Budapest

May 27, 2011

The Budapest Hilton is a wonderful hotel. It sits up high in the castle district in the Buda portion of the city.  I have a veiw that overlooks the Danube.  It is in the heart of a Unesco World Heritage Site which I love.

After a good night’s sleep, I started with Breakfast at the hotel.  I spent a little time reading up on Budapest history and earned that  the creator of the Rubik’s cube is Hungarian and yes, his name Er No Rubik.  History in this area dates back to pre-Christian times.  Budapest has natural hot springs and the ancient Romans came here to get well and today the spas still attract visitors.

Overall, Budapest is a tourist destination with no shortage of things to do.  As I walked around I realized that this is like so many other well-preserved European cities with medieval castles, a variety of architecture from Gothic to Modern, and buildings that have seen more history than one can imagine.

I really didn’t know what to expect from Budapest and what I found was great – awesome panoramas, great food, and street scenes that are up there with Paris.  I am also finding that most the people speak English quite well and are very friendly.  I am not finding that tourist love hate relationship that you feel in Paris.

You can also see shared elements of other Baltic and eastern European states and the bitter struggles with the Nazi’s and Russian occupation.  As much as that part of history interests me, I have decided not to spend too much time on it this vacation, it can be very depressing.

Jet (my travel mate) and I went for a long walk after breakfast.  The tour busses didn’t start until 10 AM and we wanted to see things.  We first hiked over to the castle and then down to the river front where we crossed the Liberty Bridge over the Pest area.  We made our way to the Central Market and did some shopping and then stopped for some lunch.  I had a breakfast dish called Langos for my lunch and thought it was something out of this world.  See below for pictures and more information.  As much as I wanted to skip the Goulash, I gave it a try as well and really enjoyed it.  I guess the years of growing up on bad school lunch Hungarian goulash left an impression.

After lunch it was time to ride the Hop On and Hop off tour bus.  It was a great overview of the city.

Pictures of the Royal Palace on the Buda side of the river.

The parliament building and the Opera house.

Items at the Central Market – lot’s of Sausage, Straddles and Paprika.

As I walked through an area close to the central market, I spotted to locals having breakfast – looked like a white pizza, I was told that it is Langos and very local, I promised to come back for lunch where I ordered it.  Fried dough, cream, garlic and cheese.  This was the best breakfast dish I had ever had in my life.  I shared it with my friend Jet along with an order of Hungarian Goulash.  I have to admit,  when I hear goulash, I think of meet stewed in ragu over elbow macaroni, I never had goulash that tasted like this.  I also need to point out that this city understands what “Large Beer” means.

What a day!