08.Nov.08
How the hell we got into Hungary is still a mild mystery to us. We were told to look for some run-down building to the right of the train station in Tschop, the border town between Ukraine and Hungary. We got off the train and to our great surprise all the buildings were quite nice looking…so what building exactly were we supposed to go into? We went into some small square structure to the right and tried to ask about the short train which is supposed to carry us across to Hungary. The men there in very KGB looking outfits complete with big black aviator glasses, looked at us like we were speaking an alien language…which technically we were as they spoke no English. We managed to get through to these guys that we wanted to go to Hungary. They gave us some walking directions to hit the Border line a good number of Kilometers away. Having no other obvious option we began our long trek to the border when the guard with the bushy mustache (which isn’t very descriptive as they all had bushy mustaches) came out and said simply “here, wait,” then motioned a steering wheel.
Maybe we have too much faith in the world at this point in our adventure, or maybe he just seemed incredibly sincere and friendly (save the mildly intimidating outfit) but we simply looked at each other and shrugged before putting our backpacks in the trunk and hopping in the backseats. Another mustaccioed man came along who spoke a bit of German, and we managed the typical conversation of “Where from?” “California,” “Oh, Hotel California!” “Yeah, sure, like the song,” “President Obama!” “Yes, we are very happy he won,” “Yes, he is nigger!!!” “Well, yeah, okay,” “No sorry, no nigger, he black,” “Yes, yes, he is black exactly, well thank you guys so so much for the ride,” and he gave my favorite Ukrainian response to “Thank You;” “For nothing, for nothing.” We arrived right at the heavily guarded border, and our chauffeur wouldn’t even accept gas money. Next of course we noticed there was another slight hindrance…you cannot walk across the border as there is absolutely nothing on the other side. No train, no public buses, nothing…so what now. Next thing we knew we threw our bags in the back of a complete strangers car, hopped in and were in queue for the border check. What just happened we can only assume (without English speakers to explain) that due to bureaucracy you must drive or train across the border. Which train exactly remains a complete mystery to us, but those driving across the border extend their generosity to hitchhikers and the like. Everyone other car waiting took a good deal of time to get checked by the Hungarian guards, but obviously pleased by our American passports our guard checked our legal volumes of vodka and let us pass right through, most definitely pleasing our new driver.
So with that long story out of the way we are now in Hungary! We were dropped off at a town nearby and caught the train with only a couple minutes to spare and before we knew it we were standing in the glorious Budapest! A metro and bus stop later and we were ringing the doorbell of our UCSC friend Jordan Menashe in her extremely well placed and spacious apartment. Her four housemates are also UC students studying abroad and right away, aside from the slight mess, we knew this would be a great stay. Our new hosts are all very nice, and completely to my surprise Alex recognized me from high school. He went to CDMHS a couple years behind me, and is now studying at UCSC! We excitedly shared stories of Orange County and Santa Cruz before sleeping on our comfy pullout couch in the living room.
09.Nov.08
Waking up very late, and just bumming around the house, we finally managed to muster some motivation and hop on a train to the outer suburb of Szcentendra. Jordan and her housemate Emily joined along as we sought out a wine festival that we soon found out didn’t really exist. In any case it was a cute, yet touristy, town with a store packed with every flavor Marizpan imaginable (which we happily consumed). We spent the whole day wandering slowly around the town and sharing travel stories and such. Lunch was at a shop with massive potatoes topped with everything your brain could fathom would taste good on a potato and some things that you would think shouldn’t be on a potato. That was it for the day, the train ride gave us a mere glimpse of the extraordinary city of Buda and Pest to come. It is, in fact, two separate cities, Buda is the more posh area on one side of the river including the Castle, and the hills, while Pest lays on the other side of the Danube where the rest of the sites are. Thankfully we have a good number of days here to explore the expansive city.
