Hungary at Last

This is way overdue, but here it is: highlights from our time in Hungary!  (It's embarrassing how many of my blog posts begin with the words, 'this is way overdue.')

First, let's review.  When we left off, Olga was bidding us farewell at the Krakow Glowny train station.

We took a night train from Krakow to Budapest.  I should describe something that makes me so nostalgic for my time living in Europe -- the sound of riding the train.  European trains (and likely other trains?) have a very distinct sound as they are traveling along the rails, and the sound is amplified when you travel on a night train because other sounds that are present during the day are muted.  It's a certain click-clack that brings back memories that instantly make me go all warm and fuzzy.  And here we were on the night train, heading from Krakow to another amazing European city, Budapest.

There are lots of things I love about Budapest, and the architecture is definitely at the top of the list.

Fisherman's Wharf

Fisherman's Bastion

Matthias Church

Matthias Church

Parliament building viewed from Fisherman's Wharf

Parliament building at night from the Danube River

Thanks to some rewards points we had from our credit card, we stayed at a 4-star hotel called the K+K Opera Hotel.

It might look unassuming, but it really was awesome, and you can't really beat the location, right across from the Opera House.  But the best part was that when we were checking in, I noticed the other girl at the counter had a nametag that said 'Dzsenifer.'  Turns out that's the Hungarian way to spell Jennifer!  So awesome.  It's not a common name there, as it's not a traditional Hungarian name, but that was the name and spelling her parents had chosen.  Anyway, we bonded over our names, and for the rest of our stay she greeted us with a smile and our key every time we returned to the hotel.

One of our days was spent hiking Gellert Hill, which is named after St. Gellert.  I'm stealing from wikipedia here to tell the interesting story of St. Gellert.  St. Gellert was a Venetian Benedictine monk who was sent to help convert the pagan Magyars (Hungarians) to Christianity.  He remained in the country under the protection of the king for many years, but several years after the king's death, insurgents who wanted to return to paganism captured Gellert.  According to legend, he was rolled down this steep hill in a barrel pierced with nails.  The hill is now named in his honor, and there is a statue of him at the top.

The hill is very steep, but the view from the top is worth it!

The next day we got to do something I'd missed back in my Peace Corps days because I was too broke.  We went to Gellert Baths and Spa and spent the day swimming, relaxing and enjoying this beautiful building.

I freaking loved this place.  It has a swimming pool, a wave pool, dry and steam saunas, thermal baths, Finnish saunas with cold-dive pools, and...more amazing architecture! 

On the way home we also discovered a really great, very authentic restaurant that seemed like it was more for locals than tourists.  It was almost like a deli, with all kinds of prepared and fresh foods.  You just chose what you wanted (my favorite were the marinated chicken dishes) and they cooked it up for you right then and there.

It was so good we ended up eating there twice.  


This far into the trip we decided we needed to do some laundry, so we set out to find a place called Bubbles, which is a tourist laundromat.  A few blocks from the hotel it started to rain; in an instant the rain turned into more of a deluge.  We ducked into an arcade (I mean that architecturally, in that it was a covered passageway) to wait out the rain.  Not long after we stood there waiting, the entire arcade started to flood.

The ceiling became so wet that ceiling tiles started dropping to the floor.  At that point we waited a bit longer and then hurried back to the hotel to dry off.

We did eventually wait out the rain and get our laundry done.  It was a good adventure!


The next morning we got up early to take a bus and boat tour of the Danube bend, which as the name suggests is a giant bend in the Danube River.

Danube Bend

We traveled north, all the way to the Slovak border.  Our bus crossed the Danube at that point for a momentary stop in Slovakia, stopping to take a picture of Esztergom from across the river.  

Esztergom

Hungary-Slovakia border

Esztergom was the capital of Hungary from the 10th to the mid-13th century, and it's now the seat of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary.

In Esztergom we got to taste some Tokaji wine.  If you ever find Tokaji wine, buy it.  It's hard to come across here, and you won't be disappointed.

Our next stop was Visegrad, which I'm going to glean over here because while interesting, we didn't get a great tour or view or anything to really write home about.  In short, it's the remains of the Early Renaissance summer palace of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary and a medieval citadel.

From Visegrad our final stop on the bus was in Szentendre, which is described as a little artists' town.  To me, this was souvenir heaven.  It was like the mecca of all Hungarian arts and crafts, many of which I consider to be very beautiful, and it was all housed in the most charming little village.

My only regret is that I didn't buy more souvenirs in this little town.  I bought myself this gorgeous plate right before we had to hurry to take our ferry back to Budapest.

The boat ride was a great way to experience the Danube and a gave us a cool view of Budapest as we came back into the city.

Our next stop was Pecs, a Hungarian city in the southwestern corner of the country.  We spent a couple very laid back days in Pecs, which was gorgeous.  I'll let the pics speak mostly for themselves.

View of the sunrise from our hotel room

Daytime view from our hotel room

Our window view

Mosque near our hotel

View from the mosque

We took a bus tour

The tour took us up above the city for a beautiful view

Back down in the city

Mosaic inside the stairwell of the Pecs library

Some adorable aprons I need to try making

A cool fountain where we filled our water bottles every day

A great meal in the cellar of a restaurant

Thinking the kids would have enjoyed this!

I totally need to try making some of these, too.

 In Pecs we stayed at this amazing art deco hotel, the Hotel Palatinus.  The rooms were in need of a remodeling and weren't that amazing, but the rest of the hotel was so cool.

The hotel ballroom, where Bartok once played

Stained glass outside the ballroom

Leading up to the hotel entrance

Outdoor seating at the hotel cafe where we had breakfast every day

The famous composer Bartok once played in our hotel ballroom!

Mosaic inside the breakfast room

Hotel lobby

Outside view of the hotel

 Pecs was a really great place to be on August 20, 2015, the date of our 10th wedding anniversary!

Getting to Croatia from Hungary was worthy of its own blog entry, but I'll give a very brief summary when I finally get down to doing the next post.  Hint: It all centers on a little border town called Gyekenyes...