Done so SOON!?!

On our final full day in Budapest we knew there was something we had missed. Something we normally get to right out of the shoot. Something that had been calling and calling us. SHOPPING.

Robb, Lewis and I headed out to the West End Mall. The largest Mall in all of “Central Europe”. Robb checked the map to the mall right as we walked in... as if he could actually read Hungarian... That finished, we just wandered about it. I did a quick compulsory tour of all three floors (my own version of cardio for the day) and then headed back to get Lyle. With Lyle in tow, we just did the top two floors. Robb and Lewis did the whole mall on their won. Lyle and I bought, Nothing. RObb and Lewis bought a couple of shirts but wound up going crazy in the grocery store on the lower floor. Robb was so kind as to buy me my own bag of Negroes!

So to be fair, I’ve got no photos of the mall. I mean, come on people! It’s a mall! After a quick re-fresh at the hotel all four of us re-grouped and headed out to the river for last chance sightseeing. We took the tram tow stops up to the Chain Bridge which has some amazing lion statues and incredible views. We walked across the bridge from the Pest side over to the Buda side.

On the Chain Bridge.

Bridge detail.

Parliement viewed from the Royal Palce looked less palatial...

Once on the Buda side we took the funicular (and yes, I always sing out, Funiculi, Funicular) up the side of the hill to the Royal Palace. Seeing the Palace up close it really does impress you as a Palace. It seems the side we could see from the river was the backside. The front side is mighty impressive and palatial. Inside, the Palace is now the home of the Hungarian National Gallery.

We did a hurried tour but as Robb pointed out (via sign language from three floors below) it was getting late (point to watch) and soon the sun would be going down (make round finger with hand, lower it behind your horizontal arm) and we should go outside ( spin hand and point to door) and get some final photos (hold up hand in a square shape with index finger up, then click down repeatedly with index finger).

I understood immediately and we exited right away.

More palaital Royal Palace.

Getting artsy up on Castle Hill...

We toured about castle hill (yes, that is what its called) and it was nice to see the area by daylight and slightly warmer temperatures compared to our first evening of being disoriented in the freezing dark and cold.

After the sun had set, and a few beers drank, we headed down the hill by buss and back to our hotel.

But first, another visit to Gerbaud! They boast that they have been hand making chocolates for over a hundred years. I had to have some! I had to bring some home to Chandra! We all stopped, bought chocolates and then pastry. We got the pastry to go. AS we walked away, Lyle’s was so tasty, Robb and I doubled back to get more!

We spent our final evening going back to Menza for dinner (Lyle had to have the foie gras skillet meal again). And then back to the hotel for packing. Man, did we need to pack. Lyle and I finished and we hung out in Robb & Lewis’ room until finally Lyle went to bed, Lewis fell asleep and Robb and I couldn’t giggle any longer.

Mmmmm, beer good...

Third Day’s not the charm

Saturday in Budapest, we thought we’d see the city alive and bustling. We thought wrong. It was mostly quiet.

We began our day wandering through the architecture of the neighborhood between our hotel and Parliament (Lyle hadn’t been on the Protestor tour the day before). We cam across a few government buildings including the American Embassy. I had the big Nikon with the BIG lens so I could get details on buildings. As I focused on the US embassy to get the bas-relief sculpture near the top of the building. Then along came two Hungarian security guards shouting at me. “No photos! No photos!” Not wanting to go to jail, I stopped and apologized. You know, the international hands up, camera down, sorry, sorry, sorry... But man, did it piss me off. What I wanted to do was say, “Okay, never mind, get out of my way. I’ll just go in. AMERICAN.” while I point to myself and hold out my passport. Yeah, that’s how this country seems to raise us to behave. Instead, I just went further away and took whatever I wanted. Yeah, that’s also how this county raises us to behave.

American Embasy in Budapest.

Then we started out in search of the ever elusive shopping like a local! We took off towards what we were told was a department store just out of the city center called “Kika”. After much searching and tram riding (an unintentional march du oiseau) we found the blessed Kika. It was a poor mans version of Ikea. Such a disappointment. We toured quickly and exited within half an hour.

Kika - It's no Ikea...

Lyle literally gasped, "Oh my GAWD, look at that! LOOK AT THAT!"

Robb was the master of our map and he and Lyle set us off in our next direction. A gracious dead end down near the railroad tracks that seemed to have a hobo camp. We tuned around.

