You Wish You Were Hungarian!

As many of you know, my grandma was born in Hungary. So my cousins and I have really started to take pride (for lack of a better way to say it) in our Hungarian heritage over the years.  I've also admittedly loved over the years when people think I'm from some foreign country because of my olive complexion, and I proudly inform them that I'm Hungarian. This is not to say I can speak more than a few inappropriate words or know of a couple key dishes in Hungarian.....BUT it was one of the few "must visit" places for me when I decided to move abroad. And this month I've been packing those in!

So Budapest was the city I hit.

I'd heard brilliant things about Budapest, so I've been looking forward to this trip for a while. But I must say I didn't really know what to expect. Let me tell you this: 3 days there is NOT enough! What's more - it has unexpectedly moved its way to the top of my "favorite places" list!! I LOVED the trip there!  I really wish I could've planned for more time in Hungary, and  I'm sure I would've really enjoyed more time to explore the less touristy and more "traditional" Hungarian towns. Se la vie. You work with what you've got.

What was so great about it you ask? Well there were several things that I think all contributed to an overall great weekend.

1) The mild weather, the frequent sunshine and the autumn colors really set the tone for a great weekend. There are quite a few wooded areas and outdoor spaces, so having red, orange and yellow changing leaves everywhere while the sun peaked through the trees and sparkled off the Danube river was so beautiful!

We went on a hike up Gellert Hill on the Buda side. We had just arrived, it was sunny out, and we figured why not!? What an amazing walk through these gorgeous autumn leaves!

For some reason I kind of love this picture. The fuzzy tree in the background....the mulled wine we bought for a "hike".... the colors...sigh.... :)

This was a view from Buda looking over the Danube at the Parliament Building. It's nicknamed the "wedding cake". 

2) The neighborhood we stayed in - essentially in the former Jewish Ghetto, right on the border of Erzsebetvaros. (Try to pronounce that!) I have noticed that where you stay when travelling makes a HUGE difference in your experience. I found that when Kyle and I stayed in Trastevere in Rome and had much more of a "local" experience. This was very similar. We rented an apartment which ended up being AMAZING! 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms for less than a typical hotel room!

Admittedly, the streets of the neighborhood we stayed in were not really charming and pretty. In fact some of it looked downright rough when compared to some of the touristy areas. Usually that's not my gig. I typically like the pretty stuff. But .... I don't really know how to explain it. There was a LOT of character here. The bars we walked by all had a very specific vibe. Nothing mainstream or basic or typical.

I felt like we could go somewhere new every night! Highly recommend this area if you ever go! Also, our apartment was on a street with tons of bars and most importantly, the most famous "original" Ruin Bar: Szimpla! (see below). Made nighttime easy for us.

3) The Ruin Bars - Budapest is known for their Ruin Bars. If you haven't heard of them before, check out some of these websites which can explain them better than me.
http://travel.cnn.com/budapests-best-ruin-bars-051056?hpt=travel_hp_blogroll
http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/the-ruin-bars-of-budapest/
http://welovebudapest.com/en/clubs-nightlife/articles/2012/09/07/the-best-ruin-pubs-in-budapest
Essentially they are old building which look like "ruins" which were converted to really really really cool bars. I guess I expected these to be like super intense clubs that would be fun to hit for a bit but then not my style. DEFINITELY not the case. These are the most unique bar concept I've ever seen. Multiple levels, multiple rooms, different styles in every room. You want to dance? Awesome. There's a room for that. You want indie music? Got it. You want low music and dim lighting for a more personal evening? Done! You want to play Foosball? There's a room with that! The two most well-known ones are Szimpla (which was the original). This one was my favorite. It was very kitchy. Old garage-sale stuff was used EVERYWHERE. It was so cool!

and Instant. Instant had a much more trippy decor. It was described as Alice and Wonderland on drugs. But the scene was no different than my description above. Just the decor.

And one of my FAVORITE things about these, is that on Sunday morning, Szimpla is quickly changed from it's late night bar scene to a family-friendly local market!!!!! We just stumbled upon it confused why 80 year old ladies were walking out of a bar, and were WOWed and when saw tons of local fruit and veg merchants, cheese guys, a coffee stand and even live music! I really love food markets, so this was one of my highlights.

