Tomorrow Is Another Day...

The Grand City, Budapest

Oh, Budapest, you gorgeous, wonderful thing, you.  How did you make me love you so much over the course of only three days?  What witchcraft is this?

After our lovely days in Vienna and Bratislava, we set off for lands further east.  It was an easy three hour drive from Vienna to Budapest, and we managed to make it with only a quick stop to buy a vignette at the border of Hungary.

The first thing we did after checking into our gorgeous apartment (which I would highly recommend to traveling families--perfect, central location, elevator to 4th floor, 2 bedrooms, beautiful decor, clean, spacious, full kitchen and bathroom 70 Euro/night), and letting the girls get some energy out, was to set off for the Hungarian State Opera House, just a few blocks away.  It was a stunning building from the outside, and the interior blew us away even further.  We found it even more impressive than the Vienna Opera House.  As an interesting holdover from the communist era, it is also one of the most affordable opera venues in Europe--maybe the world?--as you can purchase a ticket for as little as 2 Euro and the most expensive tickets available are only 50-60 Euros.

From there, we walked back over toward our apartment, with a stop at St. Istvan's Basilica.  Like many of Budapest's grandest buildings and monuments, it looks old, but was actually opened in 1896 for the millennial celebration of country-hood.  Unlike many other European countries, Hungary has been united for over a thousand years now, though wars and occupations have changed the borders over time.  One of our tour guides joked that Hungary is the only country that borders itself on all sides as all of the surrounding countries were once a part of Hungary.

The next day, we took a wonderful walking tour through Absolute Walking Tours, where we got a wonderful overview of Buda and Pest, formerly two separate cities, separated by the Danube, that now form Budapest.  We visited Heroes Square, the Szecheny Bath House, walked across the Chain Bridge that connects the two parts of the city, and Castle Hill, which included the Fisherman's Bastion and Matthias Church, with more stops along the way, including a delicious break for Hungarian strudel.

Following the walking tour, we made our way back across the river to visit the Shoes on the Danube memorial.  Between 1944 and 1945, the Hungarian Arrow Cross, essentially the Hungarian version of the Nazis, rounded up an unknown number of Jewish men, women and children, had them remove their shoes as they stood on the bank of the river, then shot them so that they fell into the river and their bodies were washed away.  It's a beautiful memorial to an awful period in history.

From there we walked to the Parliament and took a tour, viewing the 96 steps leading into the building (a common numeric theme from the 1896 celebration), the Hungarian crown jewels which were hidden in Fort Knox when the Russians took hold of the country following WWII, and the Upper Parliament chamber.  We finished our day with--what else?--a Mexican feast at Iguana!

For our final day in the city, we did our favorite thing to do when exploring a new country, we took a food tour, once again through Absolute Walking Tours.  We began the tour at the Central Market where we jump started our digestion with the Hungarian alcohol, Unicum, then tasted a multitude of sausages, included horse sausage and cow tongue, goat and sheep cheese, a sheep cheese based candy bar, a fluffy garlic bread and more.  Then we hit the streets for chocolate tasting, a hearty Hungarian lunch, pastries, and wine.  By the end, we'd gotten a fascinating look at the mix of East and West that makes Budapest so unique, and were stuffed to the gills!

From there, we made our way to the Great Synagogue, the third largest synagogue in the world.  It was bombed in 1939, but underwent a remarkable restoration from 1991 to 1998, and now houses a beautiful Jewish cemetery where over 2000 Jewish Hungarians died of starvation, exposure and disease during the war.  There's also a beautiful memorial in the form of a tree with the names of victims inscribed on each leaf.

 Our last stop in Budapest was at the House of Terror, a former Soviet headquarters building that has been transformed into a museum about life under the Hungarian Arrow Cross and the Soviets.  Hungary endured many horrific years throughout the 30s, 40s and 50s, and while the Soviet grip loosened a bit from the 60s through the 90s, Budapest is experiencing an awakening as tourists are rediscovering its charms, and residents are taking advantage of the freedoms that come with their new, more democratic government.  We absolutely adored our time there, and I'm confident in the fact that 10 years from now, the city will have grown and flourished even more.  If you're looking for a European destination a little off the beaten path with beauty, grandeur and history in spades, look no further than Budapest!

