Randi and I left the office early on Friday to fly to Budapest. As I filled out my urlaub forms to leave at 1:30, I realized we don't get summer Fridays in The D! Booo. Granted, we get more vacation summer Fridays are special because those that DO show up get a combination of a super productive and playful day. Well we don't play much at work so I guess it doesn't matter.
Neither of us are much for planning trips. I compiled a google map from places that friends recommended but nothing else. Randi printed a list of recommendations from a random website. Between the two of us, all we knew was that Buda and Pest were two different places.
Because of our unpreparedness, we arrived on Friday and set out wandering. The streets were empty, which was a little eerie. The buildings were Berlin-style large (not to be confused with tall) but many were almost black with what appeared to be soot. Randi theorized this was due to their previous reliance on coal. we both agreed that it looked cool.
While wandering, I came across my favorite chair of the trip. It was of the wooden dining room variety with a padded velvet seat. Here's a picture of me sitting in it.
After a lovely beverage on the Danube, we went to a Hungarian restaurant called Rosenstein Vendéglő. I would have taken pictures of my food but I didn't bring my camera on the trip and my phone was dead.
(this is a recurring theme we discussed - that we have become so desensitized to travel that we don't even take normal precautions such as bringing a camera or learning the first thing about a city)
I had a lovely pea soup followed by some meat thing for my monthly dose of iron that was on some really fantastic pan fried fingerlings. We had a really great Hungarian wine made from kekfrankos grapes in the Bodri region and named after this cool looking dog.
We were very full after dinner so we accepted our waiter's offer for Palinka. Every country has their own preferred aperitif - The theory is the alcohol helps you digest your food by cutting through your belly like a macheté. I think it kind of works and I wonder if I had an aperitif or 20 after the painful yet delicious dinner at Dovetail if I would still be permanently scarred. Probably not and I still only regret it just a little.
Before I get to the next topic, I need to disclaim that I have probably some of the most offensive looking feet ever. My pal Kevin reminded me daily that even though everyone has ugly feet, mine were a special kind of ugly. At some point in the dinner, we noticed that my right foot exploded. check this out! it's a giant. it also hurt and had some issues fitting it in my shoe. ole lefty was a good role model while righty went rogue.
Next we checked out a couple of the places recommended by Naman. First was a club Corvintetõ that from the outside seemed like a typical Berlin place with youths and techno. Turns out it had a sweet roof deck and it was a great night for sitting outside. Next we went to this other place Szimpla. We determined it was a full size apartment building, complete with Hof and Hinterhaus that was gutted and turned into this bar.
There were all kinds of tucked away rooms and random surprises. This is where I came across my #2 and #3 favorite chairs. There was also a Pommel horse which made me think of Evan since he's good at doing a pommel horse even on a pool table. I tried to swing around for a while but then my weakling arms gave up and we went home.
Saturday, I went for a run around the Danube. Running is maybe my favorite things to do while traveling. I already like running but there are so many good distractions while in a foreign city I can go for hours until I realize I have to get home because the breakfast buffet ends at 10. For the first time ever I kind of almost got lost. I didn't get off track but I didn't know where I was! I reverted to GPS before trying to figure it out myself. Like a Tigger I could have found my way I just didn't want to.
As I talk about grocery stores in almost every post, you already know they are my second favorite thing to do in foreign cities. I found these really great cookie/cracker/granola bars called Jó Reggelt!. They were sooo good. I emailed HQ to see if they can be purchased or shipped to my area and I got this response:
Darn
We went to this huge palace in Buda, We had to climb some great steps which I missed out on my run and at the top the view was overlooking all of Pest. Turns out this is also the palace from one of the most annoying songs/videos on VIVA. It is a really beautiful palace though. We wanted to enjoy a beverage at the top but the cafe had three competing groups of panhandling musicians and between the upright bass, the xylophone, and the violin, it was not our idea of a nice time.
Instead, we went inside a labyrinth! In the entrance way of the labyrinth there was a child's birthday party. Those kids are hardcore because it was spooky inside! It was just a titch more dark than I was comfortable with so I used my phone as a flashlight. I wasn't as scared as in the Minnesota State Fair Haunted House where I would open the emergency exit door to see the creepers. Also, the floor was really uneven and there were lots of puddles from the leaky cave so I was just trying to protect myself.
Some areas seemed to be preserved and some were built up as replicas. We had a hard time telling what was old and new and then towards the end we didn't even know if they were serious. It started with these cave drawings. Next, there was this room with a wine fountain (not potable, or so they claim). And there was also this giant crowned head sticking out of the ground (reminded me of the part in Star Trek IV when they go back in time). There was one area that was barricaded with glow in the dark ropes. Didn't seem effective at keeping people or monsters on either side of the barricade.
At the end it got really goofy. there were these "fossils" that were of cell phones and computers, so clearly they were trying to make a statement regarding our consumerism but they took it so seriously it was hard to see the point. The very last room was up a set of stairs and completely dark. I couldn't believe it was a part of the path but there was no other way to go. i cracked out my flashlight and found other people also looking for the path out.
After the labyrinth we went to Vörösmarty tér for a beverage. There was a nice xylophone player who let all the little kids play too. He needed to learn more songs. There was also a protest but it was poorly organized so the xylophone man just moved to the side and went back to the square when they were done.
We had dinner at Hungarian place recommended by Melissa, Cafe Déryné. It had a frenchy feel and reminded me of Artisinal or Balthazar but they were serving up Paprikash.
Sunday, we went to a Bath house. Melissa recommended it and it is also one of the largest in the world. We had a vague idea of what to expect but were sure to confirm in advance that folks would be wearing swimming suits (even though Randi forgot hers and bought one in the basement of the covered market). There was a mix up in the beginning so we ended up having to barter for a bed sheet to use as a shared towel.
The place was huge. but repetitive. and pretty normal - as normal as a bath house gets. There were about 30 pools of various temperatures with different minerals in them. Maybe if we could read the signs or knew the significance it would have been exciting but instead we just got in and out of each pool after about 5 minutes. Neither of us "relax" so when we found the room with the treadmills it was obviously where we spent the rest of our time.
We ended our weekend with a Bright Eyes concert in Berlin. The show was great and full of the crunchy folks in town. They played my favorite songs and we swayed with the hipsters.
I really liked Budapest. I liked how it shared a similar feeling to Berlin - a little beat up, rough around the edges, but still beautiful for the history. Budapest has massive and impressive structures but not the crunchiness of the inhabitants. Also, their bottled water is in GLASS bottles. Love it. The tap water was tasty but for those with special needs I'm glad they don't need to go plastic. And somehow there still isn't broken glass everywhere. Berlin, take note!
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