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Budapest, Hungary
A Little Pest, a Little Buda
Discover Budapest (http://www.discoverbudapest.com/index.php) took us through most of today. Anita, our guide, knew just about everything about the city. We started at the Opera House and then took the metro (the second oldest subterranean transport system, right behind the London Tube) to the Heroes' Square, where the past kings of Hungary are immortalized as statues. We moved onto the city park, where there is a Disney World-like expo of different architectural styles in chronological order (Romanesque, Gothic, Rennaissance, Baroque, etc.). After briefly stopping in front of St. Steven's Basilica, we found repose and refreshment at Elso Pesti Reteshaz Kavehaz (http://reteshaz.com) for some delicious Hungarian Strudel (I tried the cheese and the poppy seed-apple strudel; the sour cherry and poppy seed-sour cherry were also fantastic).
After crossing the Chain Bridge, Anita took us straight up a hill in Buda's Castle District to see Matyas' castle and the Fishermen's Bastion. The tour was over, but the day's activities were certainly not. Lunchtime took us to the tasty but extremely touristy Cafe Miro--any place that has pictures of each listed menu item is typically not geared toward locals. This was a vast change from last night's Frici Papa, a hole in the wall very popular with locals (we just stumbled upon it, but Anita said she goes there at least once a week, and dinner for four with drinks included was approximately 25 USD). We then took a tour of an old hospital built into Buda's 10 km string of natural caves, developed for first aid during Ally air strikes in World War II and used throughout the cold war.
This evening, we returned to the Fishermen's Bastion to dine at Halaszbastya (http://eng.halaszbastya.eu/restaurant/). There was a wedding reception during most of our meal, and since the restaurant is very open (it's on the inside of a turret), the ambiance was not quite as we had expected. However, the food and wine were excellent, and our server and sommelier were attentive and energetic. It was a wonderful way to end the day!
Hungarian Culture Lesson of the Day: the Hungarian language is actually not slavic, as many (myself included) assume. It is more closely related to Finnish and Estonian, although it does not share any common words with either of the two.
Hungarian Culture Lesson of the Day, Part II: Hungary's repeated "choosing [of] the wrong side" was referenced multiple times today. They sided with Hitler because he promised to restore to them the lands they had lost to neighboring countries after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Then Soviet Russia promised to liberate them and ended up staying... interestingly, Anita said that the communist regime was not all bad. There was 0% unemployment, she said (it was illegal to not have a job), and the level playing field in terms of material possessions allowed students to focus more on academics and bettering themselves than keeping up with trends and advancing social standing.
