A "meat market" with high culture. :)

The City Hall Food Circus with the City Hall in the back.

Today we got a late start, so we ended up heading right over to the "food circus" in Rathausplatz right outside the Vienna City Hall. From 11am until late at night, the plaza is full of food stands and people. There was also a gigantic movie screen hanging from City Hall with a few thousand folding chairs in front of it. According to Rick Steves, the city of Vienna sets this up every summer and plays broadcasts of opera performances, orchestra concerts and more every night - all for free to "promote culture" in the young people of Vienna. According to Rick Steves, "Officials know that the City Hall Music Festival is mostly a "meat market" where young people come to hook up, but many believe these people will develop an appreciation for classical music and high culture on the side." :) The food stalls themselves are different than any I have been to; the food is all served on real glass plates and glasses with metal silverwear - the only disposable things are the napkins. This gives the place a "classier" feel than most food courts. The food itself is mostly "ethnic" food, like Indian, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, etc. Gavin and I were craving Indian food, so we had some tasty chana masala and samosas. Gavin and I decided we wanted to go back this evening to watch the concert and experience the night life of thousands of people coming to mingle and watch the concerts.

After lunch, we headed over to Mariahhilfer Strasse, one of the main shopping drags in Vienna, only to find that every store was closed! The whole city, besides restaurants, completely shuts down on Sundays. Even most of the grocery stores were closed! We thought perhaps stores in the touristy area near Stephansplatz would be open, and we were right, but ONLY souvenir shops selling their array of magnets, keychains, t-shirts and touristy junk were open, none of the nice clothing shops we had admired yesterday were open. Instead, we went to a little cafe called Cafe Europa for some ice cream.

After ice cream, we went back to the apartment to try to figure out how Gavin's family would get to the airport - they had to be at the airport at 5am before the metro was running. We tried to call a couple taxi companies and got recorded messages in German and couldn't get a person on the phone. Gavin, Olive and I walked around for a while trying to find a taxi company, but he accidentally deleted his map, so we never found it. We finally stopped and asked a taxi driver waiting if there was a phone number we could call to get a taxi, and he pointed to one on his windshield. I called it from a pay phone, and thankfully got someone who spoke English. But by the time we got all this figured out, it was too late to go to the City Hall Music Festival. Sad!

Dark Chocolate gelato at Zanoni & Zanoni.

I tempered my sadness at missing the City Hall Music Festival with dessert. :) We went to a gelateria near our apartment named Zanoni and Zanoni - what INCREDIBLE gelato! The best we had on the entire trip! I had a Ferrero Rocher and a dark chocolate flavor. Dark chocolate gelato, which I have had before, is incredible - it is coffee-brown, the darkest ice cream I have ever seen Chocolate ice cream never looks like that in the states! Gavin, not a fan of dark chocolate, thinks I have questionable taste in ice cream. :) Thus, sugar-happy, we ended our last night in Europe.

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A torte-tastic day of cafe hopping. :)

This morning I decided we should do the Vienna city walk in our Rick Steves book to hit all the major sites. We started at the opera house, then checked out the WWII memorial and at once were hungry for lunch; we didn't get very far on the walk. :) (another late start this morning) We went into the gardens of the Hofburg Palace to have lunch at the Café Restaurant Palmenhaus, which was in a huge greenhouse at least three stories tall, with plants, trees and vines growing all the way up to the ceiling - a beautiful, sunny space! Gavin and I decided we had to come back at night, knowing it would be a completely different atmosphere in the dark.

The lovely Café Restaurant Palmenhaus, complete with indoor palm trees.

A note on Vienna in July and August - this is NOT a good time to visit Vienna; at the world's center for opera and classical music, one can't see an opera at the Staatsoper or the Volksoper. The opera houses all close for a summer break! I was really disappointed that I didn't get to see a performance, but Gavin and his non-opera-loving family were probably relieved... :)

Vienna's famous opera house: the Staatsoper.

After lunch we continued the city walk tour, heading down Kärtner Strasse passing St. Peter's Cathedral and Stephansdom. At this point, most of Gavin's family headed back to the apartment, but Gavin, Tyler and I stayed out. Between Stephansdom and the Hofburg palaces, we found ourselves near one of the most highly recommended dessert places in Vienna, Café Demel. I decided we must stop for dessert, so we walked inside, drooled over the many fresh tortes in the display, and picked a slice apiece. We then headed upstairs to get a table, and we had to wait almost 15 minutes! When we were finally seated, we had the waitress bring our cake and some wine. All the flavors were DELICIOUS! I had Ana's torte, which was chocolate piled upon chocolate with shaped milk chocolate instead of frosting, Gavin had an apple pie-ish torte, and Tyler had a strawberry torte. YUM! The cafe itself had a very "old elegance" feel - high ceilings, lots of chandeliers, wood tables both silky smooth and dented/scratch from years of use.

St. Peter's Cathedral at the end of the street.

Tyler and I eyeballing the delicious torte at Demel...

The beautiful upstairs of Demel, where we enjoyed our torte and wine. :)

After dessert, we ended the walk at Heldenplatz (Heroes' Square) in the Hofburg palace. Then I dragged us all to the Haus der Musik, a museum dedicated to the Vienna Philharmonic, the Viennese classical composers and also a scientific part about the nature of sound and hearing. The science part was really interesting - I got to test the highest pitch I could hear, listen to the "fastest" beat I could hear before my brain turned the beats into just one long tone, etc. Unfortunately, there were a ton of little kids running around and screaming into the mics at each station, so I finally lost patience and left the nature of sound section. :) At the end of the museum, there was a little Wii-like video game where one could "direct" the Vienna Philharmonic to classical Viennese music favorites like "The Beautiful Blue Danube," etc. The orchestra would supposedly follow the beat of your baton, and if you got all the way through they would applaud you. If you messed up, they all put down their instruments and make fun of you. :) Despite my year of conducting training in college, I failed miserably at this game. Not only could I not get the virtual orchestra to follow me, but the baton suddenly broke and I was left holding only the handle! I got booed by the Vienna Philharmonic! How embarrassing! :)

After working up an appetite conducting the Philharmonic, we decided to go cafe-hopping for dinner - having a drink and an appetizer at each place. We started at Sky Cafe, a cafe on the top floor of a building on Kärtner Strasse, where we thought we might get a nice view of Stephansdom. The smartly-dressed hostess gave us an obvious "you're-not-dressed-up-enough" look up and down, but still seated us anyway. I ordered wiener schnitzel for us all to share - I had had it on my last trip to Vienna, but everyone must try wiener schnitzel in Vienna. :) Wiener schnitzel is basically a pork tenderloin - breaded and deep fried, but really soft and tender. I think our waitress was also irritated that we didn't order more than that, but we had told the hostess that we only intended to order drinks and an appetizer... Snooty place overall, but the wiener schnitzel was good. :)

Sky Cafe on Kärtner Strasse at night.

The next cafe we "hopped" to was Cafe Sacher, home of the famous Sachertorte - a famous Viennese dessert of chocolate cake with apricot, but we didn't order it because I am not a fan of pairing apricot with chocolate, plus Rick Steves warned us that the torte is really dry... :) I instead had a delicious hot chocolate with homemade chocolate liquor and a homemade piece of chocolate on the side. (chocolate fix number 2 for the day... :) ) This cafe had a lovely, antique feel and a ton of tourists. :)

Tyler and I examining the menu at Cafe Sacher.

Last but not least, we headed back to the beautiful Café Restaurant Palmenhaus to end the evening. We were right that the atmosphere changed completely at night into a lovely, romantic restaurant with candles, low lights and lounge music. Thus we ended our evening, sipping wine and holding hands, enjoying a lovely Vienna night.

Cafe Restaurant Palmenhaus at night.

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Guten tag, Vienna.

This morning we left Prague and took a train to Vienna. The trip was about four hours, and we once again were packed like sardines into a small, cubicle sized compartment, this time with six seats facing each other across the compartment. We arrived in Vienna in midafternoon and quickly figured out the U-Bahn (Vienna's subway system) to get us to our apartment. We arrived in exactly the right corner, but we were unable to find the office where we were supposed to meet the apartment manager. We had to call her on a nearby pay phone, and we discovered that the office was actually in her home, while we had been searching for an actual office building. She showed us the apartment, then we settled in and got ready to go out for dinner.

For dinner I picked Plachutta Restaurant out of the Rick Steves book becuase he said it had really nice traditional Viennese cuisine. Gavin and I tried out Tafelspitz, which is basically a soup/broth with a big slice of beef some veggies and a large bone complete with marrow, all cooked together until the beef is completely soft and tender. I wasn't brave enough to try the marrow, which Tyler likened to "meat jello," but the rest of the dish was tasty. Our Tafelspitz was served with a bowl that appeared to contain applesauce. Olive was excited to have some applesauce, and put a big spoonful into her mouth. Imagine her surprised when it was not applesauce, but horseradish sauce... I also had some delicious Carpe Diem brand kombucha - I have never seen kombucha served at a restaurant before, but this brand is popular here, probably because it doesn't actually taste like kombucha; it was very sweet, not acidic. The extremely quick and efficient service at Plachutta was a welcome change from the generally über slow service at virtually every restaurant or bar we visited in Budapest and Prague.

