Budapest, Hungary is a beautiful eastern Europrean city with alluring buildings and the Danube river splitting the city between it’s 2 sides, Buda and Pest. The Buda side has rolling hills with Buda castle, Fishermans Bastian and Matthias Church. The Pest side, which is where we stayed, is relatively flat with the magnificent Parliament building, lively restaurants, bars, and shopping and beautiful historic buildings. Being able to experience this city in the fall with the colorful leaves, warm days and cool evenings added a special ambiance.
Our apartment had all the charm of a 100 year old building. Small elevator, creaky beautiful wooden floors, large old bathtub with just a faucet and shower wand with no shower curtain, exposed radiators that we could not regulate, and large windows with 2 glass panes that could individually be opened. It was in a great location where we could walk everywhere. The river was only a couple of blocks away, the popular walking street called Vaci behind it, and 3 playgrounds just a few blocks away. The metro was also close so one day we jumped on to see Heroe’s Square and Budapest City Park (Varosliget park). The park was huge with 2 playgrounds, a zoo next door, church and a castle named Vajdahunyad within it. During our down time inside the apartment, we played a fun new game we called ‘pasta train tracks’. We used dried pasta to build train tracks and parking lots but it was so messy. Dried pasta was all over so that was the last time we will play it.
Most of our days we went to the playground and John would go to Central Market Hall to get some food to make at home. On other days we did touristy things like treat ourselves to dessert at the famous Cafe Gerbeaud, cross the river to see the sights over on the Buda side, or wander around Pest then go to a restaurant or some place to play.
After the sun set, the city lit up. The Parliament building was glittering with numerous birds flying above, the river displayed the reflection of all of the lights from the bridges and buildings along the edges, and the beauty of the historic buildings seemed to be magnified by the dim lights.
Throughout the month we split up our meals between cooking at home and going out. Having the Central Market Hall so close allowed us to eat some delicious meals at home, thanks to John. It is an enormous indoor market selling meat, produce, bread, cheese, cured meat, clothing, souvenirs, along with restaurants. The duck and beef was so inexpensive compared to America that we took full advantage of by eating it a lot. We also wanted to splurge on beef since we do not often eat steaks in Asia. I fell in love with the Hungarian egg noodles, they reminded me of gnocchi. They were light and fluffy and the perfect compliment to goulyas. I also fell for lagos which is fried bread then usually topped with sour cream, chesse and onions. But you can find many variations such as with sausage or bacon or topped with just nutella (which we tried and it was delicious). Sometimes we had them for a quick, cheap dinner.
Our friends arrived in Budapest for the World Wrestling Championship and John went to a bunch of tournaments with them. The baby and I went one night and had a great time. It was so inspirational to see these male and female athletes reach one of the highest achievements after so much time training. We made friends with the woman who was the arena tournament fan announcer and her camera man and soon found ourselves on the big screen a few times. John even played an online poker game for the camera man while he filmed me and John then when he was done he immediately checked with John to see how he did. At the end of the night, the woman gave the baby a little lion teddy bear (wearing a Hungarian singlet) as a gift.
We wanted to get out of the city so one day we took a train out to Vac to see the Danube Bend. John loved the old train station and the train ride. We arrived in a sleepy town. I think this town had the most mellow feel of any town I have ever been. We wandered around the center square, walked along the river, and stopped for a break and throw rocks in the water. Then we had a yummy lunch on the patio at Remete Pince Étterem. The temperature was perfect and the color of the autumn leaves were beautiful. We left after lunch and enjoyed a quick 20 minutes ride back to Budapest.
As we got further into October the temperature got colder and the beautiful autumn colors peaked leaving barren trees. It was a great nudge to remind us it was time to move onto a warmer climate.