We caught the tram and exited on the back side of a park. Now to be fair, I was cranky. I was still quite gimpy and all this walking, walking, walking was bringing me down. I know, it’s the journey not the destination, but right about now I needed a destination. Blessedly, we arrived at the back side of Vajdahunyad Castle. It was built around the 1900’s to show every single style of buildings you can see in Hungary. It feels a bit like a theme park (probably because that was the original intention).

From there it was out to Heroes square and then a quick subway ride back towards out hotel. We took the metro line that runs under Andrássy út. The Budapest subway dates back to 1896. In the 80’s and 90’s, this line had major reconstructions. Out of its 11 stations, eight are original. The stations recall the time of the millennium, including the floor, the benches, the wooden windows and the lighting. Every station is like a little museum. There is a Millennium Underground Museum in the Deák Square right in front of our hotel. The fascinating part of this line is how close it is to the street. You only descend one flight of stairs, about 8 feet, and voila! You are waiting for a train. You can still see daylight up the stairs.

My heroes in Hero Square.

At the end of the line (scant 3 blocks from our hotel) was a pastry and coffee house called Gerbaud. It has been making cakes, coffees and chocolates by hand since it was established in 1858. Lewis, Lyle and Robb got the hot chocolate, I had the coffee. Everyone had cake. Was it any good? Should you believe the hype? We would be back tomorrow!

Three hot chocolates, one cappuccino and four cakes!

We returned to our hotel in time for a quick tour of the spa and fitness facilities. Um, I guess we just we actually just did spa. It is so nice to come in from the bitter frigid cold and go steep yourself in a hot jacuzzi and steam room. It gives you some of that moisture back and finally, for the first time in hours, you are WARM.

Ready for Spa time...
Oh my word, Robb's robe is SHORT!

After spa time, we gussied up and headed out for dinner to Menza. Food was great. I can recommend it. But the oddest thing about it was we sat in the non-smoking section, up on the mezzanine, where all the smoke from below floats up towards and lingers. Brilliant.

Following dinner, Lyle and Lewis went in the hotel and Robb and I took off on a photo at night jag. We didn’t need to go too far to grab some amazing night photos and to be fair, it was still too cold to much further.

We headed back to the hotel where I came home to find Lyle win his underwear laying on the heated bathroom floor. “It’s like a giant heating pad for my back!”

Work the runway!

La Boheme

After a scurry home (by way of Leonidas Chocolates) we changed and headed out to the Opera. We had box seats to La Boheme. Though many guide books claim that opera in Budapest is in Hungarian, this one seemed to be in Italian. Quite a disconnect from reading the super titles in Hungarian, hearing it in Italian and wondering what the hell would have been said in English.

As we entered the Opera house we were stunned by its beauty. It was designed to rival the opera house in Paris and though it doesn’t quite hit that extreme level, it was still overwhelming. I took a few photos and then we asked one of the ushers if they would take a photo of the group of us.

Tongues were clucked and we were informed that the taking of photos was STRICTLY prohibited and a sign was pointed out to us and we apologized. As we ascended the grand central staircase I whispered to Robb, “I know you just got out your camera and turned the flash off... me too.” We took a few quick secret photos and went in to the bar for a pre-opera cocktail. As we stood and marveled (and snapped secretly away) we noticed how many other people were just plain taking photos. Photos. Photos. FLASH Photos. Hey! Why am I being so careful?

Needless to say, you can see some of our handiwork right here on this blog.

Click the photo above to enlarge and read,
"We would have been right about here on the other side."

The Plot to La Boheme:

Puccini´s most expressive opera describes life among the poor artists of Paris´s Latin Quarter, the original bohemians. Hungry but cheerful, the poet Rodolfo shares a garret with Marcello, a painter, and two others. One Christmas Eve the frail seamstress Mimi comes to Rodolfo´s door for help. The two fall in love. In the meantime Marcello carries on a turbulent affair with Musetta. But Rodolfo is impossibly jealous of Mimi. The two regretfully part until Musetta reveals that Mimi is dying of consumption. Rodolfo flies to Mimi´s side and the lovers are united only to be separated forever by Mimi´s death.

In the Latin Quarter on stage.

We are VERY serious opera goers.

The opera was quite lovely in spite of that fact that Mimi was certain to die. Can’t they ever change the ending just for me?