After dinner we walked down Kärtner Strasse, a wide, pedestrian-only shopping street to Stephansplatz, where the beautiful St. Stephen's Cathedral towers above the plaza and horse carriages (complete with poop sacks hanging from the horses' behinds to collect any "droppings") wait to carry tourists through the streets of Old Town. Close to Stephansplatz we got to hear the caliber of street musicians in the classical music capital of the world. :) There was an amazing little quartet playing, a bass, cello, violin and hammered dulcimer. I had never heard of nor seen the hammered dulcimer before (I had to look it up online to see what it is. :) ), but it seems to be popular in street/restaurant bands here. Suddenly, it started raining and the prepared-for-anything quartet quickly covered the hammered dulcimer with a tarp and stood under umbrellas with their precious stringed instruments. We all quickly stepped under a tree, since none of us had umbrellas. Gavin's family decided they wanted to go back to the apartment, so they caught the nearby U-Bahn. Gavin and I went to a nearly souvenier shop and bought a cheap umbrella to share and continued our walk. The umbrella was so small we had to have our arms around each to both be under it. We walked to a little outdoor cafe called Cafe Europa and had dessert and warming chai lattes under the heaters in their outdoor umbrella-covered area. Then, snuggled under the umbrella to stay warm and dry, we headed back to the apartment to end our first night in Vienna.

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Super supper at U Supa

Me and my windblown hair in the rose garden on top of Petrin Hill. :)

Today we headed across the Charles Bridge again, this time to Petrin Hill, the hill beside Castle Hill. We took a short funicular ride to the top, where we were rewarded with a lovely park and garden area. Part of it had a lovely rose garden with every color of beautiful roses in bloom. Also on top of Petrin Hill is Petrin Tower, a miniature Eiffel Tower 1/5 the size of the original, but due to its placement on the hill, the top of it is actually just as high as the original Eiffel Tower. We climbed the 300 steps (exactly, Gavin counted. :) ) to the top level for a 360 degree view of the city. It was pretty windy, so we could feel the top of the tower swaying slightly in the wind.

The beautiful view of Prague from the mini Eiffel Tower. You can see the Charles Bridge and Old Town Square across the river.

After a bit more wandering around the park, we headed back down towards the Vltava River to have lunch at a fresh fish restaurant on the river bank. Then we went back across the Charles Bridge, heading back toward the apartment so Gavin's family could rest. On the way, we stopped at the Ungely courtyard again, heading back to the art shop to buy the painting we had liked, having not seen any other paintings we liked better in our wandering through Prague. Once we dropped off Gavin's family at the apartment, we wandered through the Jewish Quarter of Prague. Unfortunately, all the sites were closed for the day, but we got to see the outside of the beautiful synagogues and got a tiny glimpse of the Old Jewish Cemetery, a tiny little space that from 1439-1787 was the only place Jews were allowed to bury their dead. Each tombstone marks 7-8 graves piled on top of one another. The graves settled over time, and the tombstones ended up in a crooked jumble. We weren't able to get a good view since it was closed, but we were able to see the tops of a few tombstones peeking out from over the fence around the cemetery.

Olive and I in the park on Petrin Hill.

For dinner we all headed back to U Supa near the Old Town Square. We sat in the garden area for a nice, atmospheric dinner. I was excited that the gypsy jazz band from last night was here again, and this time they came out into the garden to play. I must have looked like I was enjoying myself, because the violinist came right over to me and asked me to request a song. The first thing that came into my head was Por Una Cabeza (the tango from the movie Scent of a Woman :) ), so the band played that for me. While they were playing, I realized I should have requested some Dvorak since I was in his home country, so then I requested Dvorak's Humoresque, one of my favorite orchestral pieces. The violinist knew it pretty well, but the band was a little clueless, but attempted to fake it anyway. (A for effort... :) ) Before our meal, the hostess wandered around the restaurant offering shots of a "traditional Czech aperatif." I had refused it last night, but I was curious and tried it tonight. It was actually pretty tasty - it smelled and tasted like apple pie spices and felt very warm going down, like scotch. Everybody tried a sip, but I was the only one who actually liked it. :) Our meal was delicious, probably one of our best in Prague, and the atmosphere couldn't have been better with the lovely music in the beautiful outdoor garden. I think Prague is one of the most "atmospheric" cities we have visited, a perfect place for walking slowly, wandering aimlessly, enjoying a beautiful night.

