to feel more integrated into society and part of the local community, so they purposely made it look similar to a Christian church. The interior of the synagogue was gorgeous, with lots of warm tones, gold embellishments, and Moorish influences within the design.

From the synagogue, we traveled back to our bed and breakfast. We sat in our room for a bit, enjoying some of the delicious goodies we had purchased earlier at the market. I did not have much motivation to complete any additional sightseeing as the rain was still pouring down, but we finally managed to convince ourselves to leave about 30 minutes later.

From the bed and breakfast, we walked about ten minutes uphill (and up several hundred stairs!) to Matthias Church, located in the Castle District of Buda. The church was built over 700 years ago, and was undergoing renovation on the exterior. As we walked into the interior, I was blown away by the beauty we saw; every inch was covered with colorful and ornate gilded wallpaper. The more we travel, the more churches we see and unfortunately, most tend to fade out from our memory; however, there are always a few that stand out in our minds, and this church will definitely be one of them!

From the church, we walked around Fishermen’s Bastion, which is a Neo-Romanesque rampart that looks much older than it really is; it was built in 1896 but looks as though it has been there for centuries! From the rampart, there were incredible views of the Danube River over to the Pest side of the city; of course, my thoughts at the time were that the views would have been a hundred times better had it been sunny out. At this point, I was quite grumpy and fed up with the cold and rainy weather and I was finding it difficult to pull myself out of the funk I was in. We walked for a short time behind the church along Tancsics street, which had some quaint old buildings. Eventually, I had simply had enough of the weather, so we walked back down to the bed and breakfast. Initially, we had planned to venture further into the Castle District, towards the Royal Palace, and later, to take a night cruise on the Danube, but neither just weren’t going to happen this day. We had spent too much time this day outside in the crappy weather; even us Washingtonians can only handle so much rain. We spent the rest of the night relaxing in our room as we heard the rain pelting down above us.

Day 12 (Tuesday, September 16th, 2008)

Today I had planned an excursion outside of the city to the Danube Bend, visiting the cities of Szentendre, Visegrad, and Esztergom, with a stop at the Hungarian Open Air Folk Museum. The Danube River, which begins in Germany, flows east through Austria before making a right turn near Budapest. Thus, this area of Hungary is known as the "Danube Bend", and encompasses several small towns north of Budapest, including the ones listed above.

Due to the lack of public transportation options between all three cities, we decided to splurge and hire a private driver for the day. The cost was quite expensive (28,800 HUF or about $171) but we figured it was somewhat worth the hassle of not having to complete the drive ourselves.

The driver picked us up from the bed and breakfast at 9:00. Our first stop was the town furthest away from Budapest, Esztergom, which happens to be home to the largest church in all of Hungary. The giant basilica was completed in 1869 in the Neoclassical style. The interior of the church was beautiful with many large frescoes painted everywhere.

After touring the church, we walked behind the building and down several hundred stairs to Vizivaros, which is also known as “Watertown” a small neighborhood of colorful homes and buildings. We later walked back up those stairs and met the driver in the parking lot of the church.

Next, we drove over the border to the city of Sturovo, located in the country of Slovakia for an expansive view of Esztergom over the Danube River.

From here, he took us back into Esztergom, where we were dropped off at the main square in town. Although it was raining out, I was quite happy just to walk around the newly renovated square that was filled with gorgeous old buildings.

From Esztergom, we headed to Visegrad, which was the smallest of the three towns we visited. We drove up some switchbacks to Visegrad Citadel, which is home to a not so interesting (at least in our opinion) castle. The views from the top however provided an amazing view of the Danube Bend, even with the crappy weather we experienced.

Next, we drove back down into the town of Visegrad, where we walked around for a bit. As the town is much smaller than the other two we visited, there really isn’t much to see or do in the city, with the exception of the Royal Palace (built during the Renaissance period), which is partially in ruins after being rediscovered in 1934.

After Visegrad, the driver took us to the Hungarian Open Air Folk Museum, which was located just a few miles from Szentendre. The museum features examples of traditional Hungarian buildings from all over the country. Each of the buildings are originals that were taken apart at their original location and then carefully moved and reassembled at the museum. The grounds were massive and quite spread out, so we were unable to visit each of the sections as we only had a little over an hour to visit. In order to ensure a complete and thorough visit, at least a full day would be required. As I’ve mentioned several times previously, I am a huge history buff so I absolutely love visiting the open air museums in Europe. Mike on the other hand only tags along for my enjoyment!