The protocol at the Budapest Opera was a tad different than what we are used to. Applause at the end of key arias, a curtain call at the end of each act. Long breaks between acts to change the sets. The set for the winter crossing scene even got applause when the curtain opened (it was lovely). In the end, for the final curtain call the leads cam out first followed by the supporting cast. Different.

After the opera it was time to claim our table at the Cigar Bar in the New York Palace Boscolo Hotel! Though it was cold, and our dressy clothes were thin we walked over. When we got to the hotel bar, sure enough our table was set with a large reserved sign and ready for our arrival... or anyone’s arrival. There was NO ONE at the bar. No wonder they could guarantee us that table.

The Boscolo New York Palace Hotel at night.

Damn! I Love that light!

Still no matches in sight (and again, we toured the whole bar) Robb decided to be clever and asked for an ashtray. The ashtray came without matches. We had our drinks we had a good time. We kept trying to figure out how to get those stinking matches. Finally Lyle just asked for matches (we still hadn’t used that ashtray).

It took the poor server about 10 minutes to come back with matches. God only knows where they were keeping them. We got all of two boxes and thankfully they actually said “Boscolo” because by then we were certain she would only be able to find matches that said “Safeway” on them.

We headed out of that Hotel bar and stopped for a drink or two at another bar and realized were getting quite hungry. The trams and underground had stopped running by this time (about midnight) and we were still in our very cold fancy clothes. We walked home in search of food. Food. Any kind of FOOD. Finding none, we decided we’d just order room service... except after 11 pm, that was all crap. Cold baguette sandwich for $8. Spaghetti for $10? So, we changed and headed back out into the night to find bad souvlaki or pizza. I mean, come on, it’s a universal truth that there is always drunken bar food to be had after midnight in any town!

The hotel concierge knew exactly what we were seeking and it was located... right between the Opera and the New York Palace Hotel. Or, right where we had already been but had gone the wrong direction.

We headed back out without Lewis. He placed his order with Robb. As the gimp of the group, I should have been as smart as Lewis. Half an hour later, after an gyros AND a meat pie, I was happy I had come out to get food. But unhappy to have to walk home. Did I mention it was till COLD?

In the "Evita" balcony suite at the Cigar Bar in the Boscolo New York Palace Hotel.
You know I have a photo with that lampshade on my head!

Ah, day two in the heart of Budapest.

Robb commented the previous night that he is always amazed at how much ground we cover on our first day in any town. As we walked and re-walked streets we’d already been on and realized we knew our way from here to there because we’d already been one block over last night.

Face it people, we move.

On Friday Robb, Lewis and I got up and out and had what Robb & call “une marche du oiseau” or as we learned it in French class, “a bird walk.” You know, how birds may fly in a straight line but they never walk in a straight line and seem to have no purpose or direction in their path. That’s us covering a new town. SCATTER!

We headed down to the Danube river and beheld the sights that we had been standing on the night before. The Hilton Hotel, the Palace, the chain bridge. Stunning at night, gorgeous during the day. We took a tram along the Danube as far as the House of Parliament. Ironically, the House of Parliament looks more like a Palace, and the Palace looks like Parliament. We wandered close to Parliament but couldn’t get too close as there were protesters in front.

We paused across the street and were taking photos of the parliament building. There were many other people around not participating in the protest. Robb turns and says, “Is this the kind of situation where we say later, ‘that wasn’t so smart, walking right through all those protestors in a foreign land...’?”

There were no problems and we continued along, past Parliament and caught a tram to the other side of the river. I said it looked like we had crossed over into no tourist land. Home of the locals. Virgin territory. Robb pointed out the first restaurant we came to had the words “all you can eat buffet” in English across every window. In Hungarian "Mindenből ehet pohárszék".

Up on the hill where we had been Thursday night.

The Palace.

The Parliament.

Grrrrr.....

Aaaaahhhhhhhh.......

Popping out to say "Hello!"

We meandered. This way. That way. Twist. Turn. My feet hurt from wearing sensible Gucci boots (I promise, no heel). As crankiness crept ever closer we realized the ticking time bomb of food input needed. We found a very small, very local place at the end of a row of buildings. Looked good. People inside. Outside was a menu board and at the top was the daily special offered for 69000 Florint. Exchange rate translates that to about $3.50 Count us in!

