We started off our stay in Budapest by going to the Central Market to meet up with our guide for a wine tasting and tavern lunch tour.
The Central Market is one of the coolest places I've ever been to, I think.
Imagine, oh, I don't know, a Costco warehouse. Now make it three stories and add fresh produce stands, butcher stalls with all sorts of meat cuts, a whole floor of just fish and game, vendors selling pálinka and Unicum and Tokai wines and saffron and various kinds of paprika. Then imagine smells of delicious Hungarian cuisine wafting down from all the food vendirs on the third story, and then you will have an idea of what the Central Market is. It is marvelous. Simply marvelous. So marvelous, in fact, that I was too busy looking at everything instead of watching where I was going and too busy drooling over all the deliciousness spread out around me to remember to take a picture. :(
See that deliciousness that Billy is ready to feast on? That, my friends, is a langos. [Pronunciation: lan-goosh. The "s" in Hungarian is said with a "sh" sound; another example would be that Budapest is pronounced "Budapesht", not "Budapest".]
Anywho, to start off our wine tasting tavern lunch extravaganza, our guide took us around the Central Market and told us about Hungarian cuisine for a bit before heading upstairs to buy us all langos! Now... keep in mind that this langos is a huge piece of deep-fried potato dough. It kind of tastes like a funnel cake, but with sour cream and cheese on top rather than powdered sugar, whipped cream, and fruit like our funnel cake. But for EACH of us to have a langos (about the size of a personal pizza at any of the various pizza chains in the States) RIGHT BEFORE drinking wine and having lunch, and more or less just after having eaten breakfast.... We were off to a delicious but almost too filling of a start to the day.
We then traipsed over to the wine cellar that is actually in the office of the agency putting on the little tour and had our wine tasting down there. Over two whites, two reds, and the famous Tokai dessert wine, we discussed with the one Hungarian woman (our guide), the two British girls (around our age), and the older couple from Scotland what we thought of the wines, places to visit in Budapest, the upcoming vote from the Scots about whether they want to break apart from Great Britain(!), California wines versus European wines, and how silly Americans sound when imitating a British accent - there are subtle differences in the way Brits (or Scots, and probably Irish) speak that depend on what part of the country you are from; since most Americans can't tell the difference between a Brit from London versus a Brit from Liverpool versus a Brit from Portsmouth, etc, we apparently sound like we're from six different parts of the country and none of the Brits buy it. :P
We did try some good wines, most notably the Tokai dessert wine, which tasted like buttered pecans. It was so unusual, delicious, and cheap - so we bought a bottle (for $6!) to take home.
Then we went to a local restaurant for some good Hungarian home-cookin'.
That is a paprika and pork stew with dumplings, and stuffed cabbage. We also had a gulyas (goulash) soup as our first course (in Hungary, goulash is more of a thin soup, not a stew) and apple strudel for dessert.
After a nap, we ended our first night with a stroll along the Danube and sat at a little riverside cafe with salad, tuna flatbread, and two glasses of wine to watch Budapest light up. Here are some before and after shots.
Our walk along the Danube was concluded with a trip to a little coffeehouse for coffee (which, in hindsight, was not a good idea because neither of us react very well to caffeine and it was already almost midnight) and dessert. Steve insisted on taking this silly picture of me with a steamed milk and/or whipped cream mustache. Even though it's not reallllllly a mustache...
The next day, we woke up late, had a late breakfast/early lunch at a place called Hummus Bar (because once again we are craving vegetables) for pita pockets and fresh lemonade before trekking up Castle Hill and the hill next to it (which, as far as I know, has no name).
This long, scenic walk full of inclines was then followed by a walk around Margaret Island, which in over 3km long and surrounded entirely by the Danube river. We saw our first topless sunbathers! Although I don't know why ANYONE (and there were lots of people, mostly non-topless) was sunbathing, because there is no beach - only stone and concrete, which had to have been roasting on this very hot day. Margaret Island is not only home to topless sunbathers, but also a small waterpark, various sport facilities (tennis courts, a running track, a pool, etc), huge parks, and the ruins of a small cathedral to St. Margaret.
All this walking, walking, and more walking, found us at ANOTHER Hummus Bar location at the end of the afternoon, where we gorged ourselves on hummus, vegetables, and pita bread once more before going back to our apartment and having a lazy evening in.
Friday morning found us at Strudel House.
Strudel House is the oldest strudel restaurant in Budapest and has a large assortment of both savory and sweet strudels. We had a paprika chicken strudel and an asparagus, spinach, and carrot strudel for our first round of strudels, and a cherry poppyseed strudel and apple strudel (not pictured) for dessert. Mmmmmmmmmm :)
For our last full day in Budapest, we headed to one of the renowned bathhouses. When the Turks occupied Hungary, they took advantage of all the natural hot springs in the area and built many thermal baths, mainly in Budapest. The one we went to, Széchenyi Baths, is the largest and supposedly most extravagant in Budapest. There are three outdoor pools, one hot, one cool, and one specifically for people swimming laps and not just relaxing. Inside the main building, which is has high ceilings and marble(?) columns, has lots and lots of smaller pools (some only as big as the average household hot tub) with different temperatures from icy cold to burning hot and everything in between. We probably explored only half the building and dipped into at least twenty different pools. We also wandered in and out of the several saunas (dry heat) and steamrooms (wet heat), again with various degrees of heat depending on which room you go into. Some were unbearably hot - one steamroom was advertised as being between 70-80 degrees Celsius, which is 158-176 degrees Fahrenheit... We opened the door and were immediately hit in the face by a scalding hot wave of steam. We only managed to get just inside the doorway before giving up.
The bathhouse was a very nice, relaxing way to end our stay in Budapest.... And a good way to treat our bodies before WE WORK ON A CATTLE FARM FOR THE NEXT MONTH!!!!!!!!!
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