Budapest: Day 2

On Easter Sunday, we woke up and celebrated Christ's resurrection with a visit to the traditional Hungarian thermal baths!  This is a crazy experience in and of itself.  It was a cold and rainy day but we didn't let that dampen our resolve to sit in a public pool with fat men in Speedos.  No sir.  Not today.  We hopped on the metro for a day of fun/weirdness.

Did I mention that the "subway" system here is archaic and very shallow in terms of depth below ground?   I want to say it was one of the first underground systems in all of Europe and I'm pretty sure it hasn't been changed since it's construction in 1896.

This is Drew with the archaic train barreling towards us.  Check out the wooden old school ticket booth behind him that's still in use!  Another fun fact: you literally have 8 seconds to get on and off the train.  That's not an exaggeration.  We counted.  8 seconds.

Though there are several baths to choose from, we decided to check out the Szechenyi Baths in City Park, based on several people's recommendations.  There's a relatively tricky entry procedure here, with many people who don't speak English or anything close to it selling you something you think you want but aren't actually sure.  We somehow managed to buy tickets and paid for our own private changing room (closet), got the plastic bracelet that allowed access to the changing barracks, somehow finagled our way in and managed to do everything correctly.  

Szechenyi Baths.

The hallway/changing rooms.

Basically like a dressing room in a department store, but smaller. And weirder.  And dirtier.

Now...neither one of us has been working out too much.  Neither one of our bodies have seen the sun in 9 months.  I can only imagine how we looked in our bathing suits.  Luckily there were no mirrors in the room so I wrapped my towel around me with a death grip and bolding stepped out onto the freezing cold cement to jump in that hot bath.

The great news?  It doesn't appear that any of the Hungarian people had been working out in years either!  What a relief.  

The water was amazingly warm and comfortable and they have bubbling jets all over the pool.  So you can just sit and relax and not think about your family all together in the States for Easter or the fact that you can see way too much of the Hungarian man's junk next to you.  Ahhhh.  Bliss. 

See that circle in the center (below, with the arrow)?  The rest of the pool is bubbling still water but pass through this small cement entranceway and you're transported to lazy river heaven!  It has super strong jets that propel you round and round and round the inside ring of the pool and it is SO. FUN. providing your swimsuit bottoms don't come off in the chaos.  Drew went around a few times and took a rest on the underwater bench in the center, while I stayed and played in that thing like a little kid for what seemed like hours.  I seriously couldn't get enough.  Ahhh.  Bliss.  

Pretty historic building.  With a man in a Speedo.

We got changed and jetted back to our hotel before heading over to the Buda side of the city for more exploration.  (Did I mention that Buda and Pest are technically two different cities, separated by the Danube River?  We stayed on the Pest side but the Buda side has lots of cool stuff too.)  One can cross the Chain Bridge on foot and take the funicular up the steep hill that is Buda to check on some of the local attractions atop the hill. 

One of the lions that greets you on the Chain Bridge.

The funicular!

Falcons staring at me.

Gentlemen knights with interesting facial hair.  And a pretty view.

Mattias Church, named after King Mattias (a popular Hungarian king from the 1500s), but built in the 1000s under a different name.

Like the other places in this city, every surface is COVERED in elaborate, colorful detail.

We got to witness the changing of the guard, which was cool.  The Hungarian soldier in the front was pretty good looking, I'm not gonna lie.

This is a Budapest city bus.  I had to capture it on film, so unbelieving was I with how OUTDATED this stuff is!  It's seriously like an old Soviet era bus from the 50s and these things are still running all over the city.

After much walking around we [I, reluctantly] went to the House of Terror.  This unassuming building on an idyllic street was the former headquarters of both the Nazis and (then) the Soviets for years.  It became known as the House of Terror because they literally terrorized innocent people here for decades.  I didn't want to go but I knew it was something I probably should see.  And you should too if you're ever here.

The museum itself is well done, though mostly everything is in Hungarian (which I understand: it's THEIR COUNTRY but this is a tourist attraction!  Can you not translate a lot of things?)  The upper three floors are tolerable but the tour ends in the basement/dungeon.  I finally got down to the dark basement area and briefly looked around at the darkened rooms and damp cells displayed there.  I was beginning to feel panicky and a cold sweat broke out all over my body.  I turned a corner around a secret room off to the side and saw a couple of gallows in there and my heart started racing and I felt sick to my stomach.  I high tailed it through the quiet underbelly of the museum, past people who were actually viewing things with reverence and looking at me funny cause I probably appeared disrespectful and made my way back up the stairs to civilization before a full blown panic attack ensued.  It makes me sick to my stomach to even remember it and think about it...that people could actually treat other humans this way with no problem.  So terrible.  This country has an incredibly rough and sad past but seeing the city as it is now, full of life and commerce and happ(ier) people makes it slightly better.  Everyone should go see it but it's not particularly fun.  Anyways, enough of that.

