Budapest, Hungary is Budaful!!!!! We had a glorious 5 day stay in the 'Buda' side of the Danube (did you know they were originally two different cities, Buda, and Pest? we didn't!) to celebrate Thanksgiving. Our original hopes of celebrating the holiday in Istanbul with our dear friend Lexi fell through (we didn't feel traveling in Turkey was the safest option under current conditions) but we were able to feast in a different appropriately named country.
We really didn't know much about Budapest before we visited (not even that it was two different cities!) so we did what we do before we visit anywhere we don't know much about... watch the "Rick Steves tours Europe" 28 minute episode on the city. This has actually become a nerdy and quite fun tradition of ours, we have become QUITE familiar with Rick Steves, and we really don't feel prepared to travel until we've gotten Ricks travel tips on that particular area
We noticed major things during our cab ride from the airport. 1- Budapest is very big. much bigger (both in city size, and in landscape/architecture/building size) than any of the other cities we have visited thus far. 2- Hungarian is the most bizarre/orc from Lord of the Rings sounding language we have ever heard. I was actually quite nervous in the cab ride, the area and the driver seemed SO foreign, and the cab man sounded angry guttural and harsh as he spoke into his car phone. (in reality he was none of those things)
My fears were alleviated as we arrived at our charming hotel. We stayed in a small one man run 'b and b' type place with amazing views. As I mentioned earlier we were in the Buda or castle district which is on the 'sleepy' side of the river, but right across (the river) from the parliament. Wow is it stunning! After getting settled in the hotel we decided to walk around a bit, get a coffee, but take it easy, rest up, and really hit the city the next day. The moment we walked out the door however, Pest beckoned us! Our hotel was about a 15 minute walk from the iconic "chain bridge" (first bridge in budapest) which was a mere 10 minute walk into the heart of Pest. and so began what would be a 6 hour walk around the city. During the walk we discovered our next very important fact about the city- the food is delicious and sooooo cheap!!! Hurray! What a welcome change from Stockholm prices. We soon realized the theme of this vacation would be eating as frequently and as much as possible. (we were celebrating Thanksgiving after all!)
We stumbled upon St. Stephen's (the first King of Hungary) basilica, and wow! What a basilica!!!! The exterior is impressive, but the interior glitters from floor to ceiling. I was quite overwhelmed with the detail and extensive beauty of the church, I knew I couldn't take it all in in just one visit, and decided we definitely needed to come back.... which we did not do! Remember what we discovered in Tallinn? If you see something you want to do or buy- do our buy it IMMEDIATELY because you probably won't come back. Sigh. So we didn't tour the dome, or take any pictures- but thank goodness we wandered around inside at all!!
Thanksgiving day itself was mostly just about eating. (again, as it should be) We certainly missed family, but busied ourselves with finding and eating all the delicious food that we could. Christmas Market season is in full swing in most of Europe right now, and Hungary was no exception. We enjoyed plenty of mulled wine, hot toddys, sausages and paprika chicken (paprika is HUGE in Hungary, it is in almost every dish, and everyone in Hungary is very very proud of their paprika) wandering around the markets, but we also ate in a nice restaurant where we were able to order a turkey dish. hurray!
The two days following Thanksgiving were on polar ends of stress levels. Black Friday was amaaaaaaazing. We spent about 4 hours in the famous Szechenyi bath spa and it did not disappoint! (once I found out Budapest is considered the Spa capital of the world, there was no holding me back!) The turkish style spa is beautiful and lovely, and with the cold weather the outdoor pools filled the area with a magical steam, transforming the spa into a wonderland! Kitty enjoyed the wonderland in her snowsuit, while Mommy and Daddy took turns going in and out of the pools. We ended the day feeling pampered and relaxed, which maybe made the next day all the more cruel...
