Buda & Pest

 Jo: After three bedridden days with some nasty gastritis, I am slowly starting to feel like a person again. I am so grateful my nurse practitioner brain thought of all the possible illnesses we could produce when I created our “first aid kit”. It is more of an elaborate holisitic comprehensive pharmacy, with anything from treatments for wounds and injuries to tick-borne diseases. Luckily I heavily stocked stuff for stomach issues: ginger, activated charcoal, herbal tinctures, various probiotics, anti-diarrheals, anti-spasmodics and even a round of antibiotics. All of which I needed in the last few days. I missed out on the last two days in Budapest, which I spent in a very hot (no air-conditioning) apartment half conscious, between fevers and bathroom visits. What I really wanted to do was visit one of the many thermal baths Budapest is famous for, eat a real Paprikash (the second most famous hungarian dish after Goulash), visit a photography exhibition by Kertesz, Moholy-Nagy and Capa – three of the worlds greatest photographers and my all-time favorites, and check out the local night life. None of those happened.

But to be honest, I needed a break after our high-strung Tatra trip and I am also getting weary of visiting big metropoles. Tosh will tell y’all about his visit to the baths. I am excited about our next leg of our trip: Romania! We are flying off too Brasov soon to roam the lands of Transylvania.

Tosh: Budapest was a party city. We stayed in the Jewish quarter, which is the liveliest bar and restaurant district. I'm finding that is a theme through the last few cities we've been. The old Jewish quarter is the artistic/young part of the city. Maybe it's due to the fact that a lot of the people in those neighborhoods were murdered or deported, or left after Israel was created. It's a strange analogy that when Johanna and I arrive in any new US city which we've moved to, we usually ask where which area of the city the gay people gravitate to live, and that's usually the most fun and vibrant. Here it's the former Jewish quarter. Regardless, Budapest is a VERY young city; it seems that the whole of town is in their 20's roving in bands from bar to bar to restaurant and back. 

Tangent aside, Budapest interests me from a historical perspective. Though people have been living in the area for thousands of years, Buda and Pesh existed as separate citites well into the 1800's. The castles and buildings are stunning, and there is ample evidence remaining of communist rule here with the uniform concrete buildings found outside the old parts of the city. 

We take a trip out to Visgrad fortress/castle, which is particularly interesting to me because it was built by King Béla IV after the first Mongol invasion. The Mongols killed nearly a quarter of the Hungarian population, either by arrow or starvation; yet none of our guides even mention the invasion; it's very strange they ignore the historical event. Regardless, the Bela built a bunch of these type of castles after the Mongols inexplicably left Hungary (Khan Ogedei died, and Mongols left to go back to Mongolia to decide the next great Khan). The fortress withstood the next Mongol invasion and many altercations thereafter; only surrendering to the Turks when the Ottomans starved them out. That was a nother weird thing; Hungarians really don't like to talk about the fact that the Ottomans (Turks) ruled Bud and Pesh for over 150 years, even though there is a lot of architectural evidence of it in the city.

I took Miles on a "Bloodthirsty Budapest" tour, which explored some of Hungary's more violent characters through history. It was a fascinating tour; the guide happened to be an expatriot from Ohio. She was an amazing storyteller and seemed to delighted to have some Americans in the group who got her humor a bit more than others. She dug deep into Vlad Dracula II's history with the Hungarian kings, and Miles was blown away at how interesting history could be when recounted by a master story-teller. 

A fun fact I learned is that Hungary has the third most active geo-thermal hydra activity in the world, after Iceland and Japan. There are hot springs EVERYWHERE. Turkish baths are pretty cool feature in Budapest. I took the kids to a more Hungarian than Turkish bath on our last day. Very fun. There were about 7 different very large pools with lounges in the water and different activities. Kids and I loved it; I highly recommend.

On to Romania!

Miles: 

This place was a great attraction by day and a beautiful light up city with everybody partying by night. lots of old cool spots were history took place and changed the world. the hot springs were awesome and there were so many great tours. I highly recommend this B E A U T I F U L city.

Tut: Budapest was beautiful it had a lot of history and people there love to watch soccer games there is a lot of cool tours and i had a great time.

Hungarian Parliament, the third largest parliament building in the world. They built it too big and only use one side of it for actual Parliament assembly.

Johanna walking the streets of Pest, before she got sick the next day.

Ruin bars are a big thing in Pest. Basically, an enterprising person puts a bar or restaurant in/on the remains of a building. In this case, they simply put a glass roof up and decorated the sides of the two buildings adjacent to the destroyed building.

Heroes square in Pest. You can see Miles on his bike which we had for the bicycle tour.

Jo on the cycle tour at a replica castle in Pest. This was interesting because it was built very recently for a commemoration. It is a large castle which showcases the multiple architectural styles throughout Hungary.

A statue of Reagan in Pest! They loved him because he came out and apologized for US not supporting Hungary when they tried to revolt from Communism in 1956. America's lack of support allowed the Soviets to roll in and crush the rebellion, and Hungary remained unwillingly behind the Iron curtain until the Soviet union broke in the late 1980's. There was a statue of George H W Bush nearby, as well.

Another view of Parliament

The Danube. This river marked the border of the Roman Empire in many places.

Miles on Buda Hill

Miles at Fisherman's Bastion in Buda

Miles and I on the "Bloodthirsty Budapest" tour

At Buda Castle

On the Danube River in front of parliament

A display of Hungarian arms at Visigrad Castle

Visigrad Castle

Johanna and Tut in Szentendre, a beautiful village which is preserved so well to its midieval origins that it is a UNESCO world heritage site. Johanna was already sick at this point, but trying to gut through.

An alley in Szentendre

Another Szentendre alley

Kids and I went to a thermal bath on the last day. Super relaxing and fun.