Budapest

Our hosts in Vienna had warned us extensively of the danger and dirtiness in Budapest. We took these warnings with a grain of salt--people in Munich said Vienna wasn't much, the Viennese talked poorly of Munich, every city-dweller thinks his or her city is the best. Budapest was certainly the most foreign place I've ever been, but we rarely felt unsafe. In some ways, it reminded me of an American city. Many apartments have air conditioning and more people drive than walk or ride bicycles.

We met Barbara, one of our hosts, at a cafe near her apartment and drank lemonades, very refreshing after a hike through the city. She took us back to her apartment and fed us broccoli soup and bread, gave us a map of Budapest and told us a bit about the city. We left the apartment and took a tram which rides through the historic parts of Pest, then crossed the Danube river to Buda. Budapest was originally two cities, like Minneapolis and St. Paul, but then decided to combine.

In Buda we hiked up a hill to a castle complex and got some great views of Pest. We found Buda to be much quieter and scenic than Pest, which is very cosmopolitan. Pictures from the first day:














At dinner that night we got to meet Gergo, the one who I had been e-mailing about staying with he and Barbara. They are both in their early thirties and are not married, but make a great couple. Gergo's English is not as good as Barbara's, but Barbara is an English teacher and Gergo is an IT expert for HP. Still Gergo was able to tell us stories and make us laugh and feel comfortable. He's probably the funniest person we've met on our travels. For dinner we ate a vegetable soup and csirke porkolt (roasted chicken) in a paprika sauce. Included in this dish were chicken hearts which Kelsey found difficult to eat. Pictures from dinner, and of Gergo and Barbara's apartment:






















The next day, Gergo and Barbara loaned us their bicycles and we cruised around the city, ending up on an island in Danube between Buda and Pest which doubles as a park. Here we soaked our feet in the water of a cool fountain and then napped under the shade of a tree, enjoying the breeze coming down the Danube. This was probably the hottest day of our entire trip. Pictures from that day (there are few; it's hard to ride your bike and be a photographer):




That night we went over to Gergo and Barbara's friend Jerry's. He lives with another Barbara, and they were hosting two travelers from Lithuania. The hospitable Hungarians cooked a six-course meal, all courses being traditional Hungarian dishes (i.e. meat, soup, spice), and sat down for an extremely international dinner. Luckily the english language was our connector. Pictures from dinner:









Sleeping that night was difficult due to the heat, and the lack of rest added to our stress when we missed our train out of Budapest the next morning (it was completely my fault). In total we were delayed about four hours in getting to Slovenia, our next destination, but the trip itself was at least a learning experience. Kelsey took some nice pictures as we waited for our next train out of Budapest: