Budapest

After getting off the train a few mornings ago and putting our stuff down at a hostel, we walked through what I had thought would have been a very typical Eastern European city. Everything was shutdown; there were very, very few people on the street. There was no clear indication of daily human life. We decided to do a bike tour of Budapest, based solely on the fact that we might actually meet some other “living” people by doing it. Well by this point we realized potentially everyone in Budapest had evaporated, was on vacation, or was somewhere that we should definitely be! After meeting our bike tour guide, Ana, we quickly learned where the coffee was and that it was Hungarian National Day! We could not believe our luck! We have hit so many European national days and now that we knew there were living, breathing people in Budapest! We began our “private” biking tour of Budapest (only private because no one else showed up for the biking tour!) by riding to Heroes square, where we learned the history of the city of Budapest; originally settled by 7 nomadic tribes 1100 years ago, becoming 3 separate cities, and then only in the last 100 years becoming the united city of Buda and Pest (Budapest!). While Ana was explaining Hungarian history, military planes were flying overhead, military music was being played, and there was a processional. Heroes’ square was a giant area in front of the city park, with monuments to all of the most famous heroes, saints, and military leaders in Hungary. We also saw one of the most famous Turkish bathhouses in Budapest with a beautiful exterior building, although due to the gorgeous weather it was packed. After dodging people in the crowded streets, we rode to the opera house and St. Stephen’s Church, the most grand in Hungary. St. Stephen was the first king in Hungary, so the national holiday is to also celebrate him and the city was preparing for the largest mass of the year. From there, we went over to the Danube River and learned some history about the first cable bridge that crossed the river, joining the towns of Buda and Pest. We also heard about the Communist occupancy in Budapest and saw a giant communist sculpture on a hillside above the town, next to the Citadel. We learned the Scottish architect of the bridge claimed that he built the entire thing perfectly and if anyone could prove him otherwise he would jump off it into the river. Apparently, he did have to jump in the river because someone noticed the giant stone lions guarding the bridge on all sides did not have tongues. There were two very clear things we noticed on our Bike tour. First, there was a ton of stuff actually going on for the National Holiday. Second, Budapest is huge and not concentrated in a main city center like many of the other European cities we have been to. There is a large variety of architecture due to the Austrian occupancy for a long time and the strong Russian influence. After putting up the bikes, we decided to go back over the river area and see more of the festivities on foot. The streets were packed with people and there was live music and interesting food everywhere! We first tried some sort of Hungarian sweets that we are still unsure about, but they seemed like chocolate covered pan forte (mix of mashed up dried fruit, nuts, and spices). Delicious! Next, we observed that many people were lined up in front of a truck. This was not just any truck, it was a milk truck! People were lined up around the corner to drink and fill their bottle with fresh milk! I could not believe the people having huge glasses of milk, standing next to people with huge glasses of beer! We decided on some sort of paprika veggie dish for dinner and a corn on the cob. We walked back to our dorm (called a hostel, but really a dorm) and relaxed until fireworks came on later in the night and we walked outside to watch them with the locals from the street around the corner.

The next day, we took the metro into town and headed back to the festivities. But first, we purchased a compass for our upcoming biking trip in Romania! We had a fun time trying to explain what a compass was to the ladies at the outdoors store. We also tried some delicious sandwich type snacks on the way to the folk festival. I had a cucumber-yogurt based spread and JJ had a paprika delight with meat, I think that is what he named it at least. On the way, we made a detour to go look at the Budapest synagogue with Moorish architecture. It was after Shabbat services on Saturday, so it was all closed up, but the size of the structure, the colors, the incredible stonework, iron work, and history behind the synagogue were really impressive. There was a life-size Willow tree of life in one of the courtyards made of steel that was really unique and eye catching. On every leaf of the tree was the name of a Holocaust victim from the Jewish community of Hungary. Also, there were many gravestones in the center courtyard because prior to WWII the area was turned into a Ghetto and the area was used for a cemetery. We were really glad we walked over to the synagogue. When we got to the festival, we were very happy with how many less people there were compared to the day before. We bought tickets to go through the folk festival, which turned out to definitely be the largest folk festival I have ever been to. It took us about four hours to walk through the entire festival. We saw all sorts of crafts, but the majority were: basket weaving, gingerbread painting, the usage of seed beads for necklaces, handmade clothing, leather work, woodworking, iron work, pottery, hand-made toys and my favorite, felt work from local wool. There was so much to see and do, it was literally exhausting! So, doing what we do best, when we were tired we sampled food! The first dish was some sort of Paprika soup with veggies (letcka), next was a green bean casserole type of thing, JJ tried the Hungarian pizza, a slab paprika of chicken, then we tried this dish called Dodolle, which was tiny little potato pancakes with vinegar cabbage coleslaw, beets, and sour cream on top! Are you full yet? We also walked out of the castle a little ways to see a picturesque church on the Buda side of town, called the fisherman’s church because they defended it from destruction at some point. We spent the rest of the evening listening to Polish and Hungarian folk music, eclectic world music that sounded like death metal mixed with Klezmer, and traditional gypsy music. We walked back and fell fast asleep after our long, full day!

We are now on the train to Huedin, Romania, which is on the western side of the Carpathian Mountains. We will be biking for 5 days on the farm roads and through the mountains, watching out for bears, wolves, gypsies, Dracula, and each other! It should be beautiful and we are really excited to stay in the farm houses and spend time in the country side! My hope is that JJ will be able to milk either a cow or goat for the first time in his life! I guess he did not grow up in the South where I received these important life skills! HA! I will write more about the biking trip pronto! Hope you are all doing excellent and we send our love!