Goodnight Budapest

Our final dinner in Budapest was at Pozsony Restaurant, a recommendation by a colleague who lives in Budapest. Jesse was right. I know why it's his favorite restaurant now. I ordered some sort of pork with peppers (its officially my favorite Hungarian entree now!) and potatoes with parsley. The food was perfect and the wine was great. It really is a small little restaurant right in the middle of a little residential area. We were the only non-locals there, until two guys from Austria showed up. They tried speaking German to the waiter, and it was the first time I've ever heard someone overseas say "Can you speak english please? I don't understand." It was a little odd hearing that, but I guess it makes sense.

After dinner we tried to find that beer garden that Jesse recommended, but it was completely MIA. So, we decided that our favorite Irish pub was on the way home, so we jumped off the metro at Deak Square instead of calling in a night. Longford's was a bit dead, but our favorite waiters were there, so Mom and I grabbed some drinks and enjoyed our last night there. When we left, we gave the waiter a hug and he said "see you tomorrow." awww...how sad that we were leaving. We'll have to see him next time I'm in Budapest. Which, hopefully will be soon.

I miss that city already!!!

Budapest, Physically

So just a couple of observations about the city of Budapest.

1: The women in Budapest have the best legs! Whether they are tall or short or even a bit chunky with a gut, they have gorgeous toned legs. Very jealous!!

2: Budapest is home to some of the most beautiful men I have ever seen. The business men, pub waiters, ticket takers...all beautiful. It's absolutely insane. And they all have that great tanned brown skin too. Big fan of Budapest men!!!

That's the end of this absolutely superficial blog! :)

Final Night in Budapest

Our time in Budapest feels like it went by so fast. Tonight is our final night in the city. One of the guys that I used to work with lived in Budapest now. Unfortunately he's out of town on business but he's recommended a couple of places for us. Tonight we will be having dinner at his favorite restaurant, a cute little mom and pop kind of place afterwards we'll head over to Szoda, a beer garden where locals hang out. Should be a good night!

Last night, we went back to our favorite Irish pub for dinner. Had the Hungarian style pork medallions that I have declared my favorite Hungarian food. Had some more beer and watched the Austria-Scotland football game.

Hangover update

The Hungarian hangover is finally gone!! We went to the Opera and bought tickets for tonight's performance. Four dollar tickets for slightly off-center balcony seats. Talk about a great deal. The most expensive seats in the place cost around 70 US dollars. I'm excited for the show. No idea which opera so that will be interesting.

We are on our way now to the Market Hall, one of Budapest's huge food and goods market. We are going to pick up some lunch and see what fun stuff we can buy.

Hungarian Hangovers

Many half liters of beer, three bars, eight hours of sleep, four bottles of water, two advils.....

My head still hurts. Hungarian hangovers suck!!!!

Buda-Pest...two sides to one city

Budapest is my kind of city: beautiful men, great architecture, lots of theatre options and an ice cream shop on every corner!!

My first view of Budapest was not the best. Our train finally arrived in Budapest at midnight Sunday night. Train stations are never pretty places usually, especially late at night. This one was no exception. We hit up an ATM and tried to but metro tickets. Come to find out that the ticket machine only takes smaller bills than we had. So I went all the way back through the station to the ATM to pull out a smaller amount. Back to the ticket machine where we finally got our tickets and we were on our way.

Found our hotel with hardly any trouble. We are on a cute little residential side street two blocks from Vaci Utca and one block from the Great Market Hall. Our hotel room is great - vaulted ceilings, big windows that open up to the main street, and yet another chandelier.

Yesterday we took a three hour walking tour of the city to try to get our bearings on the place and to get some history. I'll save you from the boring historical details that I always find interesting. Couple of highlights: Rather then saying occupiers, Hungarians call invaders from their history "guests" and when the Russians liberated them from German Communism in 1956, they simply "forgot to leave for about 40 years".

