Budapes(h)t

Thursday, June 2 - Monday, June 6 2011

Eastern Europe is an interesting place to travel.  If you didn’t know better, it looks and feels like Western Europe.  But when you take the time to learn the history, and peel back the layers of western civilization that have flourished over just a 20-year timeframe, you find yourself in a unique place.  But Hungary has a slightly different twist than most other Eastern countries and we were excited to learn and experience that in Budapest. 

Our fourth of five cheap easyJet flights this year was a little different than the rest - we didn’t have to get up at 4am to catch the flight!  Actually, we woke up in the late morning and had time to kill before heading to the airport—it was kind of nice for a change!

By the time we arrived in Budapest it was already dinnertime – perfect for Budapest as we heard the food was amazing and cheap!  Referring to our trusty Rick Steves’ guidebook we found an appealing wine bar/restaurant that served all the Hungarian specialties.  We soon discovered that most Hungarian specialties center around meat!  In the first photo below you will see our appetizer, mostly sliced meat and pickled vegetables.  This was the first time that we got to experience Hungarian “bacon”, which we’re pretty sure is just chunks of fried lard.  We love bacon but that was even a little too much for us.  The main dishes were fantastic.  You can see on Ang’s plate, delicious duck with a little pizzazz from the chef and on Dave’s plate, pork knuckle!  If you’ve never had pork knuckle and you are not a vegetarian, try it…you’ll thank us later. :)  You can imagine by looking at the size of those plates that we were stuffed – a good time to call it a night…

Friday was our day to get to know the layout of Budapest.  What better way to do it than to take a free walking tour – the #1 rated thing to do on Tripadvisor.  The tour started in the center of Pest and in three hours we had made our way through the sights and over to Buda.  “Wait,” you say - “Buda” and “Pest”…not “Budapest”? :)  We should give you a brief history of the city.  Until 1873, Buda and Pest were two individual cities, separated by the Danube River.  The two cities formed the capitol of Hungary, and at that time Hungary was 3x as big as it is currently (after WWI Hungary lost 2/3 of it’s territory in the Treaty of Trianon).  We were also surprised to realize that Hungary joined forces with the Germans in WWII (they joined with the idea that the Hungary of pre-WWI would be restored, but once the holocaust started they tried to distance themselves… more on that later).  After WWII Hungary became a communist-run government (also more on that later) until 1989 when the iron curtain fell.

The currency in Hungary is the Forint, which has about 215:1 to the Swiss Franc…extremely hard to keep track of when mentally calculating prices.  You’d usually feel good for a meal that costs under “two grand”.  The language in Hungary is not like any other language in Europe.  One of the most obvious differences from English is that the “s” in the Hungarian alphabet is pronounced “sh”.  Thus the title of this post, “Budapes(h)t”. 

Anyway, back to the tour.  As we said, we hit up all the major tourist points of Budapest in three hours on one of the best tours we’ve had since being in Europe.  Some of the sites we saw:

Laszlo Marton’s sculpture of the Little Princess.  One of the most famous sculptures in Budapest, this was released in 1989 and was said to be the first non-Communist sculpture allowed in Budapest (in the Communist regime, art was strictly monitored and only art depicting camaraderie, triumph, or pro-state attitudes was allowed).  You can see the contrast between the princess and a typical Communist statue below.

Saint Stephen’s Basilica.  Named after the first king of Budapest…more on this church later.

Hungarian Academy of Sciences.  We were surprised to hear the list of famous Hungarians:  Ernő Rubik (Rubik’s Cube), László Bíró, (inventor of the ballpoint pen), and Harry Houdini, among others.  

The Chain Bridge, which was the first bridge that linked Buda and Pest, built in 1849.  All of Budapest’s bridges were destroyed in WWII but it was rebuilt to original design in 1949.