That Saturday we wandered around the castle district (where lies the most beautiful fairy tale princesses palace area you will ever encounter... actually a church) and kept seeing signs for "the labyrinth" a series of caves and passageways under the castle walls have a long (and mostly spooky) history. I'm sure Andrew will dive into that, I want to focus on the most terrifying ten minutes (could have been 5, could have been 20... but they were all HORRIBLE). As we were walking around the dimly lit network of cave passageways, we came to a branch in the path. To the left continued the strange moist walkways we had been wandering through for the last 15 minutes. To the right, darkness. But a sign that said (roughly) "You are on your own through this hallway of fear. people have encounters mists, sudden drops of temperature , explainable flashes of light... any number of things supernatural may occur in this hallway of absolute darkness. We will provide you a string to guide you through the twists and turns of the maze, but beyond that when fear grips you in this hallway you have only yourself to turn to." Andrew told me "we are absolutely doing this" so, with Kitty strapped onto me, I reached for the string, Andrew grabbed my hand, and we entered the corridor. (I am honestly a bit quesey and my heart is beating faster just typing this) I have never encountered darkness the way I did in this hallway. Absolute pitch black. darker than black. it was so horrible. Not long after we entered, the path started twisting, and all remnant of light from the entrance dissipated. we had no idea how big of a space we were in, or how long it was, or if there was even a way out. Thank goodness I kept my hand tight to the string, because we soon encountered a cold stone wall. It seemed we were trapped. I started to hyperventilate. I said "Andrew I want to go back!!!!!" I really thought I might have a panic attack- but as my breath came shorter and shorter I told myself "hold it together Stephanie!!!!!!! you have your one year old daughter strapped to you, you cannot keep her safe if you collapse!" (Kitty was crying at this point- it was so dark, she kept twisting around trying to see me... it was awful.) We knew we couldn't turn around, because there could have been people behind us, we were so disoriented we didn't know how long we had been walking, and we didn't know how tight the tunnel was. I followed the string, and we were able to find a space we could continue through- in absolute misery. I wouldn't let go of Andrews hand... which was good (nessessary in fact) for me, but it didn't allow Andrew to hold the string, so I had to talk to him the whole way, saying, "turning right" "going up hill" "slanting down" (there were times when the string dropped almost to the floor, so I hand to bend and stoop as I walked to make sure my hand didn'nt lose contact) Just when I thought things couldn't get worse, I started hearing creepy music. Out of nowhere, there came haunting dischords, and I thought I was going to lose it again. Andrew said the music was comical. I did not agree. It worked on me. when we finally reached the end of the tunnel, I wanted to cry, and laugh, and sleep for about 50 hours straight. We still had to make it out of the labyrinth though, which included a trip to Dracula's prison cell- the dim room full of torture devices seemed like a cozy five star hotel after what we had just been through. Ooof. I actually feel a bit strained and stressed after writing about that... think I need to take a break from this post. I'm sure you will hear about the rest of Budapest (complete with pictures) soon from Andrew. whhheeeeew. Everybody go turn on lots of lights!!!!!!
We really didn't know much about Budapest before we visited (not even that it was two different cities!) so we did what we do before we visit anywhere we don't know much about... watch the "Rick Steves tours Europe" 28 minute episode on the city. This has actually become a nerdy and quite fun tradition of ours, we have become QUITE familiar with Rick Steves, and we really don't feel prepared to travel until we've gotten Ricks travel tips on that particular area
We noticed major things during our cab ride from the airport. 1- Budapest is very big. much bigger (both in city size, and in landscape/architecture/building size) than any of the other cities we have visited thus far. 2- Hungarian is the most bizarre/orc from Lord of the Rings sounding language we have ever heard. I was actually quite nervous in the cab ride, the area and the driver seemed SO foreign, and the cab man sounded angry guttural and harsh as he spoke into his car phone. (in reality he was none of those things)
My fears were alleviated as we arrived at our charming hotel. We stayed in a small one man run 'b and b' type place with amazing views. As I mentioned earlier we were in the Buda or castle district which is on the 'sleepy' side of the river, but right across (the river) from the parliament. Wow is it stunning! After getting settled in the hotel we decided to walk around a bit, get a coffee, but take it easy, rest up, and really hit the city the next day. The moment we walked out the door however, Pest beckoned us! Our hotel was about a 15 minute walk from the iconic "chain bridge" (first bridge in budapest) which was a mere 10 minute walk into the heart of Pest. and so began what would be a 6 hour walk around the city. During the walk we discovered our next very important fact about the city- the food is delicious and sooooo cheap!!! Hurray! What a welcome change from Stockholm prices. We soon realized the theme of this vacation would be eating as frequently and as much as possible. (we were celebrating Thanksgiving after all!)
We stumbled upon St. Stephen's (the first King of Hungary) basilica, and wow! What a basilica!!!! The exterior is impressive, but the interior glitters from floor to ceiling. I was quite overwhelmed with the detail and extensive beauty of the church, I knew I couldn't take it all in in just one visit, and decided we definitely needed to come back.... which we did not do! Remember what we discovered in Tallinn? If you see something you want to do or buy- do our buy it IMMEDIATELY because you probably won't come back. Sigh. So we didn't tour the dome, or take any pictures- but thank goodness we wandered around inside at all!!