Our final stop of the day was at the town of Szentendre, which is the most frequently visited of all the cities along the Danube Bend. Our driver dropped us off at the end of town, and we walked in, eventually making our way to the center of town. The main drag in Szentendre was filled to the brim with shops selling all sorts of tourist junk and many tourists buying the crap! As we ventured away only a street or two from the main square, we would find ourselves being the only ones there, minus a few locals. The city was nice, and I guess quaint to a point, but it wasn’t as spruced up as Eger was, so overall, the experience was slightly disappointing.

We were driven back to Budapest and dropped off in front of the bed and breakfast. I was absolutely exhausted, so I took a nap while Mike left to go and find a place to drop our laundry off at.

Later that evening, we ate a late dinner at an Italian restaurant called Pizza Marzano, where we both ordered pizza that much to our disappointment, was not so good. We had attempted to eat dinner at a nearby highly recommended French restaurant, but when we looked into the windows of the restaurant, everyone seemed to be dressed up, so we didn’t feel comfortable enough with our casual clothes to eat there.

Day 13 (Wednesday, September 17th, 2008)

Our first planned sightseeing event today was to Statue Park, which was located several miles outside of downtown Budapest. Statue Park is home to statues that were erected throughout Budapest during the Communist era. In order to get to the park, we took a 15 minute tram ride from an area near our hotel, which dropped us off at a large bus station. From the bus station, we had to wait another 30 minutes for our bus to arrive. The bus ride to the park took about 10 minutes. When we arrived at the park, it was bitterly cold with a brutal wind. We were both surprised at the small size of the park; we had imagined that the park would contain dozens and dozens of statues, but we saw maybe 20 total. We spent about 15 minutes in the park taking photos, and then left to wait for the next bus. About 15 minutes later, we saw a bus approaching, but it continued to drive on without stopping for us or the other couple that was waiting. Luckily, another bus came about five minutes later.

After arriving back in central Budapest, we took the metro to the Holocaust Memorial Center. It’s a newer museum that has been created to honor the 600,000 Hungarian victims (both Jews and Roma) of the Nazis. The exterior of the building was very modern looking with creative tributes to the victims, including a black marble wall that was etched with the names of all of the victims. We were both very impressed with the interior of the museum as well; it was housed in a darkly lit space but used many interactive means to pull you into the story. There were various types of loud music that played overhead in each room, helping to emphasize the mood they were attempting to evoke. Along with the background story of the Jewish experience in Hungary during the first part of the 20th century, the museum also included various personal stories of several families who were directly impacted by the Holocaust. Similar to the Museum of Terror in Budapest, this museum was also well laid out with descriptive illustrations of the horrific experiences of the Holocaust in Hungary.

After the somber experience at museum, we took the metro to a different part of Budapest, where we stopped to buy our train tickets to Slovenia for the following day. As we had an Eastern European rail pass, we knew our pass would cover the journey through the border of Hungary, but not in Slovenia. All we needed to buy was a ticket from the start of the Slovenia border to the city of Ljubljana. When we inquired about the ticket prices, we were informed that it would cost about $82 USD for both of us. I was shocked at the price and asked what the ticket cost was from Budapest. Low and behold, it was a few dollars cheaper. I thought this was quite strange as the journey from Budapest to the Hungarian border was several hours. I was told that they were offering special discount prices from Budapest, so that was why the ticket cost less. Obviously, we decided to purchase the cheaper tickets from Budapest, as it made no sense to pay more money even though we would be unable to use our rail pass.

After buying the tickets, we went back to our bed and breakfast to collect the needed items for our next activity; relaxing in one of Budapest’s thermal baths. We had chosen Szechenyi Baths, which is located towards the middle of City Park. Mike was rather excited for this event while I, on the other hand, was actually quite nervous. I think my main problem was the fact that I did not know what to expect.

To give you a little background information, Budapest is filled with two dozen different thermal baths. Szechenyi is one of the most well-known and more popular with the locals. For centuries, those living in Budapest have taken advantage of the many thermal pools of water that lie below the city’s surface. Within the last two centuries, elaborate building complexes were created around these thermal pools to allow more people to soak in the warm waters. Today, Szechenyi is filled with many different sizes of pools on the outside, with most ranging around 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). Inside, there are several smaller thermal baths where the temperatures averaged around 36-38 degrees Celsius (97-100 degrees Fahrenheit).

