5 Passports: Budapest

On our way back to Budapest we decided to stay overnight in Eger, Hungary. It was a nice stop, with over-the-top friendly hosts. It was a quick little stroll around town, a visit to the wine caves (they’re known for a wine called Bull’s Blood), and then back to the apartment for dinner. The next morning when we departed, the kids and Angie got a big Hungarian bear hug from our hostess. She literally picked up Angie right off the ground! I still chuckle when I think about it. We left behind a nice and sunny morning and arrived Budapest to cloud cover and sprinkles. That always means a good time for the kids to do a little homework or work on their journals. Unfortunately the weather didn’t get much better during our 4 days here. It was cold and drizzly with only spots of sun here and there. For day one we started off at the mall of all places. Budapest is a city of over 2 million people, so they certainly have plenty of shopping and numerous other options for any kind of weather. The mall had a few familiar stores, but most were different, especially in the food court. We took advantage of the great Eastern Europe prices and ate well. In Hungary we’re using the forints currency. I thought paying 400 korunas for a meal in Prague was confusing, but now that same meal is costing us 750 Ft (also called HUF). The exchange rate is about 220 Ft to the dollar, so you have to do a lot of dividing to figure out the conversion. We just figured $5 for every 1000 Ft to make it easier.

After the mall it was on to the Palace of Miracles. This museum is not on any tourist maps and was filled with young Hungarians. They had all kinds of displays that bordered between magic and science to entertain the kids (as well as Angie and I). After a quick dinner, it was time to get ready for the Ballet. Before leaving the States, we reserved a special night out at the Hungarian State Opera House. Noted as one of the finest in Europe, it’s a great place to see a show, especially with the good exchange rates. During our stay, the ballet Sylvia was in town. Upon entering, we were told it would last around 2 ½ hours. I figured we would be leaving before it was over, but all three kids were propped up in the first row of the balcony, content the entire time. Cole was helping the girls interpret the story that was unfolding and it turned out to be a great family evening.

Day two took us to the thermal baths, but I need to hit that in a separate post. Along with the baths, we did a little more sidewalk shopping and explored a few of the city’s sights. Budapest is actually two cities with hilly Buda on the east side of the Danube river and flat Pest (Pesht) on the right. The hills of Buda are the last few ripples from the Alps heading west. And across the river in Pest starts the Great Hungarian Plain, which stretches all the way to Asia. While there’s plenty to see on both sides of the river, a lot of the main sights date from 1896 when the city celebrated Hungary’s 1,000^th birthday. The baths we visited lie in the city park, which was one of the host sites for this millennium celebration. Besides the baths, it also includes a zoo, amusement park, and castle. The subway line connecting the park to the city center was Europe’s first, again built as part of the millennium celebration.

Another prominent building built at this time was the Parliament House. Inspired by its counterpart in London, it was built at a time when Budapest ruled much of Eastern Europe. Today the Hungarian legislature only utilizes about 1/8^th of the building.

The weather kept us in check in Budapest, but we still had a great time. So now our time in Eastern Europe is up, and tomorrow we’ll be sleeping in Germany. One thing we found to be amusing was that in Hungary they’ve adopted the English word “hello”, but the difference is they use it for both hi and bye (kind of like ciao in Italy). So I guess its hello Hungary and hello Germany.