June 27, 2010

We are back from our jaunt to Budapest, Vienna, and Bratislava (Hungary, Austria, and Slovakia for those not into European geography).  So I don't have to write one massive summary, I've decided to break our trip into two parts - Budapest for one and Vienna and Bratislava for the other.  The quick summary for those not wanting to read all the details - great trip, walked too much each day seeing castles, palaces, and cathedrals, ate too much good food.

Jo had a business meeting in Budapest which is what triggered our trip over as we hadn't been planning a trip to Europe this summer.  But with her airfare now free we figured it would be a great time to check off our list a few more of the European capital cities.  We started our trip in Budapest after I joined Jo on Thursday afternoon after the flight from Boston to Heathrow to Budapest.  Flight over was pleasant and got to catch up on a movie that I wouldn't be likely to see otherwise ("When in Rome" - nice, formulaic comedy - but there is a reason the formulas work!).  We spent Thursday afternoon just walking around with Jo pointing some of the sites she had already learned about.  Then it was goulash and Hungarian steak for dinner (a spicy steak).  Both meals were excellent and got us in the spirit for the rest of our stay.  It was then back to the room to watch a little of the World Cup Soccer (Football for anyone from the rest of the world that might see this) where I fell promptly to sleep to catch up from my jet lag.  Friday we were up and out to see the sights.  Spent the day touring Parliament, St. Stephen's church and several of the other local sites all in Pest.  We were on our feet except for a short break for lunch (which happened closer to 2:30 since we were so busy seeing everything) for almost 12 hours.  That evening we enjoyed a concert in St. Stephen's consisting of several classical works in which we got to appreciate the marvelous acoustics in the church.  

As it turned out we decided on Saturday to see if we could actually walk farther than we did on Friday.  Saturday was mostly spent in Buda but we first checked out the local market where we discovered that paprika is made from a pepper.  Didn't know that before we went to Budapest.  Then we hiked to the Citadel for some great vistas of the two cities (or one city with two sides - not sure if they still consider themselves two or one city - probably should have learned that while we were there).  Next up, we toured a World War 2 anti-aircraft installation (hate to miss any WWII opportunities) which had an interesting description of the siege of Budapest by the Soviets near the end of the war.  Then it was down the hill and back up another one to Buda castle.  We toured the castle area enjoying the Hungarian History museum and of course the shear scale of the construction of the castle.  To complete the circuit of Buda we hiked over to Margaret Island to enjoy an outdoor rock concert (that wasn't in our plans, just a nice find) and some people watching as we rested our tired little feet.  After dinner we found the neatest ice cream shop where they made the cones look like flowers.  It was simply the presentation not the gelatto that made us buy two - I promise. 

Sunday we used to catch up on some of the museums we missed in our two days of touring - mostly in Buda castle again.  After touring the labyrinth museum - kind of hooky, but it was interesting to see how much of Buda castle is tunneled out underneath - we did the Military History Museum (again, never want to pass one of those up, stay tuned for Vienna).  This gave us a better appreciation for the history of Hungary and certainly the struggles they have encountered as a country through the ages.  The challenge for any European war museum is they have a lot more years of wars to cover than any US one.  Jo eventually managed to drag me out and after a lunch break at an outdoor cafe we managed to discover the Telephone Museum.  This was obviously not on the tour group schedules as we had to ring a bell and then get let into the museum by a woman who must have gotten the job when Hungary was part of the Soviet block.  She did her best to explain what was in the museum, but she was never more than 10 feet away at any time.  The museum didn't seem to get a lot of visitors (could be because it is tucked away in a separate courtyard without a lot of signs pointing the way - fortunately we have learned to just ask) since the guest book hadn't been signed in 4 days and we were the only visitors while we were there.  Still was an interesting museum especially as it was the actual Budapest telephone exchange up to recently and with the family link to Bell Labs it felt like something we should see.

Monday dawned a little rainy which was fine as we boarded train for Vienna - but that is a story that will wait for another day.