East of Deutschland

Prior to last week, the only experience that I had with Eastern Europe was traveling to the Czech Republic and Turkey.  It seems as though most of the major touristy sites are further west, and I've spent most of my traveling days in France, Germany, Benelux, and Italia.  So we decided about a year ago that we wanted to focus more of our time behind the former Iron Curtain, which brought us to Berlin and Prague last year, and, with this last trip, Hungary and Slovakia.  We also slipped Vienna into this trip, and were surprised to learn that it is actually further east than Prague.

I think it's important to point out that many of the countries that Americans would consider Eastern Europe, do not self identify as such.  They call themselves Central Europe, which is certainly fair.  I think there's a resistance in many of these places to want to be identified as Eastern, knowing that Russia is what most people associate with that part of the world.

However, while there are vestiges of the damages done by the Communist reign from 1945 to the early 90s in both Bratislava, Slovakia and Budapest, Hungary, we were incredibly charmed by both, and it has inspired my personal mission to encourage as many people as possible to visit Budapest, in particular.  It is truly an hidden gem--and wildly affordable.

>After a long driving day, we arrived at our temporary apartment in Vienna, about a five minute walk from St. Stephen's Cathedral.  It had taken about 10 hours to get there, but with all of the stuff we have to cart around with us when we travel, it's typically just easier to drive places when possible.  We also almost always stay in apartments so that we have a kitchen, and a separate room to put the girls in at night so Colby and I don't have to go to bed at 7 pm as well!  We can almost always find a two bedroom apartment with a full kitchen and bathroom for around the price of a mid-range hotel room.  It's a really great way to travel when you've got kids--though I do miss housekeeping and room service!

So, we kicked off our Vienna sightseeing with a visit to St. Stephen's Cathedral followed up with the Rick Steves self-guided city walks.  I loooooove traveling with Uncle Rick, and his walks are always really interesting and informative.  After a stop at a Starbucks where I spilled a Grande mocha all over Annabelle and her preciousssss blankie, we decided to head back to the apartment so the girls could take a nap.  Later that night we hit a yummy sushi restaurant where we discovered that Charlotte can't get enough duck and fried spring rolls, then visited the Haus der Musik.  It was a really cool, interactive museum that focused on sound, music and the famous classic musicians that spent time in Vienna, including good old Wolfgang M. of course.

Day two consisted of a fairly stressful visit to the Vienna Opera House (we couldn't use the strollers, Annabelle DID NOT want to be carried, and I spent the last part of the tour back in the lobby letting her play on the stairs--another kid traveling tip, gotta be flexible!) and then a tour of the Hofburg Imperial Apartments, which also included a fascinating exhibit on the intriguing and enigmatic "Sisi", Empress Elizabeth of Austria.  The part of the Opera tour that I did get to enjoy included a sneak peak at the debutantes practicing their dancing for the big Viennese Opera Ball and the tear down and set up of the theater to put in a dance floor.  We wrapped up a day with a walk around the Volksgarten, which gave us a lovely view of Vienna's imposing, pointy-spired Rathaus.

On day three, we made the one hour drive to Bratislava, Slovakia.  It's a fairly small city, so a few hours was all we needed, but we enjoyed our time there, once again, guided by Rick Steves.  There is a long history of war and oppression in Slovakia from Napoleon to the Nazis and the Soviets, but through it all, they managed to maintain and lovingly restore a very charming historic district and in a bid to draw in more tourists, installed a number of quirky statues throughout the downtown.  

We enjoyed wandering the city and walking along the Danube, and had a delicious lunch of Slovakian cuisine--the highlight was the carmelised pear with sheep's cheese... my mouth is watering!  Even Hans Christian Andersen evidently enjoyed a visit to the town, as memorialized with a statue in his honor.  We didn't make it up to the castle, but it did make for an imposing fortress up on the hill, overlooking the city.

The next morning, we packed our wagon and set off for Budapest... more on that next time!