Friday, 18th January 2015
It's day 3 of our trip. The plan was to go to Budapest, since it's only about 2.5 hours from Vienna.
Since there were 4 of us, we rented a car instead of the usual way to travel in Europe - the Euro Rail. And of course, having a day at our hands, we didn't want to spend most of our time depending on the rail time. We intended to leave early, but had car issues got a little delayed. Towards the border, there were wind mill farms in Austria.
We took our passports etc, because we are traveling between countries, but it turns out, that between the EU countries, there wasn't really a border control. I thought that was pretty cool! You could see where you were entering into the new country; they had check posts, but no physical people to cross check documents etc. There was a little service station sort of an area right there. Now we had figured out, that even though Hungary was part of the EU nations, Euro was scarcely used. It was Hungarian Forints (HUF) that was the main currency. So we got some dollars exchanged. Word of caution for the wise - do the currency exchange prior to entering Hungary, not at the border, it was a tad bit expensive.
We hadn't even had breakfast yet, so we tried to hunt for some food in the restaurant/convenience store inside the service area. In Vienna, we didn't have trouble communicating with anyone. Most people responded in English. We could also figure out some signs in German and some words we could make out because they were somewhat similar to English. At the service area, not one soul spoke a word of English. And to top it off, Hungarian was not close to any language we knew! We couldn't figure out if the food the poor lady was selling was vegetarian or not! So of course we left, and came across a McDonald's half an hour or so later.The siblings were happy to have an "Americano" coffee :). We got some muffins and croissants there, and then continued our drive towards Hungary.
Now both the highways we took in Austria and Hungary are allowed a legal speed of 130 kmph, and cars were flashing at us and zooming past us, because us North Americans were super cautious at 130 kmph. We could feel that the country in general was poorer compared to Austria, but the countryside was nonetheless very pretty.
We reached Budapest around 1 pm. Divided by the Danube river are the once twin cities of Buda and Pest, occupying the west and the east banks of the river respectively. Our first stop was the majestic Buda Castle Hill. It was pretty much a small town inside of the castle. The first place we visited was none other than the bakery! Oh well, we didn't eat any of the yummy looking desserts here just yet. The plan was the come back and try them once we had burned some calories walking around =). The cobble-stone roads had an oldish charm, so did the buildings, and stores around.
We took a tour of the labyrinth inside the castle. The cave was lit up, and had mannequins that displayed Hungarian theater clothes. It also displayed an exhibition of pictures of few other well known caves in the world. There was a small section of the cave that was pitch dark, where you could walk and let your senses guide you. They had some spooky areas where there was somebody's coffins. They also did executions in the cave at some point in history. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the labyrinth, but this one is at the very entrance of the cave.
Afterwards, we walked past a pet store, an apothecary, on our way towards Mathias Church. The structure of the church was pretty spectacular from the outside. You can take a look for yourself.
Right across from there was the Fisherman's Bastion. It was home to some magnificent towers, which also exercised as lookout points for tourists. Probably in the past these were critical for maintaining the security of the castle.
The view of the Danube, and then right across from there, the Hungarian Parliament was breathtaking.
Budapest was definitely a beautiful city, and I couldn't have felt gladder about visiting it, than from those lookout towers. After finishing the quota of pictures in that spot, we started to walk to the other side of the Castle. There was a changing of the guards ceremony in front of the Hungarian Presidential palace that we were lucky of have encountered.
Being out in the cold for so long, it began getting to us, and just in time for us to have spotted a hot chocolate stall.
We walked around the actual Buda Castle, and got a view of the Citadel as well. The high walls of the castle made us realize the importance of castles.
You could easily spend an entire day at the Buda Castle. The best part was that roaming around the streets and courts and the creepy looking courtyards was free! We only paid for the labyrinth tour. Here's a few other cool shots of the breathtaking castle.
There was also an area in the castle where you could practice archery
.