In looking at the photo now I can translate that is says on one side of the door, "Mess-house" and the other side says "coffee-house" and the daily special's first word is "grandma".

One hiccup, not one item in the restaurant was in English. Lewis and I graciously let Robb approach the counter to order. We were all in agreement, we’d get the “special” and eat like a local. Robb asked if the man behind the counter spoke English, “a little,” he replied in perfect English. Order placed, we sat and waited for our food.

Though he spoke “a little” English, no one had bothered to ask what we’d be getting. First, we received a lovely bowl of goulash soup. Sort of stew like. Meaty and vegetable full. Since it was FREEZING outside (and sunny) it was very welcome. Then we got our main dish which was pasta and cabbage (Kaposztas teszta). Sounds gross when I type it. But let me tell you, YUMMY!!! So good, I ordered it two more time on the trip in other restaurants and have found the recipe on-line to make it at home this weekend.
After lunch, Lyle had said he'd be awake to meet me around 2 (he’d been feeling poorly that morning) so Robb, Lewis and I headed back over the river. I parted ways with them to re-trace my steps back to the hotel. Robb & Lewis continued on. I went back to the #2 tram to ride it past parliament (thereby avoiding walking past the protestors that could still be there). One problem... the trams were no longer running past the parliament. I had no map on me. I had no idea how to connect the dots AND avoid going past parliament. So I began my hike.

Luckily, though the group had grown, it was still very controlled. By now the barricades that had all been stacked nicely in the square with only a ring of police around the square, were distributed all the way around the square with the police lining the barricades inside the square. In a word, it was looking much more serious now. Yet there were still the amused on-lookers across the street and the police didn’t seem to be agitating towards the crowd.

To be fair, I didn’t linger. I hopped on a tram that was running starting on the other side of the Parliament building.

In doing some research on the protest I did find this article that explains the whole protest was over those damn barricades. They’d been up for some time, the protestors had taken them down that morning and the police were putting them back up. Interesting read.

And here is a blog from a person living near the Parliament building in Budapest, also quite illuminating: InBudapest.blogspot.com

Just getting started...

Same spot, now a bit more serious...

Reunited with Lyle, we left the hotel to meet up with Robb Utendale and Lewis Boscolo and the New York Palace Hotel. The hotel is part of the Italian chain of hotels owned by the Boscolo group of hotels. The New York Palace is a landmark and our secret plan was to snitch matches for Lewis to take home with his name all over them.

Lyle and I being expectably behind schedule, we hurried out and down the street... until I got a MASSIVE leg cramp. I never get leg cramps. I was hobbled, and would be somewhat hobbled for the rest of the trip. Though Lyle kept saying he was worried about me being the last one in the group as we walked and wandered, I think he was secretly delighted that I had finally slowed down to a human pace he could keep up with.

The New York Palace is AMAZING. We had (no surprise) coffee and dessert in the cafe. The cafe had a long tradition of being a meeting place for locals and free thinkers since it was founded. During the communist take over it was decided that should cease. So the new leaders drove a tank through the cafe.

The cafe was considered a total write off until the Boscolo group (thank you Lewis!) came, bought the property and restored it. To see it now in all its glory is to marvel how anyone could be so cavalier towards something so stunning.

We finished our coffees and still had no matches. We asked if we could see the bar and were given a guided tour. Still matchless after scanning every table and ashtray in the “Cigar Bar” (the sign over the entry said so) we decided we would come back after the opera that night to have a gracious drink in the is beautiful space. We even went so far as to reserve a prime table overlooking the cafe in a balcony area evocative of “Evita”.

Then we needed to hurry home to get pretty for the opera! Well, hurry with my gimpy cramped leg...

Entry way to New York Palace, Boscolo Hotel.
I love this little light. I'm thinking I should get these for my house.
You know how I like something simple to add on for the holidays!

Robb can be so coy... but oh, that lovely background!

In the cafe at the New York Palace.

Required coffee shot.
See how artistic I am?
You can see the ceiling in the reflection of the table... and my arms.

Buda is a Pest

First off, let me tell you that Lyle did not like my video postings earlier today. He wants me to just do what I had been doing all along. In the spirit of that, I told him to go start his own blog.

Now, on to Budapest! Apparently about a million years ago, there were three cities and two of them were called Buda and Pest. About 500 years ago, they decided they were so close, they may as well join up. And that is how we come to be in Budapest.

