Thanks to our amazing friends, Jenny and I were able to make one last get away without kids and prior to newborn baby. We dropped them off the night before and made a trip to Eastern Europe. We found a Groupon for a 3 night stay at a 4 star hotel and jumped on it. We flew into Budapest, Hungary bright and early on a Tuesday morning. Located a bus to take us to the nearest metro and the site seeing began! We were starving when we got there, so we went to eat at KFC, I know boring, but we were so hungry and didn't have the patience to search for food. Then we headed to the "Buda" side of the river. This side is hilly and has lots of cool buildings.
We followed Rick Steve's Castle Hill walk on the Buda side. Many of the buildings we saw have been rebuilt since World War II and supposedly aren't as grand as they used to be. They were still interesting though. The views from the Royal Palace were amazing. You could see across the river to the "Pesht" side, the huge bridges that connect Buda to Pest, and the churches and buildings all along the river. It was pretty even though it was overcast and foggy. I think in the spring on a sunny day the view would be amazing!
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| "Changing of the guard" Budapest style |
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| This building once housed the Ministry of War. The holes are bullet holes from WWII. |
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| A little bit of the amazing view |
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| This is the huge Chain Bridge. It was amazing. |
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| Matthias Church |
We went into Matthias Church to look around. They were doing construction which was interesting to see in a church. One thing they were doing was completely redoing the brick work in the floor. What a tedious job!
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| You can see some of the floor in this picture. If you look close you can see the individual bricks and how intricate of a pattern it is. The one downstairs was even more colorful and intricate. The walls are know for their wall paper design, however it is actually paint not paper at all, very fascinating. |
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| View looking through the arches of Fisherman's Bastian toward the other side of the river. |
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| Matthias church |
After our walking tour we took a bus to the bottom of the hill and walked across the chain bridge and to our hotel for a nap before heading out on the town for some night life and dinner.
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| Us on Chain Bridge at night |
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| Looking back at the Buda side to see the royal palace all lit up. |
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| More of Chain Bridge |
We wanted to have some real Hungarian food, so we went to a part of town Rick Steve's suggested. There was one road that had restaurant after restaurant and the prices were all decent. We picked one that was packed with people. Blake got the traditional goulash, which has meat, potatoes, and other vegetables and is a little spicy. I got ribs and we both got hot chocolate. We didn't love the food, but the atmosphere was fun! I think we saw 3 groups of at least 10 girls come in. The decor was so interesting. I think it would be a fun place to play I spy. An example is one of the "Chandeliers" was made from a women's petticoat, the tables were old wood put together to make a table and they were colored and written all over, they had all kids of stuff hanging on the walls too.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel. Our hotel was one that came with the package on groupon. It was a 4 start hotel and said it had a hot tub, so I thought it would be perfect. When we checked in they informed us that it would be 6 euros each, per day to use the hot tub. There was also a breakfast buffet we could take advantage of for only 15 euros each, per day. We opted to stop at the grocery store around the corner and get some pastries and juice for 3 euros instead. We were really bummed about the hot tub, but oh well.
Day 2 we headed towards the Szechenyi Baths. We saw some sights along the way. We stopped at the opera to just peek inside and they had an opera that night for only 3 dollars, so we got tickets to that and headed on to the bath's peeking in the House of Terror and deciding to come see that another day.
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| Opera |
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| This castle in the park was built for a festival, but the people loved it so much they rebuilt it with brick and stone. |
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| The baths |
Budapest is known for its thermal baths. There are all kids of baths here. We went to the famous Szechenyi Baths and had so much fun. We spent about 5 hours here trying out all the different hot tubs and cold pools.
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| View of the outside baths |
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| Outside baths at night |
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| Outside baths |
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| Here is a sign of the temperatures of the baths |
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| Inside baths |
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| The cold bath temp sign |
Inside they had a bath that was like 106 degrees, then a bath right next to it that was 68 degrees. People would sit in the hot one, then get out and get in the cold one, then come back to the hot one. We had fun watching everyone's faces as they got in the cold pool. Some of the men would just get in and go all the way under and it wouldn't faze them. Some of the women would scream. Blake would try to convince everyone who came in to that room to get in the cold pool first. It was pretty funny. We met 2 couples from Australia and enjoyed talking to them. They had some interesting ideas about government health care.
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| Leaving the baths and heading to the opera. |
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| Hero square at night |
We had to run half way to the opera to make it on time. We grabbed some pizza just outside and downed it before going inside. Luckily there were other people there in jeans, or we would have felt very out of place. There were lots of people really dressed up in fancy dresses and men in suits and ties. We hadn't even packed clothes like that. I don't remember the name of the Opera we saw, but it was all in Italian. They had a screen with subtitles that were in Hungarian, so we didn't have a clue what was going on. We should have studied up before hand so we knew the story line. We enjoyed the atmosphere until intermission, then headed back to the hotel.
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| View from our seats at the opera |
The underground line that the opera was located on was really nice. It was all really old, but beautiful wood and tile everywhere, very different than some that we've seen.
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| Enjoying a new kind of fanta |
The next morning we woke up at 5 and headed to the train station to catch a train to Vienna. We had grabbed breakfast the night before and brought it on the train.