Hilly Buda.  While Buda looks grand and prominent with areas like Castle Hill, most of its glory is long gone.  Its buildings, while attractive on the outside, are now filled with non-extravagant government offices which, according to our tour guide, is an bureaucratic waste. 

Matthias Church.   We thought the tile roof was impressive until we ventured inside and discovered that the entire interior was covered in extravagant hand-painted frescos and other detailed decorations (as opposed to plain stone).  

Touristy Fisherman's Bastion.  Providing the best views of Pest, including the Budapest Parliament Building, which is the 3^rd largest in the world. 

One of the things we appreciated most about our tour was the practical information that they bestowed on us.  For example, horror stories about “tourist menus” where food is cheap but a bottle of water or wine is 200 Euros.  They also told us where the tourist areas begin and end, and where to find the cheapest entertainment and souvenirs.  We knew it was legit because after the tour they invited anyone interested in joining them to a typical Hungarian lunch café that only the locals knew about.  About 20-30 of us tagged along and they were gracious enough to translate the menu and order for us.  We thought our dinner from the night before was good, then we tasted even more “local” favorites for a quarter of the price and fell in love.  For the record, the steamed red cabbage is one of our favorite dishes in all of Europe.

After the tour we had all afternoon and evening to fill.  Our first stop was an ancient winery-turned-museum and tasting room.  We had heard a lot about Hungarian wines (including the infamous “bull’s blood”—which is a name that goes back to a legend of the 16^th century, when invading Turks were scared off by the red wine-stained beards of the Hungarians, which they thought was bulls blood because of the how intensely the Hungarians were fighting) and were excited to try them out for ourselves.  The museum was pretty interesting too and allowed us to transport back in time by entering underground wine caverns from the 15^th century.  While it was cool to see, there was an extremely unsettling aspect to the architecture – seemingly bottomless wells of water.  The most eerie thing about these wells were probably the fact that the water was so still that you couldn’t tell if it was glass or water until you kicked some dirt into it and watched the particles disappear into nowhere.  Yikes.  We quickly exited the ancient caverns and found the wine tasting…! :)

Our next treat of the day was stumbling across a medieval-looking archery range.  Heck yeah we are going to shoot some arrows!  It turns out that archery is pretty difficult… out of all of our attempts the only remotely close shot was Dave hitting the red outer layer.  Most attempts went like this…

We ended the evening with a return back to Saint Stephen’s for an organ concert.  We are suckers for classical music, and Europe generally doesn’t disappoint in this category.  The setting was fantastic and the music soothing.  Here is a small taste, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.

Saturday.  During our search of things to do on Tripadvisor, we discovered a cooking class.  Since the food so far was amazing we decided to give it a go, and therefore attended the first cooking class of our lives.  We were surprised at how much fun it was and how much we learned.  Our instructor was a woman named Agnes, who taught the class with her boyfriend Istvan.  They were fantastic hosts (and even sent us away with gifts)!  While we learned a lot about cooking and recipes, it was a unique experience for us as we got to spend time with locals, learning about their culture.  

After enjoying a fantastic sausage soup, chicken paprika, lemon-cheese dumplings, and great company, it was time for us to move on (although we were pleasantly surprised when Agnes packed up the leftovers for us to take with us for a round 2!).  We were interested in learning more about the Communism in Hungary so we took another free walking tour, put on by the same company as on Friday.  The big idea for Hungary during the Communism regime is that they had it easier then other countries.  After a bloody revolt in the 1950’s, for some reason the paradigm shifted away from “if you’re not with us, you’re against us” to more passive “if you not against us, you’re with us”.  This allowed most western culture influences like blue jeans, coke, chocolate, etc. to enter Hungary, while most other Eastern European countries did not have those luxuries. 

Some other highlights of the tour included a secret bomb shelter which was unknown by nearly all of the citizens of Budapest until recent years (photo below on left).  On that same topic, we should also mention the escalators that lead down to the metro/subway.  In the photo below (right) you can see how deep they go, 115 feet to be exact.  Yes, also designed to double as bomb shelters.