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Craning our cheapskate necks. :)

Today we decided to head across the Vltava River to see the Prague Castle. We walked across the lovely (though tourist-packed) Charles Bridge. On the Old Town side of the bridge is a beautiful bridge tower with Gothic gates, and all along the bridge are statues gazing down on the tourists, musicians playing for tips and a dozen artists drawing caricatures and portraits. After crossing the bridge, we headed over to Little Quarter Square to see the Church of St. Nicholas. We were all to cheap to pay to go all the way inside, so we stepped just inside the door and "craned our cheapskate necks" (quote from Rick Steves. :) ) to see the inside of church.

Gothic Gate entrance to the Charles Bridge.

The statue-lined, tourist-packed Charles Bridge. :)

The Little Quarter entrance from the Charles Bridge.

From Little Quarter Square, we headed up to the Prague Castle, climbing a couple hundred stairs to the castle at the top of a hill. Inside the castle walls were beautifully manicured lawns, lovely views over the city and the incredible St. Vitus cathedral. The Prague Castle is not so much just a castle with living quarters, but a few city blocks inside a wall including a cathedral, a monastary, a palace and more.

The view of Prague (Church of St. Nicholas is the green dome) from the Prague Castle ramparts.

Olive on the ramparts of Prague Castle.

The incredible St. Vitus Cathedral.

After Prague Castle, we headed back down to Little Quarter Square for lunch. We had lunch at Malostranska Beseda Restaurant in the shady outdoor tables. Then we headed back across the Charles Bridge to New Town to go shopping at Wenceslas Square - everything had been closed when we stopped there last night. After shopping, we headed back to our apartment, stopping at Havelská market to pick up some more fresh berries.

Prague is really nice in that all the main sights (Old Town, New Town, Little Quarter, Palace Quarter and Jewish Quarter) are within easy walking distance. Once we arrived at the apartment, we never once stepped on the public transportation. Everything seems to be within a couple mile radius, and all the walks are lovely with beautiful facades, lovely cobblestone streets and little traffic. It is a perfect town for strolling. :)

In the evening we headed out for drinks and snacks. We stopped at a restaurant called U Supa that had a beautiful outdoor garden area and live gypsy jazz! I absolutely LOVE gypsy jazz, and these guys were really good! We sipped port, lounged in the garden and tapped our toes to the strains of gypsy jazz. What a lovely way to end our Prague night...

 

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Beautiful, pristine Prague

After a non-restful night's sleep in the cubicle/train car, we arrived in Prague at around 6am. We had rented a nice apartment in Old Town that was really close to all the major sights, lots of cafes and restaurants, etc. We found the apartment on Waytostay.com, and this company served as the "intermediary" between us and the managers of the apartment. Unfortunately, Way to Stay made a poor intermediary. They refused to give us the contact info of the manager until the day we arrived, so we asked them to arrange for a train station pickup. WaytoStay confirmed that someone would be waiting for us. We waited and waited... We waited so long that the stores in the train station started opening (two hours later), and we bought a sim card for our international phone, then we were able to contact the property manager, who had no idea that we needed a pickup... The manager, too, had been trying to get WaytoStay to give them our contact information, but they refused. Long story short, we don't recommend reserving anything with WaytoStay.com

We discovered something great about our iPads that will help us SO much when we travel; our iPads are unlocked and can take a SIM card from another country. (iPhones and most US cell phones are locked to keep you from putting a foreign SIM card in them, that way you have to pay ridiculous international roaming rates) We bought an iPad SIM card with 1.5GB of data for only $15! We can use this for getting maps if we get lost, train schedules, checking emails, looking up addresses for our hotels... All the things we take for granted when we travel in the US become much more difficult when we are abroad without contant internet access...

Since we now had our iPad for maps, we were able to get the email with the address of the apartment (not provided until the morning we arrived) and find our way to the place by downloading maps and using the Metro. We arrived at the apartment, but we were unable to check in because it was too early. We left our suitcases at the apartment and headed over to Old Town Square, only a couple blocks away. As we walked through the cobblestone streets of Old Town, we were amazed at how clean the city is! The beautiful, colorful and artisticly designed facades all appear to be freshly painted and are incredibly pristine. Despite that this area is very busy and touristy, not a single piece of trash littered the sidewalks. We have never been in such an impeccable city. (This part of the city, anyway. A local told us that outside of this touristy area, Prague is like any other large city.)

