Bratislava and Budapest

Well, 3 planes, 13 trains, and 15 cities later, I have returned from my two week euro trip. This spring break, I got to tick off two new countries: Slovenia and Hungary. My first travel day was completely exhausting.

Sadie and I caught a train to Charleroi airport in Belgium at 7:30 in the morning, and didn't get to Budapest until 6:30 that night. Whew! I don't have much to say about our brief stay in Bratislava, but Sadie and I just went out shooting pictures for about an hour before our train to Budapest, so you can look through them on my mobileme. When we got off the train, we were greeted by Sadie's mom's friend, Annamaria. She was unbelievably welcoming, although she had never met either of us! She gave us much needed hugs after our long day and took us to her apartment in Budapest. She prepared a whole meal for us, complete with the famous sweet white Hungarian wine, Tokaj; and hab (meringue) cake for dessert. Yum! We had a really nice time getting to know each other on our first night in Budapest, but shortly after dinner, Sadie and I passed out from our long day of travel.

On our first day in Budapest, Annamaria had laid out a whole plan for us. She is studying to become a tour guide, so she is very knowledge about the cite(s) (Budapest is actually made up of three old cities--Buda, Pest, and Obuda), and the best places to visit. We went to the oldest part of the city, Castile Hill, to see the old fortress, the beautiful royal palace, Matthias Church (which we didn't go inside), and walk around the Fisherman's Bastion, which provided amazing views of the city and the Danube. Sadie and I were awed by the size and the beauty of Budapest. I had no idea Eastern Europe was so unbelievably gorgeous! It's quite different because it's much more industrialized/commercialized than a lot of cities in Western Europe, but completely beautiful. At Castle Hill, there was also an old part of the fortress covered in scars of bombs from the era of Turkish rule. Pretty crazy. After Castle Hill, we wandered down to Andrássy út, the largest boulevard in Budapest.

We went by the Terror Museum, which is a memorial to those who were tortured and/or killed during the communist/fascist regime. While it would have been really enlightening to go inside, I think it would also have been very depressing. I also kind of got the feeling Annamaria wasn't really keen on going on. Instead, we got some dobostorta, a popular Hungarian cake, at Lukács--a beautiful upscale café. We also made a stop at the opera house, which was very cool. Hungary has an incredible music tradition, having given us composers like Franz Liszt and Béla Bartók. Later, we headed down towards St. Stephen's Basilica, which is a pretty incredible basilica because of its beauty.

Also, in the chapel, there is a case that holds the right hand of St. Stephen, who was the first king of Hungary. By this point, it was getting close to dusk, so we walked across the Liberty Bridge (which was my favorite bridge) towards the Liberty Statue. On our way up, we stopped in this church that is literally in a cave. The rock inside is all covered in concrete (which is sad), but the church is built into the side of a mountain. How cool is that? There is actually a pretty good deal of rock in Budapest (odd for a city). I even saw a couple boulderers out and about! We hiked up the side of the hill to the Liberty Statue and the Citadella. What a perfect place to see the sun go down on an amazing city!

The next day was Easter, which was one of my highlights of my entire trip. Annamaria took us to her parents house for Easter where we enjoyed one of the most intense feasts of my life. Her parents greeted us like we were their own children, with open arms and and big smiles. We sat down for a delicious lunch of chicken soup, stuffed cabbage (so amazing!), breaded chicken, potatoes, salad, and pastry. I opted for the cherry pastry of the three different kinds. I loved it, so Annamaria's mom insisted that I try the turo kind, which is kind of like a Hungarian custard. Hard to describe, but I split one with Sadie. By this point, I literally felt like I was going to explode, so I had to refuse when she told me to try the apple kind, too. Then, she asked me if she could bring out the next course. That's right. The next course. So, we had an amazing chocolate cake, after which my stomach actually blew up. Just kidding. We retreated to the living room for juice and more cracker type things.

I don't think I've ever been so full in my life. After lunch, Annamaria's dad took us to Eger--a beautiful town not far from Annamaria's village. We walked around Dobó Square, Eger Castle, and the basilica. It's such a picturesque little town! It was pretty funny--at the castle there was something going on that reminded me of Civil War days in Brookfield, where everyone dresses up in period costume. Kind of odd to see people walking around in tights with arrows slung over their shoulder. After enjoying our walk around Eger, we a little bit outside the town to the wine caves, where we sampled Bull's Blood--one of the more famous Hungarian wines.

It wasn't my favorite wine ever, but it was good. The experience was more interesting than the wine itself. Being in a cave with a Hungarian woman decanting the wine out of....well, you'll have to see my pictures because I just do NOT know how to describe it. We went back to Annamaria's parents house, where her mom force fed us ham and bread out of the kindness of her heart. I didn't think I would ever eat again. We got on the train back to Budapest where I took a small coma.

On our last day in Budapest, we had a bit of a late start. It was by this day that I realized that Hungarians frequently eat sandwiches for breakfast. We're taking salami...for breakfast.

I was kind of expecting this because I read something about southern Europe eating sweeter things in the morning and northern Europe eating more savory foods. Interesting to get used to as I ate my ham sandwich for breakfast. Because we slept in, we didn't see too much. It was also raining, so that was a bit of a bummer. Our first stop was Heros' Square, which is home to a monument honoring the founders of Hungary. It's massive and takes over the whole end of Andrássy út. It's definitely impossible to miss. After walking around the square, we went to Vajdahunyad Castle--a copy of a castle in Romania. Very pretty! Inside it is a Magyar History Museum. Side note: Hungary is not anything like "Hungary" in Hungarian. It's actually "Magyarország." Right.

Therefore "hungarian" is "magyar." Anyway, the museum was not super thrilling, but the building was beautiful. Then we walked past Parliament before doing some souvenir shopping and eating some kurtokalacs--a Hungarian pastry that is thin dough cooked on a spit over coals and covered with sugar. Mmmm. The weather was pretty miserable, so we retreated back to Annamaria's for leftover stuffed cabbage and a LOT of sweets that her mom packed up for us. So delicious! We spent the rest of the evening packing up and trying to get to bed semi-early so we could get up for a 3:30 AM airport shuttle...whew!!

More pictures on mobileme.