We toured the castle district, but it wasn't anything awe-inspiring, minus the view across the Danube to the Pest side. The Buda castle was built in the 1950s and houses 2 musuems now. Fisherman's Bastion was pretty cool though. During the invasion by the Turks, each group of city people was responsible for protecting a part of the wall. The fisherman were responsible for the part of the wall still remaining known as Fisherman's Bastion. I took some great photos there!

Last night we stayed on our side of the city, Pest. We went to a Hungarian Folk dance performance. It is tourist oriented so I was expecting something cheesy but fun. I was very pleasantly surprised though! There were about 15 musicians and 8 dancers. It switched between straight up musical performances (Franz Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody, etc) and choreographed dances. Everyone was so talented that I didn't want it to end. And the theatre was a local theatre but absolutly beautiful. It was a great night!! Perfect ending to a first day.

I alreay love Budapest and we still have the rest of the week here. I like the smaller view of Vienna but I love that the majority of Budapest's buildings were built in the late 1800s. Every street corner is filled with great architectural details. The whole city is a photograph waiting to be taken! I love it!

Oh where oh where did my little train go?

Fours hours late, our train to Budapest has finally arrived!! It stopped for a total of five minutes to let everyone off and some of us on before it took off again. Seven cars later, we found a spot in a mostly non-smoking car. But then...it wouldn't be a Jill Escapade through Europe without at least one travel incident!

So here I am on the train for the first time this trip. It's been very "Plane, Trains and Automobiles" this year ... Well, more trams, subways, and boats but you get the idea. Hoping to see some of the much talked about Slovakian countryside in the next two and a half hours. I'll let you know. Just a litle disappointed that we won't be in Budapest until at least 10pm, but I guess better late than never!!!!

Bratislava

Bratislava is a really cute city. Well, let me correct that...the Old Town is really cute. The rest (regular part) of the city is just your regular city. A lot of it built in that post-war, square concrete style construction.

The Old Town has great architecture and little alleyways which I love. It's the perfect little place to wander and get lost in since you can walk one end to the other in 15 minutes. People and dogs start to look familiar cause you pass them several times a night, each time on a different street, while dining, strolling, eating ice cream, at church, etc.

The temperature in the city was insane. It was so hot when we got off the boat that I almost wanted to turn around and get right back on. Two days is perfect in Bratislava. It gives you time to get familiar with the place and to relax. But it also gets you out of town before the boredom strikes. I liked it there but I'm not sure if I would recommend it to anyone.

Fancy meeting you here Mr. President

After touring Schonbrunn Palace and its grounds, we had a nice little picnic dinner by its park while we waited for the concert. Bored with staring at the trees, we moved to a bench at the front of the palace where we people watched after our picnic.

People started showing up slowly along with the VIPs in dresses and suits. There were some police and undercover security hanging aound one of the front doors so we figured somebody big was showing up. Then, I remembered that the Austrian president was presiding over the ceremony. What are the odds of running into him twice in two days? We dicided too wander over there just as all of the cars came speeding toward the palace through the massive fron courtyard.

The cars pulled up right where we were standing, and in fact the President did get out. He shook a few hands and answered some questions from the press who magically appeared when he did. Then he went inside the Palace.

That was a fun, random moment or two. We were going to head back to the other side of the palace when we noticed a 20ish Austrian wearing Hillary Clinton stickers all over his shirt. That made us start to wonder if Bill and Hillary would be there. We started looking around a bit more and noticed a whole group of US Secret Service guys standing nearby and a couple of American brand cars. I don't think I've ever seen a Ford in Europe before.

Hanging out for what seemed like forever (although there was really little else to do other than people watch while waiting for the concert), the SS guys started moving around and talking about last minute logistics (white SUV and then the black SUV follow the police motorcycles).

Bill surprised us and the photographers by entering through a side door somewhere and appearing up on the front, center balcony waving with the Austrian president.

We tried taking a photo or two but he was too high up and was surrounded by people. He did look over towards us and saw the kid with all of the Hillary stickers. He motioned for him to come up the stairs to the balcony. He made his way up there. Clinton spoke with him for a moment, signed one of the kid's signs and then read the letter the guy had written to Hillary. When he was done, Clinton gave one last wave and disappeared inside.