Old Town Square is the heart of Old Town. The whole square is surrounded by beautiful, colorful facades, and also the Baroque-style Church of St. Nicholas, the Gothic-style Tyn Church and the Old Town Hall. Branching off from Old Town Square like a spider web are tourist-crowded streets of shopping and restaurants. The Old Town Hall is the home of the famous astronimical clock. When the clock chimes the hour, the side of the building fills with tourists watching the clock and pickpockets watching the tourists' wallets... Evidently there are so many pickpockets in this area that the Rick Steves book marked them on the map!

Beautiful Old Town Square.

A huge crowd gather by the Old Town Hall to watch the astronomical clock chime. (not the plain clock face facing the camera, the gold one on the wall. :) )

After watching the clock chime, we headed past the Tyn church down a tiny little alley to the Ungelt courtyward for lunch. Olive and I were craving Indian food, so we and Gavin had lunch at an Indian restaurant in the courtyard, while Ron and the rest had a beer at a pizzeria nearby. I didn't have high expectations for Indian food in Prague, but the saag paneer was actually really good! A pleasant surprise, and a nice break from the meat-plus-starch Eastern European diet. Just as we were leaving the restaurant, it suddenly started pouring rain. We ran across the courtyard and into a little art gallery/shop to keep out of the rain. We saw a watercolor painting of the astronomical clock that we liked, but we decided not to buy it right away - we thought we might find some cheaper or better art on the street, since this was the first place we stopped.

We then went back to the square and took one of the busy shopping streets called Melantrichova toward the Havelská market. The Havelská market basically looks like a farmer's market with several lovely produce stands, but about half the stands are selling keychains, postcards and other assorted tourist junk. I bought a mouth-watering pint of assorted fresh berries.

By the time were done at the market, we were able to go check in to the apartment. What a gorgeous place! It was on the top floor, and the top of the building had a huge brass dome; the network of support pillars for this dome came down into the dining room and surrounded the dining room table. Gavin and my bedroom was small, but had two skylights and a built in backlit wall which I termed the "disco wall;" with the remote control we could make it flash different colors, strobe, slowly fade between colors, etc. A fun little addition. We were all desperately in need of some rest after the overnight train and clean laundry after our week in Budapest, so we started a load and took a little nap.

When we got up later, everyone else was still feeling like relaxing in the apartment, so Gavin and I went out by ourselves. We headed out of Old Town and into New Town to see Wenceslas Square. Wenceslas Square and the streets surrounding it are essentially a huge, outdoor shopping mall. We searched for a coat for Gavin; he didn't bring one on this trip and the weather here was cooler than expected, but as we arrived all the stores were just starting to close. We admired the gardens and the National Museum dominating the end of the square, and then headed back to Old Town for dinner.

Wenceslas Square at night. Lovely gardens and the National Museum at the end of the square.

I wanted to try a "traditional Czech pub," so we went to the Rick Steves-recommended Restaurace u Pinkasu for more meat plus starch. :) Gavin tried out a Pilsner beer; the Czechs invented this particular type of beer, and it is pretty popular here. I ordered beef in creamy gravy with a hint of sweet cranberry, served with soft break dumplings, and Gavin had a pig-in-a-blanket looking dish with a soft and smooth puree of spicy meat inside, both very tasty.

After dinner we wandered around through the delightfully-lit Old Town, a very romantic feeling city after dark when there are fewer tourists... We stopped for dessert at a little cafe that serves only crepes, coffee and ice cream. I had a delicious strawberry crepe and Gavin had an insanely huge tiramisu sundae. Then we went back to the apartment, strolling hand in hand through the romantic Prague night.

Gavin and his ridiculous tirimisu sundae. :)

Old Town Square at night. The astronomical clock is on the left, Tyn church is on the right at the other end of the square.

Last chance for langos...

This morning we drove over to Agi's mother's house again so we could return both our and Agi's rental cars at the airport before we left on a train for Prague. Agi suggested we stop at her mother's cafe for coffee and breakfast, a cute little neighborhood cafe that looked more like a house than a cafe. Agi had animated conversations with some of the customers, who had known her since she was a little girl. Agi's mom served us some eggs an Hungarian style bacon, which is literally a quarter inch thick slice of pure fat, not a hint of actual meat in sight. Agi informed us that is how everybody likes it in Hungary. If this had been served to me in a restaurant, I wouldn't have touched it, but since it was served by Agi's mother I felt it would be rude not to eat it. I disguised the texture by taking tiny little pieces and wrapping it with a large bite of bread. :)

After breakfast, we dropped off Agi's rental car but couldn't return ours; we discovered that someone had taken the car emergency kit up to the hotel room instead of leaving it in the car... (and we were 45 minutes away from the hotel) We decided to keep the car for the day and have Shaun return it for us later.