We left the Castle to find food. It was past lunch time, and we hunted down an Indian place :D! And boy did we gobble!!! Well, it certainly was fun paying 10,000 of a currency's units for lunch :)! The sky caught on the shades of the evening by the time we were done. The satisfied travelers' next destination was the Hungarian Parliament, which has quite some accolades to its name. It is currently the largest building in Hungary, highest building in Budapest, the third largest Parliament in the world, and one of Europe's oldest legislative buildings. That's quite something, don't you think? The grandeur of the building just shows, be it from across the river, or right in front of it.
If you are wondering how the castle looks from the Pest side, I can assure you, it is truly gorgeous. Here's a few shots that we captured in the night.
We walked to the St. Stephen's Basilica from the Parliament. Here's what the church looks like, from inside and out. The heart just melts at the thought of so much beauty.
Guess who got hungry again after all the walking? Yes, you got that one right. And of course, we weren't gonna leave Hungary without getting a taste of all the desserts we had read up on before getting here. So we drove off to what seemed like a happening part of the town, hoping that one of those restaurants/bakeries/pubs would be serving the traditional Hungarian desserts. But we got a big fat Zilch. One of the restaurant's server was kind enough to call up a couple of bakeries for us who would be open that late, and confirmed that they carried the pastries we wanted to try out. Then, off we drove to the part of town close to the Basilica to a high end bakery called Gerbaude. We finally had the pleasure of trying out the Hungarian desserts. And we absolutely loved them over the overrated Sacher Torte from Vienna.
This is the Somlรณi Galuska - sponge cake balls and whipped cream and chocolate.
And this is the winner of all pastries we had in our trip - Dobos Torte or Dobosh, which is a layered Hungarian sponge cake. It was yummyness galore.
The Bakery was on a square opposite the Fashion Street of Budapest. It was almost 11, so we took a quick stroll on the Fashion Street before grabbing a cup of coffee for our two and a half hour drive back into Austria.
As we drove out of Budapest via the Chain Bridge, my last thoughts about the city was that it was rightfully called the "Paris of the East". I thought it was extremely cool to be able to drive up to another country for a day trip. And not just any other city in another country, another enchanting dear old city called Budapest. I would visit this place all over again some day.
It's day 3 of our trip. The plan was to go to Budapest, since it's only about 2.5 hours from Vienna.
Since there were 4 of us, we rented a car instead of the usual way to travel in Europe - the Euro Rail. And of course, having a day at our hands, we didn't want to spend most of our time depending on the rail time. We intended to leave early, but had car issues got a little delayed. Towards the border, there were wind mill farms in Austria.
We took our passports etc, because we are traveling between countries, but it turns out, that between the EU countries, there wasn't really a border control. I thought that was pretty cool! You could see where you were entering into the new country; they had check posts, but no physical people to cross check documents etc. There was a little service station sort of an area right there. Now we had figured out, that even though Hungary was part of the EU nations, Euro was scarcely used. It was Hungarian Forints (HUF) that was the main currency. So we got some dollars exchanged. Word of caution for the wise - do the currency exchange prior to entering Hungary, not at the border, it was a tad bit expensive.
We hadn't even had breakfast yet, so we tried to hunt for some food in the restaurant/convenience store inside the service area. In Vienna, we didn't have trouble communicating with anyone. Most people responded in English. We could also figure out some signs in German and some words we could make out because they were somewhat similar to English. At the service area, not one soul spoke a word of English. And to top it off, Hungarian was not close to any language we knew! We couldn't figure out if the food the poor lady was selling was vegetarian or not! So of course we left, and came across a McDonald's half an hour or so later.The siblings were happy to have an "Americano" coffee :). We got some muffins and croissants there, and then continued our drive towards Hungary.
Now both the highways we took in Austria and Hungary are allowed a legal speed of 130 kmph, and cars were flashing at us and zooming past us, because us North Americans were super cautious at 130 kmph. We could feel that the country in general was poorer compared to Austria, but the countryside was nonetheless very pretty.
We reached Budapest around 1 pm. Divided by the Danube river are the once twin cities of Buda and Pest, occupying the west and the east banks of the river respectively. Our first stop was the majestic Buda Castle Hill. It was pretty much a small town inside of the castle. The first place we visited was none other than the bakery! Oh well, we didn't eat any of the yummy looking desserts here just yet. The plan was the come back and try them once we had burned some calories walking around =). The cobble-stone roads had an oldish charm, so did the buildings, and stores around.
