It appears as though I have been slacking on my posting duties! We made it to Budapest on Sunday afternoon. The train ride was fun and I believe many of you have seen the photos of Scott and I napping….. Just couldn’t help it! Once we got here, the Metro was working so the directions we had to the apartment weren’t helping much. So here we are, tourists in every sense of the word, lugging suitcases all over the place trying to figure out where the heck we need to be. NOTHING is marked! One wrong way trip on the tram, then getting on the right tram finding our stop, walking a block (still with our luggage) we find the apartment…..which is on the second floor. Didn’t realize there was a lift until AFTER we made it up there…… The apartment is a bit over the top in decor but pretty cool. Ben has pictures posted on Facebook if you’d like to see…..haven’t figured out how to post an album on here……
Monday was our food tour “A Taste of Hungary” with Barbara. She was awesome! We tried some herbal/medicinal liquor……tasted like medicine, several different kinds so sausage (beef tongue, horse meat, liver wurst and blood sausage). Yes, I tried them all and swallowed! I have to say, the beef tongue was pretty good, the horse meat one tasted like a mild Slim Jim and the blood sausage one will never pass these lips again! We had lunch with traditional Hungarian dishes and most were pretty tasty. Off to a chocolate shop, a bakery, and last Hungarian wine tasting.
Today, we ventured out on our own and yes, it seems we have mastered mass transit in Budapest. We selected stops that we’re not on our AMA Waterway tours. Off to St Matthias Church, St Stephens Basilica, Alexandra Bookstore/coffee house and the Hungarian Opera House we went. All were beyond beautiful and so much history. We had traditional hungarian food for lunch at a Christmas Market and I liked to froze my butt off!
I learned that that many people hear really don’t speak true Hungarian and many really do know English, they just don’t want you to know they know it. Not friendly sort of folks, but there are exceptions, like our wonderful tour guide Barbara and the very nice lady who helped me out at the pay restroom. The machine didn’t like my Hungarian 100 forint pieces, she put in her 200 forint piece, got a ticket to open the door and let me in and refused to let pay her back. The architecture is beautiful on both the Buda and Pest sides of the river and yet the cities see. So different. One being mostly flat, the Pest side, while Buda is hilly. We really could have spent several more days here exploring, but on to the next chapter………
Travels with Ben & Lisa 