One of the "seats" in the bar was an old dental seat. We had a little fun playing on that! 

4) The Thermal Baths - I've never been to thermal baths of any kind. I had no idea what to expect. There were several options here in Budapest due to the natural mineral spring water that's from it being near a fault line. Apparently this was one of the things it adopted from the Turks when it was occupied by them centuries ago. Well thank you Turkey! These things are pretty incredible. They each have different atmospheres to them, so we just went to the most famous one in the middle of City Park, called Szechenyi Bath.

It basically had huge outdoor heated swimming pools (and when I say heated, I mean think hot tub temperatures),

as well as 12 indoor thermal baths heated to different temperatures as well as saunas and steam rooms! It was a pretty incredible experience.

5) THE FOOD!!! I don't know why this is #5 on this list actually. This was by far my favorite part of the trip! No question I gained 5 lbs in 3 days. But I grew up with Chicken Paprikas, courtesy of Grandma Boston, and I couldn't have been more excited to go to the land where this originated. Thank goodness the group I was with was easily convinced to share food plates so we could try multiple things. We had chicken paprikas numerous nights, haha.

The top two are chicken paprikas at two different restaurants. The lower left one is beef goulash and the lower right is a pumpkin soup. 

And I have to say my favorite dish may have been the "Veal Goulash" which actually was more like Veal Paprikas if I had to describe it. Wow. They use paprika in everything, which I guess I knew already but didn't fully appreciate how much I enjoyed until visiting there! If you ever go to Hungary, don't eat anything but authentic Hungarian food. It will change your life.

6) The city is a mix of diverse and contrasting architecture and cultural vibes that made it especially unique. Buda and Pest are actually two separate cities separated by the Danube River. The Buda side is all the historical "old" town. It's got the Royal Palace (which ironically is on "Castle" hill although there is no castle)....

Here's a view of the Royal Palace by night...

This is the Palace that was built for the Hapsburgs. Now it houses two museums.

Gellert Hill with the Liberty statue (who apparently was rededicated when Communism fell in Hungary in the early 1990s as it originally was more of a symbol for Stalin and Communism!)....

St. Matthias Church, which is one of the most incredibly colorful and ornate churches I've seen in Europe...

While we were there, a Hungarian "marching band" came through along with some sort of officers on horses! It was pretty cool!

and all over just had a lot of very stunning and picturesque buildings and walkways that dated back to the Habsburg's occupation of Hungary.

Buda is also set up on the hills, so the touristing over there includes LOTS of hiking up hills. We got a workout!

In case you were wondering how I KNOW all this history.... well...it's because I'm a certified TOUR GUIDE!!!! DUH!!! Look at that face! Don't I look like I know what I'm doing!?

Pest is flat, and is more of the modern city. There is the "touristy" areas of the Pest side, which we spent very little time in this area, but we did get to see the majestic-looking Parliament building...

St. Stephan's Basilica..

and the Vajdahunyad Castle in the middle of City Park. 

This building actually overlooks what now looks like a slab of concrete, but they turn it into this HUGE ice skating rink in front of the castle during the winter time! So cool!

We also saw the Shoes on the Danube Memorial which is a tribute to the 60 Jews who were thrown into the Danube by the fascist Arrow Cross. I have to say, I never realized how much persecution occurred in Hungary to the Jews. Whenever I go to Eastern European cities (the same was true in Vilnius, Lithuania), I'm appalled and amazed that this wasn't just a Nazi Germany thing. This was for the entire 20th century between the Germans and the Soviets. It's really humbling.

But some of the best times we had were roaming around the streets of our Jewish Ghetto neighborhood discovering the local restaurants, bars and really soaking up the vibe of the city. 

We had nothing but a great time there. We did walk EVERYWHERE to the point that I didn't want to budge by the end of the weekend. But if I could go back again, I would in a heartbeat! The Hungarians were all SO incredibly nice to us, and I felt a new resurgence of pride at my heritage. 

If you ever get the chance, I would HIGHLY recommend a trip to Budapest!