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:)

Europe 2012: Day 4 - Madrid/Budapest

The morning of our last day in Madrid, we got up a little early to finish packing up everything and officially checked out of the hotel, though they allowed us to keep our bags there since our flight to Budapest wasn't until very late in the evening. The original plan was to find somewhere for a quick breakfast before going to Mass. However, there was nothing open in the area we were walking around in. It was so wierd, because even at 9 in the morning, everything was dead. We had brought some food for Ani, so we ended up feeding her breakfast outside the church.

We attended mass at the Basilica de San Francisco, which is absolutely beautiful - way more beautiful than Cathedral de Almudena. Of course, the mass was all in Spanish but we were able to participate in some of it.

After mass, we went to the El Rastro flea market, which is supposed to be really famous. It was crazy! There are streets upon streets of booths where people are selling anything and everything (except food, unforunately - Eric and I were starving because we hadn't had much breakfast). There was one whole street of nothing but paintings. Another street was nothing but shops selling birds and booths selling accessories for pet birds.

Next, we had lunch at Cafe de Milan, which wasn't too far away from El Rastro. We had another calamari sandwich, a tortilla espanola sandwich (a sandwich with a potato cake-type "thing" on it), garlic mushrooms, wine, beer, and a salami sandwich for Ani that she didn't eat much of.

After lunch, we headed to Retiro Park where Anya got a balloon from Minnie Mouse. Here's a picture of Anya and I...

We also stopped for ice cream on our way to another art museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum. It was a good museum that had a lot of different kinds of art, including a few impressionist paintings, which is what we enjoy the most. We spent about an hour and a half there. Anya slept through some of the museum which made things a little easier.

We stopped for coffee on the way back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and then took a taxi to the airport. We ended up having dinner at the airport, which was highly overpriced and not that great, of course.

I was really nervous about our flight because we were flying a budget airline. There are a lot of random rules about luggage and carry-ons when you fly on a budget airline and I worried a lot about whether or not ours were ok. The plane was delayed about an hour or so, and the only good thing about that is that there was no time to deal with measuring each piece of luggage because they were just trying to get everyone on the plane. Anya did not have her own seat for the flight, but the seats were grouped in trios, and apparently no one really wanted to sit by a couple with a small child, so Anya sat in her own seat for awhile. Before we boarded, she was really antsy, so I walked her around in the stroller until she fell asleep. Of course, she woke up when we got on the plane, but did fairly well until near the end of our flight. However, we didn't land until like 1230 in the morning (it was supposed to be 1130). Luckily, it didn't take long to collect our luggage once we had landed, and we had hired a driver to pick us up at the airport since it was so late. The driver was super nice and got us to the Hotel Carat in not much time at all.

We got extremely lucky and Anya fell asleep on the way to the hotel, and we were able to change her into  her pajamas and put her in the bed without her ever waking up. I can't believe she didn't wake up, but she didn't. Of course, we were so excited to be in Budapest, it was hard to sleep. I don't think we actually went to bed until about 3 in the morning...

 

Europe 2012 - Day 2: Madrid

On Friday, only our 2nd day in Madrid, we got up and ate some breakfast in the room. This hostal did not include breakfast (for some reason hotels don't usually include breakfast in Spain), so we had gotten some breakfast foods at the grocery. We thought the Prado (a really famous art museum) opened at 9, so we had planned to get there at 8:45 because we had heard the lines to get in were long. We took the metro part of the way and then had to walk in the pouring rain to find that it didn't open until 10, though there were already people there waiting. It was a big fiasco trying to figure out which door to go in, but eventually we got in. We bought a museum pass which got us entry to all three of the big art museums in Madrid.

There are some great pieces of art in the Prado but we weren't all that impressed. We were following a self-tour written by Rick Steves and it seemed like most of the pieces he talked about were not where they had been when the tour was written. Maybe it was because we were already a little frazzled from having to wait for an hour in the rain, but we just weren't in the mood for it.

Once we got out of the Prado, it was about lunchtime so we headed toward Plaza Mayor and got a Bocadilla de Calamari (a bocadilla is a sandwich). I know this sounds really wierd, but it was really good. We had gotten a ham and cheese sandwich for Anya because we didn't think she would eat the calamari sandwich, but she ended up liking the calamari and ate quite a bit of it.

After we finished eating, we headed for the Palacio Royal. We got audio guides with admission and Anya slept for part of the visit but started to get a little anxious toward the end when we went through the armory exhibit. We thought the palace was beautiful (according to Rick Steves, it is one of the three big palaces of Europe next to Versailles in France which we visited in 2007 and Schoenberg in Vienna which we visited later in this trip), but it had nothing on Versailles. The rooms in the interior were beautiful but they didn't have any kind of palace gardens like most other palaces we have seen. We stopped by the Almudena Cathedral right next door. It is huge but not very attractive, especially on the inside, but it was free and considered to be one of the important churches/cathedrals in Madrid so I suppose it was worth the stop.

