Hungary to Slovakia

Hungarian House of Parliament made completely from marzipan!

The day did not start off in a good way. We were supposed to be picked up at 9am to commence our private tour of Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Our guide and van did not arrive until 0950. It was difficult to contain the group agro as we had been waiting by the side of the road in the cold for nearly an hour. Our guide, Peter, was also the owner of the company. He was very apologetic and we did believe that his reason was genuine. We were also accustomed to a very different style of guide in the form of Romanian George. Peter was no George. He was less of an intellect but more relaxed. He had a different sense of humour to George but was very attentive and responsive to our needs. He took our complaints onboard well and made no excuses. The rest of the day fortunately went smoothly!

We were taken to Szetendre, a small picturesque village on the Danube Bend. Usually teeming with tourists in summer, it was quiet and peaceful during our visit. We visited a marzipan museum which was a bit like an edible version of Madame Tussauds. Whilst we appreciated the creations, I'm sure that some of us would rather eat wax over marzipan, given the chance.

The Slovakian party bus!

They had marzipan creations of everything you can think of under the sun including Mickey!

The famous Queen Maria

Intricate nativity scene

Small workshop where a cactus is being made

The pretty village centre

Paprika! A hungarian favourite

Danube, or more accurately a small side stream

Lunch time!

Garlic soup. Yum!

Veal stew. Very tasty!

Marzipan "play dough"

Lara's creation. Not sure I'd want to eat it after it has been fingered by the children...

Our tour of ex-communist countries continued in the form of Slovakia. There was a noticeable improvement in the quality of the roads and general organisation in Slovakia. The roads in northern Hungary had been particularly poor. The journey of 180km seemed to take forever and it was dark when we arrived in Kosice. We were all glad to check into the known comforts and reliable standard of the Hilton Brand. Our hotel was just on the edge of the old town which made it convenient to explore.

Peter took us for a brief walk through the old town to our restaurant. Unfortunately dinner at Villa Regia turned out to be a very drawn out affair in an extremely overheated building. The service was SO slow which was a shame as the setting was charming & rustic, and the food was actually excellent. Both the duck and ribs that Malcolm and I ordered were one of the best we've had.

We were all sweltering...

Everything was so pretty! Here are the serviettes

Duck with onion puree. SOO good!

St Elizabeth Cathedral

Budapest Day 2

Today was the day to the Buda side to capture some wonderful photos of Pest from across the Danube. Today was also the day that the fog set in! Argh!!! We had planned to climb to the top of the Citadel for a classic shot of all the main buildings lined up perfectly with the chain bridge, but that idea was unanimously abandoned. Instead, we made use of our 72 hour transport passes to head north along the river towards the Fisherman's Bastion. We were probably late to the party in discovering that different guilds were responsible for the defence of different parts of the city. We had seen this in Romania and we were now observing it again. The fisherman certainly had the height advantage and may have enjoyed the views if they weren't too distracted by the marauders. We saw fog, but enjoyed the buildings and vibe nonetheless. This place must be packed with tourists in the summer. Today there were a few buses that provided enough coins to keep the falconer and violonist happy enough with their busking results, but we were still able to explore relatively freely. 

St Matthius' cathedral is next to the Fisherman's Bastion. It is a beautiful church from the outside, but we were too stingy and too tired after walking up the hill to go inside. There are various ways to get up the hill without walking, but we just took the old fashioned route. "Leave no man behind" has never been our motto, but we did pick up the weakest links where we left them on the way back down the hill before crossing the Chain Bridge back across to the Pest side of town.

Great Market. Quick stop before our climb up the hill!

Pickle store

Oh no. Its Aldi. We lost the olds in there...

Sustenance for our walk

Which langos to choose!!!

The lucky winner!

The fight is on!