Thanksgiving day itself was mostly just about eating. (again, as it should be) We certainly missed family, but busied ourselves with finding and eating all the delicious food that we could. Christmas Market season is in full swing in most of Europe right now, and Hungary was no exception. We enjoyed plenty of mulled wine, hot toddys, sausages and paprika chicken (paprika is HUGE in Hungary, it is in almost every dish, and everyone in Hungary is very very proud of their paprika) wandering around the markets, but we also ate in a nice restaurant where we were able to order a turkey dish. hurray!
The two days following Thanksgiving were on polar ends of stress levels. Black Friday was amaaaaaaazing. We spent about 4 hours in the famous Szechenyi bath spa and it did not disappoint! (once I found out Budapest is considered the Spa capital of the world, there was no holding me back!) The turkish style spa is beautiful and lovely, and with the cold weather the outdoor pools filled the area with a magical steam, transforming the spa into a wonderland! Kitty enjoyed the wonderland in her snowsuit, while Mommy and Daddy took turns going in and out of the pools. We ended the day feeling pampered and relaxed, which maybe made the next day all the more cruel...
That Saturday we wandered around the castle district (where lies the most beautiful fairy tale princesses palace area you will ever encounter... actually a church) and kept seeing signs for "the labyrinth" a series of caves and passageways under the castle walls have a long (and mostly spooky) history. I'm sure Andrew will dive into that, I want to focus on the most terrifying ten minutes (could have been 5, could have been 20... but they were all HORRIBLE). As we were walking around the dimly lit network of cave passageways, we came to a branch in the path. To the left continued the strange moist walkways we had been wandering through for the last 15 minutes. To the right, darkness. But a sign that said (roughly) "You are on your own through this hallway of fear. people have encounters mists, sudden drops of temperature , explainable flashes of light... any number of things supernatural may occur in this hallway of absolute darkness. We will provide you a string to guide you through the twists and turns of the maze, but beyond that when fear grips you in this hallway you have only yourself to turn to." Andrew told me "we are absolutely doing this" so, with Kitty strapped onto me, I reached for the string, Andrew grabbed my hand, and we entered the corridor. (I am honestly a bit quesey and my heart is beating faster just typing this) I have never encountered darkness the way I did in this hallway. Absolute pitch black. darker than black. it was so horrible. Not long after we entered, the path started twisting, and all remnant of light from the entrance dissipated. we had no idea how big of a space we were in, or how long it was, or if there was even a way out. Thank goodness I kept my hand tight to the string, because we soon encountered a cold stone wall. It seemed we were trapped. I started to hyperventilate. I said "Andrew I want to go back!!!!!" I really thought I might have a panic attack- but as my breath came shorter and shorter I told myself "hold it together Stephanie!!!!!!! you have your one year old daughter strapped to you, you cannot keep her safe if you collapse!" (Kitty was crying at this point- it was so dark, she kept twisting around trying to see me... it was awful.) We knew we couldn't turn around, because there could have been people behind us, we were so disoriented we didn't know how long we had been walking, and we didn't know how tight the tunnel was. I followed the string, and we were able to find a space we could continue through- in absolute misery. I wouldn't let go of Andrews hand... which was good (nessessary in fact) for me, but it didn't allow Andrew to hold the string, so I had to talk to him the whole way, saying, "turning right" "going up hill" "slanting down" (there were times when the string dropped almost to the floor, so I hand to bend and stoop as I walked to make sure my hand didn'nt lose contact) Just when I thought things couldn't get worse, I started hearing creepy music. Out of nowhere, there came haunting dischords, and I thought I was going to lose it again. Andrew said the music was comical. I did not agree. It worked on me. when we finally reached the end of the tunnel, I wanted to cry, and laugh, and sleep for about 50 hours straight. We still had to make it out of the labyrinth though, which included a trip to Dracula's prison cell- the dim room full of torture devices seemed like a cozy five star hotel after what we had just been through. Ooof. I actually feel a bit strained and stressed after writing about that... think I need to take a break from this post. I'm sure you will hear about the rest of Budapest (complete with pictures) soon from Andrew. whhheeeeew. Everybody go turn on lots of lights!!!!!!
One of the most interesting things about being married is the mixture of amusement and concern and bewilderment and "is this a joke?" that occurs when your wife completely loses it over something that does not seem scary to you at all. It only makes it worse that the wife frequently gets mad at you for feeling this way, but you still aren't sure if she's really mad or just kind of joking, and it's just impossible for it all not to seem funny.
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