This morning we had a few of our remaining nectarines from yesterday on our way tour our Budapest tour. Our guide is from here originally and works for the airlines. Confirming our suspicions, she informed us that Hungarian is one of the most difficult languages to learn, containing 44 characters. She taught us a few words, including “Szia” (sounds like “see ya”) for hello, “Hello” for goodbye, and (I may have this wrong) “megkaposztasitottalanitottatok” which means something to the effect of “you didn’t put enough cabbage in that food.”

The tour was really nice, though less about history than many of our tours so far – it was much more about the current Budapest. Which, in retrospect, makes sense given that their history is not exactly a happy one. They were occupied by the Nazis during WWII and then “liberated” by the Soviets who then held power until as late as 1989. So it’s really no wonder they are more interested in talking about the future and where they are going as an independent nation than about their sad history.

Budapest is split down the middle by the Danube River (which, by the way we can see out the window of our room! And yes, it is blue at night in contrast with the orange lights of the city). On the Western side is Buda, on the Eastern side is Pest. Our guide said there are two kinds of people here: those who live in Buda and those who want to live in Buda. Though, I must say from what I’ve seen so far, Pest (where we are staying) has a great deal to offer!

At the top of Castle Hill. On the left is the Parliament building. The place we’re staying is right behind it. The bridge is the Chain Bridge, and the other tallest building (on the right) is St. Stephen’s Cathedral.

Chimney Cake!

Our tour took us around Pest first, and then across the chain bride into Buda. Before ascending Castle Hill, we had to try some Lángos (essentially a sausage wrapped in cheese, wrapped in bread, deep fried, salted, and smothered in garlic). It was pretty awesome. Thankfully our hike up the hill burned off all those calories (right?!). After our tour we meandered around Buda a bit more, taking a peek inside the palace (now an art museum) and snacking on Kürtőskalács or Chimney Cake.

Chimes Concert

We retraced our steps back to Pest, hitting a local artist market and listening to a “chimes concert” in front of St. Stephen’s Cathedral. on our way to Andrássy út.

Andrássy út (street) is a long boulevard passing old elegant homes. It ends at Városliget, a park housing a zoo, thermal baths, a monument park and more. We walked around a bit before finding a spot to sit with our books near the man-made lake. We are guessing it is also directly above a subway line because we could hear and feel clanking and vibrating below us on a regular basis.

After some time reading, napping, watching boats, and ducks, and tightrope walkers, we were ready for dinner.

As per our Airbnb host’s recommendation, we stopped at Menza where we tried traditional Hungarian goulash, stuffed cabbage, pork loin, a spritzer (soda water was invented here!), and Pálinka (a Hungarian fruit brandy aperitif).

Pork Loin

Stuffed Cabbage