Freedom Bridge, one of many that connects Buda to Pest

St Matthias Church

Guilds would often take up a defensive postion at strategic points of the city

Sigh...no view

Fisherman's Bastion

Lunch was an occasion that we had been preparing for. The Brutal Brutus marketing campaign had impacted our weak minds sufficiently enough that we were determined to try at least one before leaving Budapest. A picture speaks a thousand words, but to describe it simply, the Brutal Brutus is a combination of traditional burger with the addition of hash brown, onion rings, fried onion, bacon, mushroom sauce and potentially other mystery ingredients. We justified this cultural sacrilege with the knowledge that this was the first McDonald's to open behind the Iron Curtain so it should be visited. At least we ensured that we maintained a balanced diet with the addition of other items that we can't find at home - the kitkat McFlurry and CocoChoc Pies.

Worn out and carb loaded we returned to the apartment to nap and launder. Dinner was a quick affair at the local ramen joint called Ramenka. It was warm, the service was quick, the meat was generous, but it  was never going to be a broth that dreams are made of. 

More Christmas markets!

The first McDonald's behind the Iron Curtain

How could one resist this?!?!

The trifecta! From left to right - Brutal Brutus, Generous Jack, and Juicy Jane

The rest of the evening was somewhat classier and even saw us don our least grubby travel clothes. The famed Opera House is being refurbished, but the Franz Liszt was an incredible back up option. The building was completed in 1907. It is a beautiful, intimate venue with exceptional acoustics. All 900 seats were occupied for a Tchaikovsky Christmas recital. This was a Christmas present for ourselves and the group that surpassed our expectations. No description could do justice to the music in the gorgeous setting.

The opulence continued with drinks and dessert at New York Cafe. You get what you expect here. Yes, it is over-priced, but the venue is beautiful and the waiters wear waistcoats and starched shirts even if the service was a bit lacklustre. It was an odd mix of generous servings of high quality gelato with underpar lemonade that was certainly not homemade. The various coffee and cholate offerings were quite nice, but not exceptional. It was still a lovely way to end the day. Mal and Wayne explored a couple of ruin bars, but the rest of us were more than happy to sleep after two very full days.

Ramen!

Liszt Academy only reopened in 2013 after a major refurbishment

Grand Hall of the Lizst Academy

Tchaikovsky time!

Cafe New York

Look at that ceiling!

Trying to decide what to order

Opa went for the gold coffee. 10 euros!

My hot chocolate and winter sorbet

Bathing in Budapest

The UNESCO World Heritage listed Hungarian Parliament Building

With Hungary being an hour behind Romania, and a late start (relatively!) of 9am we all enjoyed our sleep in and walked out to a warm sunny day! We had to produce our own breakfast for the first time in two weeks so we made Lara do it. We all came to the same conclusion that Hungarian eggs must be quite different to eggs at home because they seemed to just dent rather than crack. Oh well, crucnchy scrambled eggs was better than none at all. We made it to the Hungarian Parliament with plenty of time to spare for our 10am official English tour. We had prebooked our tour but tickets can be purchased onsite. I would not advise the latter as our group was full despite visiting in the low season.

Our tour went through one half of the gigantic symmetrical building. I won't bore you with the details and history as the route was well described on the website. The interior was stunning and a lot more "tasteful" than the Romanian counterpart. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos in the central dome as the Hungarian Crown Jewels were on display. They were only returned to Hungary in 1978 after being held in Fort Knox for much of the cold war! The tour lasted around 50 minutes which was just nice.

Tours start in the visitor centre and can be purchased online or onsite

Entering through the "golden" staircase because the ceilings were lined with gold! All hand painted on

Gorgeous views out of the windows

The ash trays had numbers so members could "park" their cigars, enter a session, and resume their smoke afterwards...

Even the windows were hand painted

The Grand Stairway

The chamber of peers

Top view!