We took a tour of the labyrinth inside the castle. The cave was lit up, and had mannequins that displayed Hungarian theater clothes. It also displayed an exhibition of pictures of few other well known caves in the world. There was a small section of the cave that was pitch dark, where you could walk and let your senses guide you. They had some spooky areas where there was somebody's coffins. They also did executions in the cave at some point in history. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the labyrinth, but this one is at the very entrance of the cave.
Afterwards, we walked past a pet store, an apothecary, on our way towards Mathias Church. The structure of the church was pretty spectacular from the outside. You can take a look for yourself.
Right across from there was the Fisherman's Bastion. It was home to some magnificent towers, which also exercised as lookout points for tourists. Probably in the past these were critical for maintaining the security of the castle.
The view of the Danube, and then right across from there, the Hungarian Parliament was breathtaking.
This picture below shows the Chain bridge - one of the two popular bridges in Budapest. Further in the picture, the dome shaped structure that is visible is the Hungarian Parliament.
Budapest was definitely a beautiful city, and I couldn't have felt gladder about visiting it, than from those lookout towers. After finishing the quota of pictures in that spot, we started to walk to the other side of the Castle. There was a changing of the guards ceremony in front of the Hungarian Presidential palace that we were lucky of have encountered.
Being out in the cold for so long, it began getting to us, and just in time for us to have spotted a hot chocolate stall.
We walked around the actual Buda Castle, and got a view of the Citadel as well. The high walls of the castle made us realize the importance of castles.
You could easily spend an entire day at the Buda Castle. The best part was that roaming around the streets and courts and the creepy looking courtyards was free! We only paid for the labyrinth tour. Here's a few other cool shots of the breathtaking castle.
There was also an area in the castle where you could practice archery
We left the Castle to find food. It was past lunch time, and we hunted down an Indian place :D! And boy did we gobble!!! Well, it certainly was fun paying 10,000 of a currency's units for lunch :)! The sky caught on the shades of the evening by the time we were done. The satisfied travelers' next destination was the Hungarian Parliament, which has quite some accolades to its name. It is currently the largest building in Hungary, highest building in Budapest, the third largest Parliament in the world, and one of Europe's oldest legislative buildings. That's quite something, don't you think? The grandeur of the building just shows, be it from across the river, or right in front of it.
If you are wondering how the castle looks from the Pest side, I can assure you, it is truly gorgeous. Here's a few shots that we captured in the night.
Such a beauty - the whole castle skyline, isn't it? Here's a Mathias Church in all its glory from across the Danube.
We walked to the St. Stephen's Basilica from the Parliament. Here's what the church looks like, from inside and out. The heart just melts at the thought of so much beauty.
Guess who got hungry again after all the walking? Yes, you got that one right. And of course, we weren't gonna leave Hungary without getting a taste of all the desserts we had read up on before getting here. So we drove off to what seemed like a happening part of the town, hoping that one of those restaurants/bakeries/pubs would be serving the traditional Hungarian desserts. But we got a big fat Zilch. One of the restaurant's server was kind enough to call up a couple of bakeries for us who would be open that late, and confirmed that they carried the pastries we wanted to try out. Then, off we drove to the part of town close to the Basilica to a high end bakery called Gerbaude. We finally had the pleasure of trying out the Hungarian desserts. And we absolutely loved them over the overrated Sacher Torte from Vienna.
This is the Somlรณi Galuska - sponge cake balls and whipped cream and chocolate.
And this is the winner of all pastries we had in our trip - Dobos Torte or Dobosh, which is a layered Hungarian sponge cake. It was yummyness galore.
The Bakery was on a square opposite the Fashion Street of Budapest. It was almost 11, so we took a quick stroll on the Fashion Street before grabbing a cup of coffee for our two and a half hour drive back into Austria.
As we drove out of Budapest via the Chain Bridge, my last thoughts about the city was that it was rightfully called the "Paris of the East". I thought it was extremely cool to be able to drive up to another country for a day trip. And not just any other city in another country, another enchanting dear old city called Budapest. I would visit this place all over again some day.