Remembering earlier that the SS guys had started the SUVs but had not left yet, Mom suggested we hang out a bit longer. And it paid off. A few minutes later, Clinton came out through the side front door that we were standing near. There were four other Americans standing next to us and when Clinton walked out, they startd singing the US national anthem. One of his staff members pointed them out and Clinton came walking over. He talked to the boys for a minute and then came over to us. We shook his hands, said hello and then snapped some photos of him as he made his way back.

Several chances to meet the guy and I had to fly over to Europe to make it happen! Oh well. It was a great moment! It made my mom's day, well probably week actually. She was really excited about it.

Clinton got into the SS car and drove off. We made our way through the palace to the back courtyard for the concert and who was on the stage? Bill Clinton! He was receiving a check from the people of Austria for a charity fund. The man was everywhere!!

Not a bad way to end your last day in Vienna: meeting the President, picnicing in the royal park and hear the National Orchestra play at the palace. Not too shabby at all. Not at all.

I could live like this

Yesterday we decided to continue our theme of living like royalty. We took the subway out to Schonnbrunn Palace, the summer home of the Hapsburgs (and Napolean during the French occupation).

The palace is everything you would want from royalty: beautiful gardens, great fountains, the wow factor when you first see it, etc. The palace has 1400 rooms, 40 of which are open to the public. At one time it housed the entire royal family and up to 1000 servants. The place was gorgeous and in impeccable condition.

As if the palace weren't enough, there was a rose garden, greenhouses, a Marionette theatre (they scare me), a zoo, a maze and a grand public park. About a half mile or so behind the palace on a huge hill was the Gloriette, a great stone structure where the royal family ate their breakfast when the weather was nice. It was the original planned spot for the palace (to resemble Versaille) but royals wanted to save money (go figure) they chose a less auspicious location where the palace now sits.

The view from the Gloriette was phenominal. The bit of a hike up there was horrbile - direct sun, straight up hill, in about 90 degree weather. It was worth it when we got to the top though.

As suggested by all of the books we packed a picnic. We decided to eat it as dinner there between our sightseeing and the free symphony concert that was going to be later that night.

I had randomly come across info on the concert while surfing the web. I didn't realize just what a big deal it was. This was the fourth year that Vienna's Concert for America took place, averaging around 80,000 people each year. The entire back of the palace yard is covered with people - tourists and locals alike. The show is televised live all over Europe. The conductor this year was from Russia and the concert was presided over by the Austrian president.

Is that red carpet for us??

Yesterday morning we visited the Royal Treasury Museum at the Hofburg Palace. When we arrived they had the red carpet rolled out for us...literally!

The police were starting to set up barricades and the red carpet was receiving its finally sweeping. The Hofburg is still home to the offices of the President of Austria, so we figured something big must be going on.

We stood around for about 20 minutes taking in all of the confusion. Come to find out President Putin was in town to meet with the Austrian president. Putin wasn't expected till around 2pm so we decided to explore the Treasury while we waited.

Can I just say, the royals had some great bling!! One of personal favorites in the collection was a 492 karat amythest stone. It was part of a four piece collection of large stones. Apparently the royals used to give them to other royals as gifts. Yeah, me too!!

The crowns were insane with the amount of diamonds, pearls and other jewels on them. It must have been heavy! As the television obsessed American that I am, I couldn't help thinking of Showtime's The Tudors while I was there. Great stuff

When we left the Treasury, we were sort of barricaded into one of the palace courtyards. But thankfully we took the city tour through here the day before and I remembered a way out through the back. Feeling a little James Bond like, we manuevered our way out the side of the palace, through a little alley way and back to the main courtyard again. The police had barricades up everywhere so we couldn't go back to our original spot next to the red carpet. We cut our lossed and headed the couple of blocks back to our apartment for lunch.

News helicopters were hovering over our building and the Hofburg so we decided to turn on the tv. Putin's arrival was broadcast live so we did get to see it. The military band played and there was a lot of handshaking after that.

All in a day's adventure in Vienna I suppose!