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| yummy meats and cheeses on rolls |
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| studying up on Vienna |
First we rode a tram around the ringstrasse checking out the sites and jumping on and off for pictures. Then we did a walking tour through the middle of town stopping for lunch and treats and to go in different buildings.
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| Our train |
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| The tram we rode around |
It was a nice sunny day, which makes picture taking so much more fun! Everything looks so much better when the sun is shining. Many of the churches and statues were built to say thank you to God for different things. One king was saved from the flu and had a huge statue and church built to say thank you to God.
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| Church built when attempted assassination of Emperor Franz Josef failed |
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| City Hall |
Blake was super excited to get a real brat and eat it the way Weiners(I would call them Venetians) do. The take a bite of the brat, then a bite of the bread. They don't actually put it on the bun. He loved it!
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| St. Stephen's Cathedral |
Rick Steve's reccommended Zanoni and Zanoni Gelateria, so we found it and they were finishing up construction and opening the next day. We were bummed.
We climbed 343 stairs to the tower of St. Stephen's and enjoyed the view from the top.
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| Proof that there were 343 stairs to the top! |
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| View of Vienna and the roof of the church |
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| Vienna and the 100 year old ferris wheel |
So a man wanted to sell his cleaning chemicals and decided to buy 2 wine cellars and turn them in to bathrooms. They were designed by Adolf Loose and are very elegant. They were built in 1900 and are still clean and Elegant. They say they have poetry readings there. They are .50 euros to use, but I had to go, so I used them. We need to study up on our German though. We weren't sure which bathroom was the women's so we stood there watching until a Lady came out of one of them. When you go into the bathroom their is an attendant that you pay. You go in the stall and she comes and locks the door for you with a big huge skeleton key. Then when you are done you can crack the door a little bit and she will come let you out. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little nervous about her letting me out:) Maybe it is my claustrophobia and fear of being locked in small spaces.
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| View into the bathroom |
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| The stall I used |
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| Statue built to say thanks for saving emperor and people from Bubonic Plague. |
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| Blake people watching and taking pictures of them |
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| This is an example of how windy it was that day. I even saw a baby's stroller blow over. |
We decided to tour the opera in Vienna. It is a very famous Opera house where they have operas or ballet's every night.
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| Blake ready to be in an opera |
Famous composers performed here.
After touring for the day we decided to just ride the tram into the outskirts for fun and get some treats at a grocery store. We lost track of time a little bit and needed to figure out the fastest way back to the train station. This girl got on the bus and Blake told me to take a picture of her. She was a really cute girl and Blake likes pictures of random "locals." We decided to see if she spoke english and could give us directions to the train station. She did speak english. Really good english, with no accent! She was actually from the United States, but had lived in Vienna for 7 years for work. We asked her what she did and she was a ballerina. She performed at the Opera House! That was pretty cool.
We ended up having to run to catch our train. We got to the station 2 minutes before it was supposed to leave. So we ran and jumped on the train. There weren't 2 seats together, so we had to sit by strangers. Blake started talking to the girl next to him and realized we were on the wrong train! Luckily it hadn't started moving yet. We jumped off and got on the train next to that one which was the correct train. It had been delayed, so we sat for a few minutes before it left. We were glad we realized we were on the wrong train before it left the station.
Friday morning we slept in, then headed to The House of Terror. You couldn't take pictures inside, but it was a really neat museum all about what happened in Budapest under Nazi control, then under the USSR. They didn't have everything in English, but they had enough to realize how bad it was. There were over 440,000 Jews deported, thousands murdered on the streets and hundreds executed in the basement of the building where the museum is now. There were videos of people telling their stories of being in jail, or concentration camps. It was surprising to me that these people weren't bitter. I'm sure there are people out there who are bitter, but the ones in these videos have come to terms with what happened and have moved on. They were amazing stories. Sad, but amazing to see the things these people have overcome. They have forgiven and moved on. What a great lesson to learn. At the very end of the tour you could see pictures of people still alive today and living in the very area that were tortured and along an adjacent hall the names and pictures of the torturers. Absolutely crazy! If you had any desire to know who killed your own family members or those who turned you in for even talking about freedom you could come to the museum and find out. NO secrets here. It is all laid out clear as day who was who.
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| Sign representing Nazi control and USSR control |
After the museum we walked around more of the Pest side to see some of the buildings and statues.
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| More pictures of Blake's people watching:) |
Blake made the comment that they put up so many statues of people who end up being back stabbers. This man they put up a statue because he liberated them from the Nazi reign, only to bring them into control of the USSR, and it's still standing?
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| Lady in traditional Hungarian dress |
We were on a search for Langos the whole time we were in Budapest. It is deep fried bread that they serve with different toppings. We couldn't find it anywhere, but then came to this building that is called the Great Market Hall. They had everything in here! Food, clothes groceries, everything. They had our Langos! Blake got one with sour cream, parmesan cheese, tomatoes, red onions and pepperoni. He loved it! Mine was nutella, cocoa powder and with almonds sprinkled on top. DELICIOUS! We would have eaten these every day if we could have found them. This market had all the traditional meals.
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We enjoyed our Langos, then headed back to the airport stopping to grab some fun drinks and chocolate on our way out of town. What a fun and relaxing vacation! Highlights - EVERYTHING, but if I could go back....sitting in the baths, 2-3 days in Vienna and a 2 days in Budapesht!
