Eastern Europe - HUNGARY

Budapest

I went back to Mainz from Prague Sunday and rested for two days before I decided to go back to Eastern Europe. I had two travel days left on my Eurail pass, and Helen, my good CBYX friend, already had a trip planned to Budapest, so I thought, why not?

Wednesday

Wednesday morning, I caught a super early train (5:10am!) in Mainz and went all the way to Vienna, which is as far as my Eurail pass would take me, and then another train on to Budapest. I got in around 5:00pm, during which a received a pleasant phone call from Helen explaining that her hostel had overbooked, so they upgraded her to a fully equipped apartment all to herself. SWEEET! It was perfect. After we settled in, we made our way to an All-you-can-eat-AND-drink Hungarian buffet, called Trofea Grill, where we sampled a variety of supposed “Hungarian” dishes. I’d say the most interesting thing I ate was shark steak. Very interesting. We were there for awhile, because hey, free drinks. Then we went to a local pub to try Unicum, the “national drink of Hungary”, which is just essentially an herb liquor sometimes used as a digestive.

Thursday

On Castle Hill

Széchenyi Chain Bridge

Thursday, we woke up pretty early in order to walk around the city. It seemed fairly easy to see all the “main” sights within a day, which we did. We started off going to a supposed “famous” café/bakery, called Gerbeaud’s, but after realizing how expensive it was, we just got drinks. I ordered a simple hot chocolate, which was definitely the best chocolate drink I have ever tasted. Absolutely delicious. We checked out the Basilica and Parliament, and then walked over to the Széchenyi Chain Bridge which is the main bridge that connects Buda with Pest (they used to be two separate cities). The view of the river and the city skyline from both sides was stunning. We walked to the other side, now in Buda, and took a funicular ride up to the top, called Castle Hill, because yep, there’s a castle there.

Grand Market Hall

We saw some more absolutely amazing views, and then made our way down the mountain and headed to the Grand Market Hall. This is where a HUGE indoor market goes on most days of the week, where they sell tons of fresh fruit, baked goods, and of course, Hungary’s infamous paprika. There is also a big food court there, where I tried Langos, essentially like a big piece of fried bread with whatever kind of toppings you want on it. We walked more around the city, which for once, didn’t feel so touristy. I saw maybe 3 souvenir shops the whole time I was there, and it didn’t feel like there were foreigners all around us. I really liked the feel.

Széchenyi Thermal baths

Finally, for the grand finale of the day, we took the Metro to the Széchenyi thermal baths, apparently the largest spa in all of Europe. It was really confusing when we got there on how to get towels, lockers, and how to even get to the baths, but once we figured it all out, it was glorious. We started off in the indoor pools, where you could smell the sulfur or whatever natural minerals/chemicals they put in the pools. Then we discovered the outdoor baths. Oh man… the outdoor baths. There were three huge baths in the courtyard of the building (which resembled an old castle… who knows, it probably used to be). Steam was coming out of all of the baths, while colder water was spewing out of old statues. We stayed in the first bath for a long time, just laying out and relaxing. Then we went over to the furthest bath, which had huge jets pushing water out of the bottom with a lot of pressure. In the middle, there was a huge enclosed whirlpool, which dragged you around and around, until you reached the very middle, a huge hut tub-like circle that had tons of jets spewing all around you as you sat down. It was there that we met a ton of Australians (I swear, they’re everywhere!!) and had a good laugh with them for awhile.

the indoor pools

Then we went back inside to give the saunas a try. This was my first sauna experience, and apparently I went into the hottest one they had (80 degrees Celsius!!). Right when I opened the door, I walked right back out… the hottest thing ever… but Helen assured me that I should just sit there for a second, so I went back in and…. Oooooh wow. Ridiculous. When you walk into that thing, you instantly start to sweat, and you have to take big breaths (at least I had to). There was also a huge mound of something that looked like coal right in the middle, which was probably the cause of this hotness. I lasted maybe 3-5 minutes, but right when I got out, I realized how much I loved it. We ended up going to the saunas two more times that day. Oh did I mention that this kind of stuff is embedded in the Hungarian culture, so it is not some kind of “luxury” that only wealthy people can do all the time? The baths are there for the supposed many health benefits they provide, and they make sure it’s cheap to use so everybody has access to them. For a whole day pass, we paid only around 10 dollars (after converting Hungarian Forints to Dollars). Amazing. Oh yeah, I also got a massage, because when it’s this cheap, why not?