Well actually we came to be in Budapest by train. 3 hour ride, felt like 600 hours. And funnily enough that is the same math we will be doing today to figure out the money here in Hungary! Come on kids, grab your thinking caps because money is funny in foreign countries.

Oh, and apparently, as much as we want to call it Eastern Europe, they firmly believe they are Central Europe and can get testy when being called Eastern. So Robb Looked a map to see just what the heck is left to be “east of Hungary”? Apparently places like, Romania, Bulgaria and the Ukraine. Fascinating really as some others think of Hungary as perhaps Southern Europe. Oh hell, from where I sit (in my gracious hotel room) if it used to be communist, it’s Eastern Europe!

To get the US equivalent on what price something is here in Hungary, you take the price listed, say 600 Forint (Ft.), drop the last two digits (00 in this case) then divide in half = $3.

So when we arrive in Budapest we are trying to figure out how much a taxi will cost to get to our hotel (Le Meridian, once again). We have been warned by all four travel books that we each read on the train that there are shyster taxis waiting around every turn to rip you off. Beware. BEWARE!

We are approached by 4 different women offering us places to stay in apartments, hotels or bed & breakfasts. Normally we would just use the local language and tell them “non, nein, no, etc...” But we have yet to master Hungarian, “nem.” So we just hold up our hands and continue. Then there are about 6 different taxi guys.

We have been told by all guide books that we are only to use taxis marked “city cab” and every single guy who approaches us has an official looking badge saying he works for “city cab” but as the almighty invaluable guide books have told us, they are all lying.

Lyle goes to the tourist info office and they suggest we hire a minibus for the four of us and all our luggage. Uh, we don’t normally appear in mini-buses, but Lyle checks in to see what the fee will be. They can take all 4 of us AND our luggage for 3200 Ft. (about $16).

Now off to the taxi line outside to see what they are offering and willing to bargain for. They offer to take us for 8000 Ft. And we will need two cars. Lyle and Robb scoff. They drop to 4000 but still two cars. Lyle says, No thanks and walks away. They holler after him, 4000 and all of us in one car! Lyle turns around and tells them he can get us all in one car for 3200 Ft. already. Fine, they’ll take us all in one car for 3000 Ft.

But here’s the thing, now Lyle is insulted that they thought he was some rube to be taken advantage of. Now he’s angry. So there is no way we are getting in any of the taxis. And really for the $1 in price difference, we arrive in gracious (albeit, unsightly) comfort.

The view from our room.

We are staying at Le Meridian in Budapest. When we checked in they told us that the hotel was very full and offered to give us a complementary upgrade. Oh, if you force us, I guess we’ll have to take it. The bathroom floor is heated and when we got home from dinner Lyle laid on the bathroom floor for a while claiming it was like a big heating pad for his back. The building was a former Insurance company headquarters that has been gutted and completely redone. Over the top gold gilding and glamour. Ow, my eyes.

Everything here used to be something else. The Four Season's hotel used to be a hotel that hosted royalty then became a squatters subdivided apartment complex, the Hitlon Hotel used to be a 13th-century Dominican monastery... after communism, there were a lot of unused abandoned gorgeous buildings. Thankfully the city seems to be in a state of repair.

While out on a walk in the neighborhood, Robb, Lewis and I stopped at a beautiful coffee shop in the hotel Astoria,

The historic Hotel Astoria is very conveniently located in the heart of Pest, a fact which must have greatly attracted its notorious former residents. The Gestapo made it their headquarters, as did the Soviets during the 1956 revolution and it is easy to see why. The dimly lit reception and café are ornately furnished and decorated with marble statuettes giving it an air of exclusivity.

It's history, come to life!

Robb & I had coffee and cake. Lewis had the Hot Chocolate and cake. It was amazing hot chocolate.

It's super heated milk, and a block of chocolate on a stick.

Put the stick 'o chocolate in the super heated milk, swirl, swirl, swirl et, Voila! Hot Chocolate!

For dinner tonight we went to the Castle District. Unbelievable views. We drove across the “chain bridge” and all the building and bridges were lit up for all the glory of photography. Robb will be in charge of getting some in focus.

So, first impressions are “faded glory,” Crappy Men’s section at H&M, cheap goods if you shop right, and shysters out to rip you off if you let them. I love travel!

Pretty!!!