Next, we had to go to Agi's sister's house to pick up another car, and Agi decided to have a coffee there, too. Perhaps in Hungary one never just stops over to run an errand, one always has to have coffee upon arriving at someone's house. Either that, or Agi just loves coffee. :) Helga gave me a couple beautiful necklaces, one for me and one for Olive, that she had made out of glass. (Mine has royal blue in it! My favorite color!)

Once we had the two cars (enough to carry all eight of us), we went back to the hotel to pick up the rest of the family. We followed Agi up Gellert Hill, so named for a monk who was rolled down it in a barrel wiht nails driven through it. (Rick Steves described it as "tenderized to death." Lovely.) Up at the top were, of course, beautiful views of the city and the Danube, as well as a lot of little souvenier carts. Olive and I both bought cute sun hats. :)

All of us in front of the Liberation Monument, or as the local call it, "The Great Bottle Opener." :)

The view of Budapest from Gellert Hill.

Olive and I in our cute new sun hats. :)

After that, we went back to Great Market Hall for lunch, as I wanted to have lángos one last time before leaving Budapest. I had a regular pizza one and bought a sweet one with nutella for everyone to share, though I think I actually prefer the "savory" lángos to the sweet.

Next, Agi took us to another (much better) part of Vaci Utca. We had thought we had seen the whole street, but we missed the main part of it with lotes of restaurants, shopping and ice cream. We didn't have too much time, so we grabbed some ice cream and then headed for the train station.

To save a bit of money and time, we had decided to take an overnight train to Prague. We planned to buy the sleeping cars, which were small bedrooms, but those were unfortunately full... Instead, we had to do a "couchette," which is a small room the size of a cubicle with SIX bunk beds. We had to fit the six of us and all of our luggage in this tiny space! Thus packed in like little sardines, the clickety clack of the wheels on the tracks lulled us to sleep.

I play an elaborate game of Tetris to fit in all of us and our luggage. The bottom seat is bunk 1, bunk 2 unfolds at about waist height, and top bunk is where those metal shelves are over my head. There was no room for the ladder, so Gavin and I had to perform various gymnastics maneuvers to get into our bunks. :)

Living statues, Liszt Square

Today we drove back to Budapest from Gereby Kuria, exhausted after a long day/night of wedding festivities. On the way back to Art 'Otel, we stopped for lunch along the lovely, cafe-lined Raday Utca street in Pest. This street was highly recommeded by both our Rick Steves book and one of the Hungarian bridesmaids who lives in Budapest. We were attracted by the menu at Soul Cafe and sat at one of the tables that was spilling out into the street. I had delicious salmon and gnocchi, so nice to have some fish after all the red meat we have been consuming the rest of the trip so far!

After lunch we walked down Vaci Utca again so Olive could look for a scarf. We saw a "living statue" outside one of the stores and stopped to take some silly pictures with him (of course we had to pay him :) ). I think we see these living statues every international trip we take, but I don't think I have ever seen one in the US. I wonder why?

Olive and I pose by our living statue friend. Olive had never seen one before!

A "sultry" pose.

A "flirty" pose. :) I get a kick out of these living statue guys. :)

We headed back to the hotel for a "short" nap. I guess we should have set an alarm, because we ended up sleeping until after 9pm! Gavin's family still appeared to be asleep, so we went out for dinner by ourselves. We drove over to Pest side for dinner at Franz Liszt square. This beautiful, car-free square was lined on both sides with lovely restaurants and cafes. We walked past dozens of colorful awnings over the outdoor seating areas, and finally settled on Passion Cafe because of the steak listed on the menu and also because of the heaters and blankets they had under their awnings. :) As an appetizer I had a tasty cold strawberry soup with almond whipped cream. Our steak arrived, and it was HUGE, about the size and width of a softball! It was good, but certainely can't top Argentine steak... We each drank a single glass of wine, though we made sure to hang out in the restaurant a long time and drink slowly since Hungarian law states allows NO alcohol in your blood if you are driving. We had an apple tart for dessert that was a bit dry. We have not been all that impressed with Hungarian desserts. They seem to be either too wet (custardy, soft, gelatinous things) or too dry (crunchy cookies, cakes and tarts with a dry texture instead of soft and moist). The only desserts in Hungary that we have really enjoyed (pretty much every day on this trip... :) ) is ice cream; anywhere in Europe the ice cream is amazing, and Hungary is no exception. So, fat and happy, we drove back to the hotel to turn in for the night.

Cafes in Franz Liszt square.

