Budapest: Day 1

What seems like an eternity ago, we went to Budapest for Easter!  We've never gone any further east in Europe than Prague so we were pumped about checking out a brand new place.  I knew little about Budapest or Hungary before I went but had an amazing time exploring the city and learning about their really sad history.  I'd highly recommend this historic city!

We got in on Friday night and made our way to our perfectly-located hotel near the stunning Opera House, and then headed to dinner at Cafe Vian, a happening little wine bar with traditional Hungarian dishes.  

Opera House, lit up at night.

Chicken Paprikash and Wiener Schnitzel!  Yummmm.

 On Saturday, we headed over to the Parliament Building, hailed as one of the most beautiful buildings in the country (if not eastern Europe), and waited in line for an English tour.  Sold out for the day.  Awesome.  So what do we do?  Utilize Lauren's Spanish skills and take the Spanish tour instead!  That was interesting/funny/odd/confusing.  I tried to translate as best I could but I don't really know Spanish vocabulary for Hungarian governmental things.  But this is a building you'll definitely want to check out as it's one of the main tourist attractions in Budapest and one of the most beautiful!

Spanish tour ticket!  Ha.

Front of Parliament

A pretty replica of the entire building!

Beautiful grand staircase in the entryway.

Domed ceiling.  Prertttty.

Ornateness.

The Old Upper House Hall.  One of the two rooms where the bigwigs meet.

Every inch of this place is covered in elaborate design and decoration!  Pretty impressive.

Then...we just wandered around the city, checked out some random buildings, statues, and sights across the river.

Statue of  Jozsef Attila, a deeply depressed poet who eventually hurled himself in front of a train in the 1930s.  Yikes.

View across the river of the Palace.

More spires and old buildings across the Danube.

Ronald Reagan and I.  They really like him - anticommunist and what not.

Drew and a statue of Imre Nagy, a man who was elected to be the new Prime Minister during the uprising against the Soviets in 1956.  Things didn't end well for him, unfortunately.  I'm telling you - this city and it's history is not for the faint of heart.  Which I am.  Dangit.

Snowball fight!  (We were hoping for warmer weather but they'd just had the worst week of the year with snow and everything.  Cool!)

Money shot.

After aimlessly wandering, we stumbled upon another main attraction and impressive church, St. Stephen's Basilica.  It was constructed (between 1851 and 1905) in honor of Stephen, the first king of Hungary, and now houses his right hand!  It's a huge, beautiful building and it's definitely a must-see.

Again, everything in this building is insanely ornate and detailed.  Which I loved.

There's his decrepit right hand!  Kinda crazy.

Because it was Easter weekend, there was a huge Easter market in the middle of the city with delish Hungarian food and lots of knick-knacks for sale.

We were told by a friend that we HAD to try Langos (pronounced LANG-osh), a kind of fried dough with sour cream and cheese on it.  (Maybe a savory version of funnel cake?)  It wasn't something I'd typically pair but it was yum!

These are bottles of Palinka, Hungarian "traditional fruit brandy" that's been made since the Middle Ages.  It basically tastes like a fruity vodka, but worse, and they have different flavors like walnut, pear, plum (their favorite), and grape.  We bought a little bottle of pear to enjoy later.

Sweet treats.

Polka dot tea pots!

More wandering...through a huge food market (that was closing down for the day, so no pictures) that I suspected would be cooler at the right time of day, and over to the Jewish Quarter, which houses a large temple and has become home to a bunch of hip new bars and restaurants.

Heritage.

We rested, had a drink at a fab wine bar in the shadow of St. Stephen's Basilica, grabbed dinner at another recommended restaurant, Cafe Kor, and met a friend of a friend (who lives in Budapest) for a drink at a "ruin bar" called Szimpla Kert.  Ruin bars are a relatively new concept in Budapest, where bars literally spring up in old condemned buildings in small neighborhoods (mostly on Kazinczy Street) - there are several floors and huge rooms throughout the building, covered in graffiti, plants, old cars, bathtubs, weird portraits, and other strange things.  It's very trippy and odd but definitely needs to be experienced!

Wine and the Basilica.

Ruin bar.

Just...odd.

 Our friend made us take shots of Palinka as it's "what you do in Budapest!" and...that was interesting.  Yikes.  We headed home around midnight and hit the hay.  More tomorrow on the rest of our trip and Hungarian history!