Statues of the common people as a reminder of who the parliament are serving

We took advantage of the beautiful weather to wander around the city. Budapest is full of funky cafes and restaurants, and cosmopolitan enough to offer a good variety of cuisines. The trick was trying to walk far enough away from Tourism central without going too far away from our next destination. Funky pho won the honour of being our lunch destination. Vietnamese diners who have visited reviewed the pho as good enough without being brilliant. They were pretty accurate. Whilst we did enjoy our meal and it was reasonably priced, the multitude of pho offerings in Sydney are better.

From lunch it was only a short walk to our Segway tour meeting point. We signed our lives away and commenced Segway 101. Our trainer and guide, Dalma, was so sweet and calm. She made everything look easy. We were soon off zipping down the busy (!!!) streets of Budapest. With our newfound speed, we saw Heroe's Square, Vajdahunyad Castle & Szechenyi Baths all within a short period of time. To be honest, it was a little difficult at first to listen to history and concentrate on not getting hit by traffic! The children loved it and so did Oma and Opa. Once their training "turtle" mode was switched off, there was no holding them back...

Time to satisfy the Asian food cravings!

Pho time!

Happy with my Vietnamese drip coffee

Coconut Kurtos

Heore's Square

Oma & Opa enjoying themselves!

Vajdahunyad Castle, multiple styles all amalgated into 1 castle!

The children have to pass a quiz at the end of each day to make sure they pay attention!

Still Vajdahunyad Castle!

Our last activity of the day was soaking in the thermal waters for the famous Szechenyi Baths. The Baths were built in 1913 with both indoor and outdoor pools including one with beer....We bought tickets which included the use of a cabin. Each person was allocated a wristband which also double up as your lock for the cabin, turning it into your personal locker. The facilities weren't flash but were sufficient and the lockers seemed relatively secure. We thanked the Lord for the "heatwave" as the air temperature of 15 degrees made the activity quite pleasant! The warm waters soothed away the muscle aches from our morning walks. Once it hit 5pm the skies darkened quickly and the temperatures dropped accordingly. We showered, dressed and headed for dinner.

Kirally100 came across as a gastro-pub on the website, but was more like a fancyish restaurant. The "welcoming" staff were certainly typical of a high brow establishment. Our initial reference to our reservation was met by raised eyebrows and a flat denial. The possibility of an error on their part was not entertained in the slightest. The email chain of booking request and official confirmation that we produced underwent more scrutiny than the bedsheet of a Sultan's only daughter after her wedding night. Copies were sent and forwarded to a manager, who called two people then sent someone to notify the big boss. 10 minutes later the big boss came out who finally scalded them all in Hungarian and went back to his office without even looking in our direction. Our group was finally allowed in and we decided to eat there despite all of this because we were too tired to wander around. The food was hit and miss. A couple of great dishes, a couple of average ones accompanied by slow and inattentive service especially given the dramas before we sat down. Overall it was decent enough, but the atmosphere, service, food and price were all better at Hungarikum biztro.

We had promised Elliot a treat so, given that we didn't want to hang around for another 40 minutes at the gastro-pub, we decided to walk home and see where our noses led us. Our noses took us to an interesting part of town populated by ruin bars, dodgy establishments, a collection of food trucks and, finally, an Bubble Waffle Asian Ice Cream joint - right near our apartments. Incredibly, two create-your-own waffles were created without a single argument and were then devoured almost before the wifi codes could be entered. Teenage bliss!

One child reported today as the best day of the trip so far apart from the day we spent 45 minutes falling down some slush on 3 buck scraps of plastic in Romania. We returned exhausted and happy in the knowledge that we would only have to play tour guide to the group for one more day before meeting up with our Slovakian guide.

Many rows of cabins

Tiny inside but it was your own space!

The middle large pool used for lap swimming. Caps needed to swim in there. Water temp 29 degrees

The other outside pools were much warmer!

I couldn't think of anything worse...

Some of the indoor pools

Kiraly 100

One of the nicer dishes

Right around the corner from our apartments

Waffle things...