We also saw buildings with giant bullet holes still in them from WWII and Anti-Communist revolts (photo below on left).  In fact, Budapest still sells the use of their streets to Hollywood to act as backdrops in war movies!  Although this is slowly changing as the government and private investors continue to restore these areas of town.  It was also strange to see buildings with years of smudge on them (right) next to buildings in the process of being cleaned (middle).  Not sure if that can be tied directly to Communism or not, but still interesting. :)

We also had the rare treat of seeing a communist-era car, the Trabi, parked on the street.  Surprisingly, while most Communist symbolism was torn down shortly after the fall, there remains one monument, which represents the “liberty” from the Nazi regime in WWII (the irony being that the city was liberated into the hands of another suppressive regime).  Unfortunately we didn’t make it out to Monument Park, which contains all of the torn-down statues from Budapest’s communist past.  Next time!

We ended the evening with another sobering experience.  As it was with most cities impacted by the Nazi’s, there were horrific stories of Jewish genocide.  Budapest was no different.  Before WWII, a quarter of Budapest’s population was Jewish.  Although Hungary was aligned with Germany during WWII, the idea of murdering the Jewish population was not in line with the majority of the Hungarian population, or its prime minister.  In 1944 Hitler got impatient with Hungary and invaded, causing the prime minister to flee and be replaced by a pro-Nazi leader.  This led to the legalization of a previously outlawed Hungarian Party, the Arrow Cross, which then acted as an extension of the Nazi party, carrying out their dirty work in Hungary.  A monument on the east bank of the Danube remembers possibly the most horrific of the Arrow Cross acts.  During the winter of 1944-45, Jews were repeatedly lined up on banks of the river, tied together, and one was shot and thrown into the icy river, dragging the others in to drown.  They did this to conserve ammunition.  However, before the Jews were killed, they were forced to take their shoes off as those were seen as a reusable commodity.  The current memorial is just that - empty shoes to remember and reflect on those who were killed in such a terrible way.

Next to the memorial, we sat on a small retaining wall, enjoyed our leftovers, watched the sunset and reflected on such tragic history that really wasn’t that long ago.

As a side note, right before we left Budapest on Monday we also stopped by the Great Synagogue (the second largest synagogue in the world).  Although we didn’t have time to go inside, we did catch a glimpse of a monument behind the synagogue remembering victims of the holocaust in a unique way – each of those silver leaves you see hanging has a name of one Jew murdered in Budapest.

Sunday was our last full day in Budapest and we still had plenty to see.  One of the main draws of tourism to Budapest is the Turkish thermal baths (the Ottoman Turks ruled in Hungary for parts of the 16^th-17^th centuries until the Austrians kicked them out).  In fact, Budapest boasts the world's largest thermal water cave system.  While there is close to a hundred natural springs in Budapest, there are three major ones to choose from as a tourist.  We were torn between Széchenyi and Rudas…so we did both!  Since Rudas was said to be the more traditional Turkish indoor bath experience, we decided to do that one in the early morning and move to Széchenyi later in the day, as it is more of an outdoor venue.  Before you start to wonder, no, we did not participate in the nude bath experience. :)  While the baths are reserved for men and women separately during certain days of the week, they are strictly swimsuit required on the weekends (and open to both men and women). 

While we are glad we did both baths, we enjoyed Rudas more, simply because it felt authentic and special (while Széchenyi felt more touristy and water-parky).  The routine in the baths is simple – continually move from different hot and cold temperatures to the next (choice of water, steam rooms, or saunas).  It actually reminded us a lot of the Finnish sauna and snow routine we did at the snow village in January.   Our “favorite” (quotations on “favorite” because at the time you hate it but afterwards your body feels great) was moving from the 42-degrees C (108 F) pool to the 16-degrees C (60 F) pool and back.  Invigorating!  (60 doesn’t sound that cold, but trust us, it feels like ice.)  The experienced was enhanced because all of this was done underneath a Turkish-styled dome, which had sections of colored glass that allowed beams of sunlight to pierce the shadowy interior.  The steam room was crazy.  Have you ever breathed in air so thick that you felt like you could chew on it?  That’s what happens when the room is heated to 65-degrees C (150 F).