10.Nov.08
Our first goal of the day was conquering a large hill on the other side of the river (after the goal of cooking breakfast of course). Climbing the hill gave way to many neat little secrets; a church inside of a cave, a playground with massive slides, and at the top a mighty statue of some greek goddess holding a palm leaf. The view was terrific from the top, over to Pest on the other side of the river with towering cathedrals, and the unbelievably florid parliament house, then Buda on our side boasting the mighty castle district and rolling hills. Climbing a high place is always good to do on the first day to orientate ourselves to the city. After hitting the peak for the view we headed through the valley towards the side entrance of the castle complex.
The castle area in every city is simply where the old wall used to protect the more important citizens of the city and where the royal castle would be. Over the years the typical dark, medieval castles have been converted to not as impressive palaces. Then again we simply hold a large place in our hearts for massive, vicious looking castles crumbling from the ferociousness of time and weather. Little pieces like this outer wall are still preserved in ancient glory however!
Wandering through the streets of the inner walls we were pleased with the row after row of lovely aristocratic villas, and very quaint cafes nestled beside a number of museums, palaces, epic statues, turrets, the national library, and a would be very impressive cathedral, were it not under heavy construction! After some good meandering the castle we moseyed on down to the river passing by more loveliness. On the way down we came upon a particularly splendid view of the amazing parliament building across the river with a typical Hungarian church with its colorful roof, in the foreground.
If the Parliament looks familiar to you it is because you have seen a similar building in London ironically also named “Parliament.” They are similar because they were built by the same fellow for the same reason. This building miraculously survived WWII nearly untouched, which is terrific because it is stunning.
Back at the apartment we got in touch with our friend Peter who worked at Kennolyn day camp with me last summer. Born and raised in Budapest he came over and took us out to a couple of his favorite local student bars. Jordan and some of her housemates joined us and we enjoyed a few rounds of local beer and mulled wine surrounded by excellent atmosphere. So far we are very pleased with Budapest!
11.Nov.08
Surprise, surprise, we walked a lot today. Being incredibly cheap travelers we just cannot justify taking the meticulous subway to get where we want to go, when we have two functioning legs to walk with. So we had another day of tiring ourselves out by exploring the grand city on foot. We began with breakfast in one of the 5 massive markets sprinkled throughout the city in the early 1900’s to be hubs of trade. The grand market we went to is like an airplane hangar filled with local veggies, spices, butchers, bakers, with a second floor of souvenirs and food stalls. Hungarian food is nothing other than delicious, although with each bite you can feel an artery clog. We had a smorgasbord of meat, veggies, & noodles, slow cooked in typical Hungarian paprika sprinkled sauce, then a delicious donut-like pastry oozing with berry jam for dessert. Your mouth should be watering about now.
Good thing we do all this walking otherwise the food is likely to give us a heart attack. Speaking of walking, we walked across the city to another impressive structure, St Istvan’s cathedral. A behemoth dome topped structure lined with saints and very mosque-like turrets, it boasts the mummified hand of St Istvan himself inside (which we didn’t bother paying to see).
Describing every gorgeous structure we pass would make this blog at long as War & Peace, so suffice it to say that wandering this city is simply astounding. Every block has something uniquely beautiful to offer. Massive limestone structures with gold leaf sparkling on the walls, huge columns, ancient walls and statues; the cities lengthy history slaps you across the face with every step you take. Truly awe-inspiring is Budapest; likewise as gorgeous as Prague, Berlin, or Vienna, but but all are exquisite in their own unique ways. We headed to the parliament house for a closer look. As imagined it was even more glorious up close and personal. Walking along the river, blinded by the sun reflecting off its white walls, we came across a tucked away memorial; one of those little things you stumble upon that turn a city from amazing to magical. Had we not been previously told what this memorial meant we would have no idea why someone laid rows of bronze shoes along the river. The shoes signify when the Nazis, desperate and surrounded by the soviets, gathered up all the Jews they could, ordered their shoes and clothes off, lined them up by the river, and shot them in the back, dumping the bodies in the Danube. A truly moving memorial.