After purchasing our entrance ticket and renting some towels, we walked to our changing cabin. We were able to leave our valuables in the small room as each door was locked. As apprehensive as I was, we finally made our way outside in the frigid air; well, not frigid, but it was only about 50 degrees Fahrenheit so it was quite cold to be outside in our swimsuits! We decided to visit the thermal baths inside first as they closed a few hours before the outside pools did. We soaked in the warm thermal baths for about 45 minutes; it was only slightly relaxing for me as I felt it was somewhat uncomfortable to be sharing such small spaces with so many other people, all of whom were in bathing suits. What I began to quickly realize though was that no one cared about how anyone else looked; everyone was just there to simply enjoy the warm waters and their company. Once I got over this fear, I began to feel more comfortable. We stayed in the thermal baths as long as we could, and then walked outside to the pools. We both nearly died when we took our first steps into the cold air; it was so insanely cold that I was unable to breath and could barely move. It felt as if my body was going into rigor mortis, as strange as that may sound!

Once in the large pools, we warmed up, but it took a little longer as they were slightly colder than the thermal baths. We stayed in the jetted area for a bit, and then eventually had a ton of fun swirling around in the whirlpool, where Mike dragged me along. We ended up staying for nearly two hours. In the end, I can honestly say that I had a thousand times more fun than I thought I would have originally had. Once I got over my insecurities and nerves, I was easily able to realize why the baths are so popular with the locals. Trying one of the thermal baths in Budapest is a requirement while visiting the city; it truly places you side by side with the locals and is an incredibly fun experience!

After the baths, we headed back towards our bed and breakfast, but not before stopping in at a restaurant called Horgasztanya for a late dinner. The restaurant was filled with both locals and tourists, and had quite an extensive fish menu. They also had plenty of pork and chicken dishes to choose from. I had roasted chicken breasts with mashed potatoes, which was actually much better than I thought it would be and delicious. Mike decided to be a little more adventurous than me and ordered pigs feet with roasted onions and potato croquettes. His dish was also good, especially the onions. The only problem with the restaurant however was the lack of service. We are not usually too picky in this department, but when we ask for our bill, we don’t mean 15 minutes later. The waiter was quite rude when we asked for the bill, and said something like “yeah, I’ll get to it” and waved his hands at us. However, during the entire 15 minutes we were waiting for the bill he was standing directly next to us talking to another patron. We thought it was quite rude, but the good food helped to make up for his disagreeable personality.

Day 14 (Thursday, September 18th, 2008)

On our final morning in Budapest, Mike left around 8:00 in order to try and obtain tickets for a tour at the Hungarian Parliament. We were aiming to obtain tickets for the 10:00 English tour, but ended up with the 11:00 German tour. Obviously, we don’t speak German but we figured we would just follow along.

After Mike returned from purchasing the tickets, we packed up all of our belongings and then headed downstairs for breakfast. While we ate, we had a long but enjoyable conversation with a couple from Michigan, and another from Seattle. One of my favorite parts of traveling is the people you meet and encounter through your travels, most of whom are exactly like you and truly understand the term “wanderlust”.

After breakfast, we headed out for the Parliament. Upon arrival, I was pleased to see a small group waiting, a few of whom also spoke English and like us, were unable to secure an English tour. As we walked inside the Parliament, I was blown away by the gorgeous interior. It was filled with lots of gold engravings and embellishments, and rich colors such as deep reds and blues, and it was made obvious that no expense was spared when this was built about 100 years ago. Although we couldn’t understand a word coming from the tour guide, we simply appreciated the architecture and design of the building, reading a few pages from our guidebook that descried the lavish interior.

After the 45 minute tour, we headed back to the bed and breakfast to pick up our bags. From here, we took a quick taxi ride to the train station, where we took a combination of a nine hour train, bus, and then train ride to Ljubljana, Slovenia, finally arriving around 22:00. From the train station, we had a 15 minute walk to Hotel Emonec, where we were staying for two nights. The hotel was conveniently right in the center of town. Our room was extremely modern and plain, but clean and of a decent price (77 Euros; about $112) so it worked for us. The only downfall was that the hotel was located close to a nightclub, so we heard loud music thumping throughout the night.

A warning: you will find several hundred photos on the next pages. Even though we never even saw one tiny glimpse of sunshine during our stay in Budapest, I still managed to take a ton of photos.

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Photos

Benedictine Chapel on the grounds of Vajdahunyad Castle
This pretty church is actually a replica of one from the 13th century

A meggy (cherry) pastry
The most delicious concoction made with cherries EVER!

Esztergom Basilica
The largest church in all of Hungary