We both immediately agreed we needed a drink or five and went to another ruin pub!  Instant is another former condemned building with multiple rooms, large and small, with trippy music playing, strobe lights, and odd knick-knacks covering every surface.  You've gotta check one out if you're in Budapest.

Just a bunch of rabbits, scampering across the ceiling.

A winged woman owl...thing!  With hooves, of course.

A picture of a doe holding a human heart.

Beeeeeeeers.

Just your typical Hungarian family portrait.

A couple of beers and some cheerful conversation later, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the Opera!  You can do full tours of the place during the day but we figured we didn't particularly need one since we were going there.  It's a beautiful, ornate building that's even prettier inside than it is outside.  We saw Requiem and enjoyed some beautiful music.  After the opera, we went to perhaps our favorite restaurant of the trip, Menza.  This place came highly recommended by our acquaintences who live there AND my brother so we had high hopes.  This place didn't disappoint.  It offered authentic Hungarian dishes in a very trendy atmosphere but it wasn't so clubby that you felt uncomfortable if you're not into that.  (Which we...aren't.)  Two thumbs way up on this place!

Another glass of wine back at the hotel and then bedtime for these tired bozos.  More on our last day later.  Goodnight!

Budapest: A Brief History

I realized I'm making all these posts about Budapest but many people probably don't know much about the city or the context of any of this stuff, like myself before I'd traveled there.  And...it's interesting.  Knowing some history is good for you.  And fun!  Which I didn't realize 'til I moved here.

So...this is a quick Budapest History of the 20th Century: According to Lauren.  

So at the beginning of the 20th century, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was one big relatively happy place.  (The Empire had been around from 1867 until 1918.  They were a big deal.)

World War I started, for many reasons (but also because an Austro-Hungarian prince, Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by some independence-seeking Serb), and at the end, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was on the losing side and disappeared along with a bunch of other empires and countries. A lot of new countries were formed and borders were redrawn, and Hungary lost out big in the settlement.

Enter: the Nazis. The Nazis started gaining power in the 1930s and Hungary fell increasingly under the influence of Germany.  When Germany began to annex, conquer, and redraw boundaries in Europe, Hungary was like "hey, maybe we should get in on this and join them and at least we'll be able to get some of our lost territory back. And it's probably safer to be with the Nazis than against them so let's DO THIS." This isn't a direct quote, per se, but I'm sure it's relatively accurate.

Then World War II happened.  Yikes. Throughout the war, Hungary maintained its own government and what not, until in 1944 they realized again they were on the losing side again and tried to bail out. But those freakin Nazis TURNED on them like they did on everyone else, installed their own government in 1944, the Arrow Cross, deported and murdered a ton of Hungarian Jews, and ruined everything even further!  As per usual.

Enter the Soviets. [During this trip, I (obviously) had another big history lesson and realized that Russia and the United States were Allies.  (You know you learn these things, but they never really register until...they do?  Yeah, that.)  I often wondered why Russia and the States were in on this together, considering the USA and Russia have hated each other for decades, but my brother reminded me of the saying "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."  Russia hated the Nazis and we hated the Nazis so we were in this together. The original frenemies?]

SO, thankfully, the Soviets swept in and liberated Hungary and the rest of Eastern Europe from the Nazis! Yay! Happy days! NOT.  The Soviets forgot to leave and instead moved in and took over the entire country, turning it into a communist reign of terror that lasted until 1989, despite some uprisings (namely one in 1956 that was immensely important but also not, because it didn't work.  Dangit.)  Freakin 1989 I tell you!  This was within my lifetime!  

The Soviets and their Hungarian puppet regime were terrible horrible sick people with no souls who did really terrible things to innocent Hungarian people in order to maintain power.  Which I realized on this trip.  And while the Hungarian people basically had one of the worst centuries imaginable, Hungary peacefully regained its freedom about twenty years ago, and the new century has given its people new hope that it can join in the peaceful happy party that is a united Europe today.

Budapest really displays the scars of the past century, but the city also displays a resilience and bustling life that is pretty darn impressive, considering how far they've come in 20 years.  

So that's it.  That actually wasn't so quick.  Sorry.  But hopefully you learned something and for that I am NOT sorry!

(Thanks to my bro for some history notes as well.)

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!