Budapest. Rocks.

Synopsis of day: So it turns out Budapest is basically great.

Highlight of the days: The great food? The Danube cruise? The Christmas markets having way more variety than the counterparts? Getting my laundry done for me? Having my own room? The currency making most items cheaper than elsewhere? The fact there was less sausage and more salad? That final dinner which was stupendous? I LIKED Budapest.

Lowlight of the days: Let’s be realistic here, this is a country which was terribly affected by communism. Parts of the city were very run down and systems were less efficient than the Austrians or Germans would have it. Some areas we caught the metro through felt quite seedy. Also this contributed to me feeling quite queasy at the House of Terror, which detailed rather graphically the atrocities Hungarians experienced under Communist control.

Favourite photo:

 The Danube with Parliament to the left.

Derek’s selfie of choice:

Feeling wealthy

                                                      Trying the Goulash

 Wishing he had the moves

Shameless selfie:

Historical Fact of the Day: Gulag (Communist concentration camps in the time of Stalin) were vicious. (Find out more: http://gulaghistory.org/nps/onlineexhibit/stalin/) Perhaps because I’ve been more attuned to the Nazi experience that the information at the House of Terror museum just shocked and appalled me.   

  

Cultural-shock moment: Catching the Metro. Those trains are very rickety in appearance and sound and feel very Eastern European. The tunnels they scraped themselves through were apparently among the first built in Europe. You can really tell. 

New food consumed: Some crazy extreme sized savoury donut we shared between three and still didn’t finish, apple cider which tasted like apple pie, a gingerbread cream filled square donut, goulash, a paper bag cooked pork thing with potato. All good, especially the food from the final restaurant we went to. Every single person’s food looked divine. Notably I decided against Glühwein. Think I’ve hit my allowance for the decade, or I was concerned about another hectic version.     

Best purchase of the day: Probably anything involving food. Or my laundry, which for about $6 was washed and folded and that was glorious.  

Random act of crazy: The Metro ranks pretty highly, but only because not that much is standing out at this point. Perhaps the Hungarian language should be considered too.   

Something I want to remember: The general good vibes of Hungary. The contrast between the beauty of the Austro-Hungarian empire era architecture with the Communist ones.