Hmmm, what unhealthy thing shall I order tonight? :)

An unusual method of navigation

There is a pattern that I see developing whenever we travel with members of Gavin's family; the amount of time we run late is directly proportional to the number of Budram family members who are traveling with us. We have dubbed this pattern "Budhram Time." :) Today was Shaun and Agi's wedding day, and we had to drive out of the city about and hour and a half to get to Gereby Kurua, the mansion where all the guests would stay. Agi told us we needed to leave Budapest by 10am to get to the mansion on time. Gavin and I got up at 7am to get packed and ready to go. I called his parents' room at 8am to see if they were awake, and they asked Gavin why they need to start getting ready so early. I told Gavin it was because I know them very well...

At 10am on the dot, Gavin and I grabbed our fully packed and ready to go suitcases and headed over to his parents' room to leave. We opened the door, and saw all their suitcases open with 3/4 of their items strewn about all over their room. Instead of hurrying to get everything packed since we were supposed to leave at 10am, Olive offered to make us coffee. :) This is what I mean by Budhram Time. :)

We finally got on the road an hour and fifteen minutes late. Gavin said, "What are they going to do, start the wedding without the groom's whole family and the best man?" :) To drive on highways in Hungary, one has to buy a highway toll pass at a gas station, so the hotel manager gave us directions to one on our way out of town. We got a bit lost on our way out of town, but actually ended up getting to the Gereby Kuria only 15 minutes late! Evidendly Agi also is aware of Budhram Time and gave us a conservative estimate... :)

We arrived at Gereby Kuria a bit after noon, and immediately most of the family had to go to the wedding rehearsal. Ron and I, who were not in the wedding, sat in the restaurant and ordered food for ourselves and sandwiches for everyone else to eat quickly when they got back. Then we went to our rooms to get ready for the wedding.

Shaun had told Gavin that he needed to be ready by 3:30pm to ride the horse-drawn carriages to the church, so we hung out in the rooms, getting ready slowly, etc. At around 3pm I happened to be outside taking a picture of Olive and Ron, and one of the bridesmaids rushed by and asked, "Aren't you riding in the carriages?" I replied that we had planned on it, and she said, "You need to come NOW!" Olive and Ron went to the carriages right away, and I went into our room where Gavin was still in his underwear and told him he needs to hurry. :) He got dressed quickly, but insisted we still had a half hour before he needed to be ready. When he was dressed, we walked out to the parking lot and saw no carriages, only a telltale pile of horse poop...

The guy at reception told us that the church was "200 meters out to the left," so we decided to walk to the church. After walking to the edge of the hotel property and not seeing any churches in sight, we decided to get the car. We had NO idea where the church could be, but Gavin happened to see the steeple of a church a few miles away in the distance (note MILES, not METERS... I guess the reception guy had no clue what he was talking about :) ), so we decided to head towards that. On the way, I noticed quite a few piles of fresh horse droppings along the road, so we used those to see if we were going the right way... I have never navigated by horse poop before, but in the absence of maps or directions, we had to think outside the box. :)

Luckily, we ended up arriving at the church at exactly the same time as the horse-drawn carriages with all the guests. As we drove past Olive and Ron's carriage, we yelled out the window, "Ha ha, we got air conditioning!" :)

Shaun and Agi's wedding was in a large, high-ceilinged and lovely Catholic church. The ceremony was performed in both Hungarian and English. Agi was the picture of a radient bride, and all the Budhram brothers "cleaned up real nice." :) Agi's sister's choir performed for the ceremony, and they were REALLY good; evidently they are a really famous choir in Hungary and travel all over the country to perform.

The wedding party after the ceremony.

The happy couple. :)

Olive and Ron and their "progeny." :)

After the ceremony, everybody boarded the carriages again to go back to Gereby Kuria. Gavin and I again drove the car instead, and when we arrived back we were informed that we were going to miss the horse show. So we walked to the horse pen area, where all the other guests were drinking champagne. Soon, we were treated to a private show of Hungarian horsemanship and whipping techniques. (not whipping the horses, cracking the whip near to them) The showmen whipped pins off of posts while galloping by and rode bareback the entire time. They also made the horses lie down, roll over and sit like dogs and set up a table to look like the horse was dining out of a bowl like a person - cute. After the horse show, we got to pet the horses and even sit on them while the horsemen led them around - a bit difficult in my short dress... :) We convinced Shaun and Agi to sit on the horses in their wedding clothes for fun pictures.

Sit, horsey, sit!

Horsey wants a piggyback ride...

Giddyup Lipizzaner horse! :)

Agi takes a turn on a horse.