After leaving the baths, we went to a place called The Hummus Bar for dinner. Helen heard a ton of good things about this place, and I had never even tried hummus before, so we went. We decided to split the “complete” plate, which came with one of every kind of ingredient. I didn’t have many optimistic expectations since I’m a picky eater, but it was SO GOOD! Hummus, paprika, falafel, chickpeas, all on pita bread. Loooooove it. Then we went back to the hostel, got ready for the night, and went to a place called Morrison’s 2, which was a HUGE bar/club that was relatively cheap. There were a ton of people there, but we were so tired from the day, we decided to leave after only a little bit.

Friday – Eger, Hungary

Friday morning, we got up super early to catch our train to Eger. Eger is a small town in Northern Hungary, known for its wine. Wine region nearby? You know me and Helen will be there. We arrived around 11:00am and were greeted by a sweet, old lady who owned the hostel we were staying at. She picked us up in her super bright yellow car, and since she didn’t know very much English, she asked if we could speak only German with her. Alrightttt. We got settled in and then made our way down to the city center to check out the town. On the way down the massive hill we were on, we ran into a medieval castle, which gave some impressive views of the city below. In the city, a ton of kids were around, and I noticed a big crowd around the outside of a McDonalds. This McDonalds had a walk up “drive thru”. You just walk up and order out of the window…. Interesting.

After looking at some of the major sights in the city, we walked what seemed like FOREVER to the outside of the city, to the infamous “Valley of the Beautiful Women,” which is where a huge wine community lies, with over 40 or 50 different wine cellars. Middle of January isn’t exactly their “busy” season, which we noticed right away… it seemed like a huge ghost town.  The first place we stopped at was a really tiny cellar with an old lady cleaning. We were the only ones there (the theme throughout the day), and she spoke no English or German, so it was hilarious trying to communicate with her. She was awesome. She showed us 3 different books full of comments from people all over the world who had visited her cellar. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the entertaining notes, all while drinking some good red wine (Eger is known best for its red wine), and eating the complimentary cheese and pistachios. The best, probably most well known wine there, is nicknamed ‘bull’s blood,” and made me rethink my usual distaste for red wine.

The next place we went was dead too, but we made sure to do the second activity we had heard about… get our plastic filled up. Apparently, you can bring whatever plastic bottle you can find with you, and have them fill it up with whatever wine you want, all for an extremely cheap price. We got two soda bottles filled up, and then went on to the third place.

The third place had wine in big pitchers, and you get to taste the wines for free, and then decide if you want to buy a 2-liter plastic mini-keg of it. A plastic mini-keg of wine? Sold. We got some Merlot, decided that was enough for the day, then got a taxi to take us to yes….. another thermal bath.

The Eger thermal bath was not nearly as big as the one in Budapest, but it was still awesome. We were probably the only ones there under 50 or 60, but we had a good time just relaxing in the outdoor heated bath (the indoor pool was way too cold for our liking). After a good couple of hours, we walked through a park to some pizza place some locals had recommended to us, and then made it back to our hostel before 9:00pm, calling it a night pretty early.

Saturday

Saturday, I had to catch a train at 6:50am (yikes!). I had to go all the way from Eger to Budapest to Vienna to Wuerzberg to Mainz. Total travel time: 12 ½ hours. Wooo. Helen moved on to Tikaj, the wine region of Hungary known for its white wine, but there was no way I could fit that in. Overall, it was worth all the traveling. I don’t know if I’ll ever be back in Eastern Europe, so I’m glad I got the opportunity to go now.

Next up: Week long mid-year seminar in Cologne for my program – a chance to see all 75 participants again for the first time since Washington, D.C…. should be interesting!

To check out my pictures from Hungary, take a look at my Picassa album here!