Budapest, Hungary

A while back we were really debating which Eastern European city to visit - Krakow or Budapest? In the end we decided on Krakow, as it was supposed to be the better of the two. About 3 weeks after that decision, we realized that we would only regret missing out on Budapest, so we just ended up doing both.

Saturday, January 16th

The flight times to and from Budapest were far from ideal, but with it being my busy season we had to squeeze it into a Sat/Sun. Our mid-morning flight didn't get us into the city until around noon, so we were pretty much off and running as soon as we arrived.

Our first stop was over to grab food from the main city market. This giant market place has been around for hundreds of years. On the ground floor they sell all kinds of meats and produce and other things you'd expect of a market. Upstairs they have a bunch of shops selling touristy goods and then a few cheap "fast food" restaurants selling traditional Hungarian fare. We both tried some interesting (and pretty tasty) local dishes - I went with the goulash over rice, while Jenna had a veggie and cheese filled crepe.

Our next stop was the top-rated site in the city and one of the two main things that brought us here - the Szechenyi Baths. Budapest is built over some natural hot springs, and as such they've built up several thermal baths, of which Szenchenyi is the largest and most famous. It is a giant complex that was built in the late 1800s, and is of a grand design. You go through the doors, change clothes in a little closet, and leave your stuff in a locker before heading into the baths. The baths themselves are really just several rooms full of pools of differing sizes and water temperatures. The highlight by far, though, is the outdoor baths.

There are 3 large pools in the complex's central courtyard. A long rectangular pool in the middle which is "capped" on both ends by semicircular pools. They range from around 70 to 95 degrees. Each pool has a few little areas with jets and waterfalls and whatnot, but the main thing to do was just sit back and relax. Needless to say, we were here in January, so it was a little cold outside - like around 30 degrees. Let me tell you that this made for a very interesting run from the doors to the pools (when we were still dry), and an even more interesting one from the first pool to the second (when we were wet). It was terribly cold outside, especially to be wearing nothing but a swimsuit, but the pools were amazing. It was super relaxing to just sit in the 95 degree water, steam rising up all around you into the sub-freezing air outside. It was really an amazing experience.

After wandering through the inside of the complex a bit and soaking in a few of those pools, we had to head back to the hotel to get dressed up for the other main thing that brought us to Budapest - the opera.

With all of these beautiful opera houses that we've seen in our travels, we figured we really needed to see an actual performance while we were here. The problem is that, at least in London, it is terribly expensive. The nose-bleed seats with restricted view cost about $70 each, so we had been putting it off and had really mostly decided that we wouldn't be able to do it. Fortunately, though, Budapest is somewhat famous for its opera, and it is unbelievably cheap.

We booked tickets in advance for Mozart's "The Magic Flute", which according to our celebrity friend Chad (who is an opera aficionado) is "as Disney as opera can get". We knew that was going to be perfect for us. The best part is that we got the most expensive tickets in the theatre - box seats. The cost? $18 each. If this were in London the box seats would be nearly $1,000. What a deal!

When we talked about going people thought is was crazy since, well, they speak Hungarian. Our thought, though, was that since it was an Italian opera, nobody would be able to understand, so we'd be fine. We did a little research into the basic story line before we went, but as it turned out this play did have quite a bit of regular dialogue - in Hungarian. We were able to enjoy the music and knew in general what was going on, but there were definitely multiple occasions where the crowd would respond in laughter and we had no idea why. Even so, it was a great experience. The music was pretty good and the seats and view were incredible. We were so glad to be able to have this opportunity to get some culture!

Sunday, January 17th

Sunday was set to be our day to do all the tourist activities in the city. The city itself is actually two different towns - Buda and Pest - that are separated by the Danube river but were merged into one city back in the late 1800s. We were on the Pest side, but a lot of the historical sites, including things like the palaces and main cathedral, were all on the Buda side, which is across the river and on top of a big hill. There wasn't anything in particular up there that we were dying to see, but we wanted to go and just walk around and take it in.

We had plans for the afternoon and evening, so we knew we needed to go there first thing in the morning. Since it is on the top of a big hill, there was no subway service, so you have the option of a bus or walking about a mile uphill. We obviously decided to take the bus. It turns out that the trip was not meant to be - we happened to be in town during a week of bus strikes, something we didn't find out until after we got home. After waiting at the bus stop for about 15 minutes (and having two scheduled buses not come), we knew something was up. We had the option to walk it, but we decided we didn't have enough time that it would take to hike all the way over and up, so we gave up on this site, which was really disappointing.

