Europe 2012: Day 5 - Budapest

We stayed on the Pest side of Budapest because it was closer to most of the things we were doing and had more affordable restaurants and places to stay. Our hotel was near the main square and the room was huge. It was actually probably bigger than most American hotel rooms. It had a mini-fridge which we mostly just used to put milk and juice in. We also had free wireless internet and breakfast included in our stay.

I planned a late start for our first day in Budapest because I knew we would be getting in really late and would probably be exhausted. When we woke up, we got dressed and went down to breakfast, which was full of options. There were several hot options and lots of fruit, cold cuts, cheeses, yogurt, etc.

Of course, it was raining, so on our way out, we stopped at a souvenir shop and got a little poncho for Anya to wear.

We did a Pest Town Center walk (courtesy of Rick Steves). It went through a lot of smaller sites in the middle of the Pest area and was able to help us get our bearings in the city. We walked along the Danube for a bit and saw the first McDonald's built on the other side of the Iron Curtain. It opened in Budapest several years before the curtain was lifted so it was a huge deal for an American restaurant to be opened there. We were told that when it first opened, people were afraid to eat there because they thought the secret police were watching, and when they finally did eat there, they dressed up to go because they thought it was a "nice" American restaurant.

The walk ended at the Great Market Hall, which was awesome. There is a whole floor of nothing but food: meats, wines, cheeses, paprika, streudels, etc. We perused the food and got a piece of apple streudel for the equivalent of an American dollar.

The second floor has restaurants and souvenir booths. We stopped and got Langos to split. Eric and I decided that Langos should be the next big Fall Festival food. It is basically an elephant ear (without the sugar) with sour cream, a white cheese, and garlic. You can add other toppings, like meat, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, etc., but the sour cream, cheese, and garlic are the basic toppings. I know it sounds super wierd, but it was so good. Hopefully someone will decide to use this in October!

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit. Then, we headed back out for a free Communist tour. This was probably one of the best  parts of our visit to Budapest. The tour was led by two people who were around 40 years old, so they had lived half their lives under communism and half their lives under a democracy, so they were able to give a very objective view of how things were. We got to hear a lot of personal stories about what it was like during communism, what it was like when the Soviets left Hungary, and what it is like now. We were told that a lot of people in the country are angry. They expected a better life under democracy, but things were much harder than they expected, because they did not know how to make decisions on their own and did not have the means to make much money. So while they are free (and happy about it), things are still very much in transition. There are also people who were part of the secret police during communism that are still working within the government. The names of these people have never been released, so some Hungarians are a little leary of trusting the government, knowing that some of them could have been the same people who worked under the old communist system. There were also a lot of financial issues with communism. At one point, the government could no longer afford to provide the people with everything it promised.

Another interesting thing we saw on the tour was the monument the Soviets erected when they freed Hungary from the Nazi's. After they left, it was decided that the monument would stay, but now the US Embassy faces the monument, so it is somewhat ironic that those working at the embassy have to pass the monument every day to get to work and there is a nice view of it from the windows. The best part of this is that there is a larger-than-life statue of Ronald Reagan on the other side of the monument that faces both the monument and the embassy.

All in all, the tour was wonderful, and not just because it was free. It would have been worth a lot!

After the tour, we went to the train station to buy our tickets to Vienna. We had been told on the tripadvisor forums that it was better to just wait to buy them once we got to Budapest. We stopped at the grocery store for some snacks and headed back to the hotel before dinner.

We had dinner at Lugas Etterin. For approximately $30, we got wine, an appetizer (asparagus wrapped in bacon and covered in cheese sauce), a dish that consisted of chicken cooked in yogurt (which was actually pretty amazing) and parsley potatoes, chicken in mushroom sauce and noodles, bread, and sponge cake. The food was fairly cheap and was absolutely amazing. Hungarian food is apparently very savory and rich.

Despite the rain and being tired, we actually had a good first day in Budapest:)