We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us. – Anonymous

July 11-14, 2023

This is my first stop where I am on my own for a few days. Lynn, Bruce and Katherine have headed back to the states. I truly miss my friends and I am looking forward to some chill time and solitude – something this introvert craves on occasion. Certainly conflicting emotions. First up is taking care of those mundane activities like getting a haircut, having my laundry done, and repacking with my summer clothes more accessible. Budapest is at least 20 degrees warmer than Tallinn and Greece will be even hotter.

I have no tours planned for me here. Where is Bruce when I need him? After exploring all my options on-line, I opt for a hop-on hop-off bus tour which features stops in Buda and Pest, includes a walking tour and a boat cruise. It also provides me with transportation around the city. Budapest is filled with 5 to 7 story buildings as none can exceed 96 meters, the height of both Saint Stephen’s Basilica and the Parliament building. Both exactly equal the same as the church and state in Hungary.

Many of the buildings, I guess built in the 1800’s, are very ornate – bas relief, arches, pillars, columns, balustrades, or statues, etc. The are many wide avenues -like Andrassy St, the Champs Elysees of Budapest, intersecting with narrow one way streets. The avenues are bustling with electric trams, buses, cars and motor bikes. The city is filled with statues, parks, squares as well as the promenades along the Danube.

There is so much to do here, in my few short days I have barely scratched the surface. The city park itself offers multiple museums, playgrounds, botanical gardens, castles and restaurants as well as a dog park, a birding trail, in winter ice skating, in summer paddle boats, and more. This is also where the famous Széchenyi thermal bath is located. I had planned on going, you know I like a good soak, but with temps in the mid-90’s, getting in hot water didn’t sound appealing. I took the funicular up to the Grand Palace, enjoying the panoramic view of the Pest side and then strolled along the promenade on the Pest side gazing at the wonder of the Buda side.

My walking tour guide, Sophia, declared that Budapest has the second largest parliament building in Europe, the second longest river in Europe, the second largest synagog in the world, and has the second hardest language in the world to learn. I can attest to the last, as my tongue was definitely tied whenever I tried to say some words in Hungarian. They still boast however, as they should.

As usual, I had to try some of the traditional foods like langos and chimney cakes. The langos is a fried bread with garlic and cheese, cheese and sour cream, or cheese and salami on it. It’s about the size of a small dinner plate. I enjoyed it but only ate about half, sharing the rest with the pigeons. I did warn them it probably wasn’t very healthy. The chimney cake are baked swirls of dough rolled in cinnamon, nuts or cocoa. They were okay but I’d rather save my calories for others things. I had to pass on the goulash and chicken paprika – Hungarians do like meat. I wanted to try the dobos torta and the palinka – Hungary’s answer to schnapps, but ran out of time. I also missed exploring the ruin bars. The bars are ruined buildings taken over by entrepreneurs who set up thrift shop tables and chairs and starting serving drinks and nibbles, playing the latest music. Started in 2004, they became a thing and so still exist today. Cocktails, edgy – you know I wanted to go.

I had a wonderful vegetarian dinner at Tati, a farm to fork restaurant owner by a local farmer. It was just a few blocks from my hotel, the Corinthia, in the city center. The hotel was beautiful, I will be spoiled for the rest of my trip. It was also near the New York Cafe, the most beautiful cafe in the world – or so they proclaim on the window.

Although you could easily spend two weeks here and not see and do everything, this was not my favorite city. To me it was a very aggressive place. When you crossed the street, cars would crawl up to you until you were an inch pass their bumper when they would step on the gas. Very disconcerting, especially when crossing with the light. I was barked at multiple times by the bus drivers and clerks when asking just simple questions. Restaurant employees were brusque and one time just rude for no reason that I could understand. And smoking was ubiquitous, on every street and in every cafe. And the worse crime, I couldn’t find kombucha anywhere! I am choosing to blame the behavior on the heat wave as so many of my friends love this city.