After giving up, we sulked our way over to the parliament building, which was not too far away. This is one of the city's architectural highlights, and it was pretty cool. They copied a lot of the design from the parliament in in London, so it has a general Gothic look, but then they topped it with a big dome, which is definitely not Gothic at all. I think the general consensus among snobby architects is that this mix is awful, but we loved it. We thought this was a much cooler building than the famous one in London.

We next walked down the Danube a bit to the very interesting holocaust memorial. There is a cement walkway running along the banks of the river, and the memorial is numerous pairs of bronzed empty shoes. Apparently, hundreds of citizens were murdered here on the river bank. The story goes that they would tie several people together, shoot one, and throw them all into the river. The dead body drug everyone else down and saved the Germans a few bullets. These empty shoes were a stark memorial to those who lost their lives.

From the Nazis, we moved onto the Communists. Like the rest of Eastern Europe, Hungary was liberated by the Russians and quickly fell under the Iron Curtain. Over the years, numerous statues were erected to tout the power of the state. After the fall of communism, most cities destroyed these statues, but a few ingenious Hungarians bought them up and set up them up for display in a park outside the city. To tell the truth, we really thought that this park was one visited a couple of seasons ago on The Amazing Race (our favorite show), and that was the main reason we wanted to go. Turns out that park is in Moscow.

We still enjoyed ourselves - there were several huge statues around, including a big platform where they used to have all the big demonstrations. It used to be topped by a statue of Stalin, but he was literally chopped down at the knees during the 90s - the top part of the statue was destroyed and all that was left were his feet. They also had a very small museum that played a video about being a communist spy. Someone had taken old secret police training videos and created an interesting look at how they operated. It covered everything from how to act when you meet an informant in a restaurant to how to follow a suspect to how to properly break into and search a house. One of the main tips - if you're ransacking someone's house and the phone starts ringing, don't answer!!! One of the best parts, though, was the little car near the entrance. These were as bad as they look, but as it was the only option they were in such high demand that you had to pay in advance and then wait a few years to take delivery - the marvel of communist engineering!

After leaving this park we headed back to the city and decided to warm up with a cup of tea and a late lunch. We went to the city's famous Gerbaud cafe, which is apparently the place to be, but apparently not at mid-afternoon on a freezing cold Sunday. The tea and food were both excellent, though maybe a little over priced, and the cafe itself was pretty cool. Funnily, though, the only other people in the place were other tourists, also trying to take pictures of themselves without looking touristy.

Our final main stop for the day was the House of Terror. Hungary was in a very interesting situation during and after WWII. They actually officially sided with the Nazis in the war, although they didn't really provide a lot of military support. There was a puppet Nazi government set up in the country and lots of good strong supporters. After the war, the Communists moved in and everybody basically just switched their allegiances. Interestingly, the headquarters of the secret police for both the Nazis and the Communists were in the same building. Sounds like the perfect place for a museum, right?

It was a pretty cool place, with a soviet tank in the middle and then 3 stories of information on the history of the Nazis and Communists in Hungary. I won't go into too much of the details, but needless to say there was a pretty good deal of oppression. The basement was where both regimes did all of their interrogations and punishment, and they have left it as it was, with various prison cells, etc. The most interesting part, though, was the wall of shame - with pictures of hundreds of people who were part of either the Nazi or Communist power systems during the time, and committed various atrocities, but were never brought to justice. All of these are apparently wanted men or women but are in exile or hiding around the world.

After leaving the museum we still had a little bit of time before needing to get to the airport, so we stopped over in Heroes Square, a huge open plaza with a monument to the great Hungarian leaders, none of whom we recognized - although it was still a very nice monument.

At last we made our way back to the hotel to grab our bags and go home, but on the way we made sure we walked by the famous McDonalds, built in the 80s and the first major Western establishment to break through the Iron Curtain. The place was hugely popular; they couldn't call it "fast food" because the line was usually out the door and around the corner! We passed by and, well, it looked like a McDonalds, so we took a mental picture and were on our way back home.