This is us in front of the palace.

We got ice cream on the way back to the room. After changing in the room, we headed toward Plaza de Espana, which was really beautiful. We arrived early to Las Tablaos where we had booked a flamenco show. Everything we had read said that the shows got better the later they were (some of the don't start until midnight or later), but we booked the early one at 8p because we didn't think any of us would last that long. We ordered a tapa while we were waiting. It was these little toasts with brie and carmelized onions. I know it sounds wierd, but they were soooo good. They were probably the best tapas we had while in Madrid.

Anya did so well during the show. She loved watching the dancers and listening to the music, and she clapped along with the rest of crowd at the appropriate times. The show was about an hour and she didn't fuss at all. After the show, several of the dancers and musicians came over to talk to Anya. They said they hadn't even known a small child had been in the audience until the end when they stood up to take their bows. They couldn't believe how well-behaved she was. We must have gotten really lucky! Ever since the show, Anya has been "flamenco dancing" so we got her a flamenco dress from Spain that she can wear for Halloween. Here is one of the pictures we got of the show but it's not a very good one...

After the show, we went to Cafe de Levante for dinner, which was gazpacho (a Spanish vegetable soup that is served cold), seafood paella, fruit, and sangria. We ate way too much, but the food is so good in Spain that it is hard to resist!

There are tons of street performers in Spain (there were lots in Barcelona when we were there, too) and we happened to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse at some point this day. Anya got a picture with them, but she wasn't too sure about them!

Europe 2012 - Day 1: Madrid

After an approximately 7 hour and 45 minute flight, we landed  at the Barajas airport in Madrid. Out of all the countries we have landed in, Spain was probably the easiest country to get into. Normally, you have to fill out a customs and immigrations form, there is a long, long wait to get through immigration, then you get your luggage back, go through customs, and then finally leave the airport. In Madrid, the line at immigrations went very quickly, as the immigration officers seemed to be asking no questions, which is unusual. We also did not have to fill out a form this time. We were able to get our luggage and breeze right through customs and walk straight out to the taxi stand. I remember that we were exhausted, as we had only slept a couple of hours on the plane, but we were wide awake because we were so excited to be in Spain.

Anyway, we got a taxi rather quickly and dropped off our luggage at the Hostal Adriano, near Puerto del Sol in the middle of the city. It was around 9:30 and we had plenty of time to kill before our tour at noon. We went to the nearest metro station, bought a book of 10 tickets to share, and took the metro to the Atocha station to buy train tickets to Toledo for Saturday. It took a little bit of time, because we were still feeling our way around and getting used to using our Spanish again.

When we got back, we stopped and got a jamon (ham) and manchego (a Spanish cheese) sandwich. We thought Anya would eat the cheese; she normally doesn't eat a lot of meat here, but lo and behold, she actually wanted nothing to do with the cheese but ate a ton of ham. We ate in Plaza Mayor and waited for the free tour to begin.

It lasted about an hour and a half and took us through the older parts of the city. It was a really good thing to do on our first day, as it helped us to get a feel for the layout of the city.

After the tour, we headed back to the hotel to check in and get some rest. I had planned extra time to relax the first day, because I knew we would crash at some point in the afternoon. Anya had been sleeping in her stroller for most of the day, so she sat in the pack and play (provided by the hostal) and watched movies on the Ipad while Eric and I took a nap. Then, we got up and took showers so we could head out again. We took the metro to the Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida, which is a small chapel housing a large mural painted by Goya (a famous Spanish artist). Goya is also buried in this chapel. It was small, so we didn't stay long, but it was beautiful and free.

Next, we stopped a the grocery store to get something for breakfast and snacks (we had a refrigerator in the room so we could actually buy cold stuff), and then we ate dinner at a place called Casa Toni's, which was recommended by Rick Steves in his book. We ate various tapas (Spanish appetizers), including sauteed mushrooms, bread, olives, potatas bravas (fried potatoes with a hot sauce), and calamari. Of course, we had wine with our meal:)

After dinner, we walked around Puerto del Sol and Plaza Mayor and just explored a little bit, before stopping at Chocolateria San Gines where we had cappucino and churros. They were so good. Anya loved them and made a huge mess dipping them in the chocolate.

Though our first day was exhausting, it was great to be back in Spain (the last time had been in Barcelona in 2007). Because we both took Spanish in high school, we actually knew enough to decipher menus and signs and we could order food and buy tickets fairly easily. Anya had a hard time getting to sleep the first night, so we ended up putting her in her stroller and pushing her back and forth until she finally fell asleep. We only had to do this the first couple of nights (thank God!) before she became a pro at falling asleep on her own in a hotel room...