Stewart and I stocked up on chips, pretzels, haribo gummy bears, cookies, cheese crackers (his choice?) 2 bottles of red vino, and a couple beers. We searched the town high and low for a deck of cards but had zero luck…. So cheers to the next 14 hours!
Budapest was wonderful. When we arrived on Friday, we did a little research and headed out to a nice Italian dinner. Did a little site seeing on the way and got these pictures:
Our restaurant was called “Osteria Italiana L'Araceto” We couldn’t decide whether it was because we were super early or super late, but we were the only people in the restaurant. When we sat down, we were handed 2 blankets to cozy up with. That alone, should tell you how unbelievable our weather has been. We remained one of 2 groups at the restaurant for the rest of our meal. And its not like we left early….left around midnight. Regardless, great food, and great company
We knew another big day lay ahead, so a good night sleep was necessary. Got our day started at around 10 and headed across the Chain bridge to the other side of Budapest (Buda). View of our walk:
**Beautiful building in background is Parliament**
Buda is the more scenic side, with castles galore and LOTS of people. We headed up to Holy Trinity Square which was beautiful, and walked around there a bit…..and then….well…..( I recently received an email from my dad saying “you and Stewie sure are eating your way through Europe…..”) He might be right. So we spent 2 hours on our first day In Buda at lunch at 21…. But this lunch was FABULOUS and made me feel like I was in the south of France. It was located on a little cobblestone street and had huge awnings overhanging (Editors note: Liz has not been to the South of France)
The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around Buda, checking out the Buda castle and all of its surroundings. Very interesting and awesome views. At one point, things got desperate and Stewart almost left his mark on the castle. Luckily, he was willing to push through and find a bathroom a ways down….to use this would cost him 200 Ft (Hungarian moneys)….and he was politely given a receipt. This caused some serious roars of laughter from these two stupid Americans, and stewart to lament that he no longer had a job he could expense it too.
**Things started to get weird**
Last nights dinner was supposed to be at a place suggested to us by two friends, but after walking by a small restaurant on a side street that we had heard about, we decided that was really what we were looking for. And let-me-tell-you, it totally was. Managed and run by a crowd pleasing Italian couple, we spent the night receiving complimentary appetizers, glasses of champagne, and multiple glasses of lemon cello and GROSS grapa. Dinner was unreal though—I think I’ve eaten enough pasta to last me a lifetime and im not even to Italy yet!!! Uh oh! A cute family from Dallas sat next to us, but Stewart claims that because of our age, they didn’t want to chat with us. He says….”they must have been aggies.”
Another pretty full day today: walked Andrassy Street to Hero’s square and stopped at the Fine Arts museum on the way. Actually saw some younger kappas walking that were traveling on Innsbruck! Small world! There was a cool mummy exhibit and 3D film that, being the forensic freak that I am, wanted to try and we both ended up really liking it. It was cool, and a nice way to squeeze in a museum. I liked Budapest a lot, but Vienna still takes the cake. The Hungarian people were a little bit more stand-offish than other places we have been thus far.
Hero's Square:
Can’t wait for our time in Venice to begin! BIG day tomorrow, so I better start drinking this wine so I can get some sleep.
Sneak peak from our train ride. This was probably 3 hours in…
Stewart looks like this pic was taken as he was getting sick! so much for overnite trains.
ReplyDeleteBudapest looked beautiful and what weather.
Hope all is well in Venice!
XO