Our time at Széchenyi was different.  It also had the thermal baths but they were overrun with people and felt very YMCAish.  On the contrary, the main draw for Széchenyi is the exterior pools surrounded by the striking exterior architecture.  We had a lot of fun hanging out in the jet powered whirlpool section, which you can kind of see people enjoying in the center photo, below.

We ended our evening at Széchenyi but between our two bath experiences we also made some other stops, which included…

A cave church

Liberation Monument on top of Gellert Hill.  The Communists erected the monument in 1947 to symbolize peace, liberty and the end of fascism.  However ironic that seems, it was decided to leave it up post-communist era and re-define it as a new symbol of liberty.  The hill had amazing views of the city. We happened to reach the top right before a rainstorm moved in over Pest.  It was strange to watch the thick clouds swallow up the skyline (see below). 

City Park.  Millennium Monument greets you before entering the park and houses statues that pay tribute to all the important Hungarian leaders of the past.  

Just beyond, Vajdahunyad Castle, which was first built from cardboard and wood during the 1896 millennium celebration in Budapest.  Residents loved the Transylvanian-styled castle so much that they built a permanent version a few years later.  It felt very Disneyland-ish as we walked though the exaggerated gate.  Another impressive part of the castle is the large pond, which, while full of canoes during summer months, is frozen over in the winter to make a GIANT ice skating rink (the largest outdoor skating-rink in Central Europe).  Go big or go home, huh?  

George Washington even made an appearance!  No joke, the statue of George was funded by Central European immigrants to the U.S. as a thank you to America for welcoming so many people that escaped tyranny in the 20^th century. 

Our flight on Monday left in the late afternoon so we had some extra time on Monday morning.  Our last major tourist stop was Great Market Hall, a massive 3-story market that felt kind of like Pike Place Market in Seattle.  We had two major goals here – souvenirs and the delicious food we’d eaten all weekend.  While browsing we passed multiple booths with Hungary’s specialties on display, two of which we haven’t yet touched on in this blog: 1) Goose Liver and 2) Paprika.

Yep, fresh liver.

Goose Liver tastes as uneasy as it sounds.  We’ve noticed that liver is a very European thing (or we’ve just ignored it in the US up till now) and is a delicacy, which makes it too awkward to refuse when it’s served to us.  Unfortunately it’s not as if the fois gras (fois gras is how liver is typically served) is a side dish on the table to eat (or not eat) at your leisure.  No, it’s deliberately served as a pre-meal course and makes for interesting conversations as to how we will get rid of it each time it’s presented. :)  But alas, each time we try to “take in” the local culture and have a couple bites—then cut up and push around what’s left to make it look like we ate more than we actually did, haha.

Also, we had forgotten that ground paprika is simply ground up peppers.  You see it everywhere in Budapest and it is in most Hungarian recipes.  Additionally, people buy whole paprika/peppers like you see below and add it to their foods for an additional kick.  We walked away with a couple pouches, one sweet and one spicy.

Before leaving the market, we ate a couple delicious foods (1 more serving of that yummy red cabbage dish!) and that about ended our time in Budapest. 

We took the train back to the airport and when least expecting it, created one more fun memory.  We arrived a little early to the airport because we read our departure time wrong, so we decided to spend the rest of our Forints in the airport café.  The outdoor seating at the café looked out over the runway and for about an hour or so we got to study the embarking and disembarking procedures of easyJet.  It’s actually quite interesting to observe.  Out of time, we hesitantly joined the subjects of our studies and boarded our plane for Geneva…