Later that night we met up with Peter at the apartment. Alex and Jordan met the three of us at a bus stop after school and we hopped on a bus to a place that would change all of our lives. We got off the bus in a tiny insignificant (or so we thought) suburb 30 minutes outside the city. There was nothing around, but some homes, and big tenement block apartments. Peter guided us through the streets until a heavenly light shown on us down an alley. The light attracted us like moths, a light leading to a tiny restaurant tucked away which would soon have us completely re-discover parts of our taste buds we never knew existed.
Peter did all the talking, ordering plate after plate of divine ambrosia. A soup-like succulent borscht with spicy Hungarian kick, a salad with an array of pickled and spiced veggies and peppers, a plate of egg noodles covered in the reddest most succulent beef Goulash imaginable, pork knuckle breaded and covered with cheese and garlic then deep fried, fried mushrooms in white gravy, all washed down with a liquor passed down straight from the Greek gods themselves; Polenka, made with plum, golden in color, it spread through the palate like milk down a babies gullet. A couple of local beers and chocolate covered crepes topped off the meal of a lifetime. Without question the best meal I have eaten in all of Europe, maybe the world, and the most satisfying part was the beyond reasonable bill. I have had meals in life that have cost 5 times as much, and tasted 1/5th as delicious. A large meal at McDonalds would have cost more. Truly a masterpiece of culinary delight, we couldn’t thank Peter enough for taking us to this hidden gem which barely ever sees the wallets of tourists. A delightful evening!
After dinner we went to a small party held for all the Education Abroad Students. It brought back memories of our time abroad, though of all the people we talked to, they seemed to have seen very little of the gorgeous city they now lived in. Oh well.
12.Nov.08
The first chunk of the day was spent working on blog, journal, and pictures; just taking a break. Early afternoon we went on a long walk to the fine arts museum. It wasn’t anything wow, but it certainly was beautiful. Next we went to the famous mineral baths; a huge complex of baths and saunas with varying temperatures. We hopped from pool to pool nestled next to the plethora of large geriatrics (the previously described Hungarian food is delicious, but as we now learn firsthand, does NO favors for the body). We tried to brave one super hot sauna with a max temp of 65 Celsius (152 Fahrenheit) which we managed about 30 seconds sitting around the other heat lovers with beet red skin.
Feeling rejuvenated after a good number of hours soaking we took the subway back to the apartment for Mexican night! Jess and I made our homemade tortillas and the rest of the Apartment whipped up some fixin’s for delicious burritos. We had a great meal and were later joined by Peter and three people we invited through Couchsurfing. We spent the night chatting, laughing, and drinking wine.
13.Nov.08
Midday we met Peter for a goodbye lunch at a kebab place then headed one of the largest Synagogues in the world for a short tour of the grounds complete with its complex history. When the Jews knew the Nazis were coming they took out all the precious stained-glass windows and buried them in sand, miraculously surviving the war completely unscathed and replaced in the window holes after war. The synagogue and surrounding Jewish quarter was a Nazi military base and the Jewish Ghetto during the war. Today it is used by the remaining few thousand Jews as a place of worship. The top floor of the temple is a small museum with massive quantities of silver Torah casings, dradels, and Menorahs. Aside from the massive Synagogue the rest of the Jewish quarter is pretty non-existent.
Our next stop was the museum of terror depicting the double threat to the Hungarian people in the last century. From the years under fascism of the Arrow-cross party, followed by the Nazis, to being “liberated” by the soviets, only to enter an era of equal terror, torture, invasive surveillance, and genocide. A very griping, and well made museum, though with far too much information to take in.
That was pretty much the end of our Budapest adventure. We went home and just hung out the rest of the night, then packed our bags for our long drive to Muenchen in the morning.
Budapest Flickr Photos:
http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157609080922549/