After playing with the horses, Agi and Shaun had to form boys versus girls teams for some little games. First was throwing horse shoes into a bowl, which of course I missed every one. However, at first I seemed a natural a cracking a whip (watch out, Gavin... :D ) and hit two out of three pins off the posts on the first try, despite never having even held a real whip in my hands before. :) The third try I accidentally cracked myself instead and ended up with minor bruises and abrasions on my legs, ribs and arms. Indiana Jones I ain't... :)

After these festivities, we rode the carriages back to the reception area of Gereby Kuria, where a band was playing gypsy jazz and several servers were waiting with trays full of shots and insisted everyone have a shot in their hand to drink in celebration of the marriage. They also introduced us to the special cocktails prepared for the wedding party: Free Shamu (Shamu is Shaun's Hungarian nickname) and Honey Pie (a pet name for Agi). They were both very sweet and fruity and good. (the drinks, not the people :) ) We stayed outside for a bit, eating traditional Hungarian cookies, drinking and listening to gypsy jazz, then we moved inside for the main meal. The servers with beer, wine and shots followed us inside and never let anybody be without some kind of drink: this open bar reception didn't even require us to go to the bar! :) The food was delicious: beef stew, lots of meat, something like schnitzel and more. A little salad was placed in front of us just before the main course was served, and Gavin and I started eating it. The Hungarian women seated at our table started laughing at us and said we aren't supposed to eat the salad by itself, we were supposed to wait until the main course was served and then eat it with the main course. So a salad's role in the Hungarian food scheme appears to be "condiment." :) A really good band played both American and Hungarian popular music. During one of their breaks, we all went outside and Gereby Kuria set off a really nice fireworks display, and a couple of the wedding guests from France lit a Chinese lantern that was supposed to float off into the sky for good luck to Shaun and Agi. The hotel management tried to stop this fire hazard from going up in the air, but the French couple sent it up anyway, only to have it land in the trees and almost light the place on fire...

Shaun and Agi cut the wedding cake.

This had to have been the most crazy and elaborate wedding reception I have ever been to. Other fun included games for the bride and groom, coordinated dances by the wedding party, a "kidnapping" of Agi with Shaun having to do challenges to get her back and Shaun drinking wine out of Agi's boot in Hungarian tradition. And in between, more drinking, eating and dancing! At a little after midnight, Gavin and I went back to our rooms - we couldn't keep up with the Hungarian celebration. :) We were told that shortly after we left everyone at the party changed into "party clothes" and kept dancing until well past 3am! Just to recap, the wedding festivities started at 2:30pm with the carriage rides and lasted over 12 hours! We felt so wimpy in the face of all the Hungarians partying; even Agi's 70+ mother outlasted us! :) But all in all, it was a wonderful celebration, and Gavin and I were so happy to take part in it. We wish Shaun and Agi every happiness!

Shaun successfully cracks a whip so it wraps around a terrified Agi. :)

The Hungarian food pyramid

Today we tried getting around on Hungarian public transportation by ourselves (Helga had guided us yesterday). We took the nice outdoor tram across the Liberty bridge to the Great Market Hall, a gorgeous building filled with, what else, a market. :) The ground floor was all food, mostly a lovely produce market. We had a delicious pasty that was similar to an apple turnover and some fresh blueberries. We also sought out a spice stall where we could try out both sweet and spicy paprika. (in Hungary, there are almost a hundred varieties of paprika, not just the generic paprika we get in the US.) I enjoyed the spicy paprkia and thought it might be good on eggs, so I bought some. They also had some DIRT CHEAP saffron there, so I definitely couldn't resist buying a bag. (only $3 for a whole bag vs. $12 for a pinch of threads in the US! )

Great Market Hall.

The inside of Great Market Hall.

An "interesting" eggplant at one of the produce stands... :)

Olive and Ron admire a lovely spice stall.

Upstairs in Great Market Hall was a huge souvenier shop with different stalls, all seeming to sell the same few things: pashminas/shawls, traditional Hungarian garb, embroidered table runners and assorted kitsch. Olive bought me a cute little scarf that I was admiring. :) Then we finally arrived at the food stalls, and I got my first taste of lángos.

Hungarians seem to have a different food pyramid than we do. At the bottom of the pyramid, where our bread and cereals would be, is deep fried ANYTHING. They deep fry every kind of meat, every kind of vegetable, and lángos is no exception; it is fried dough, similar to our east coast fried dough that we can get at the Big E, or elephant ears. At the lángos stand I visited in Great Market Hall, they used their deep fried dough as a pizza crust, slathered it with sour cream, added an inch thick layer of mozzarella cheese and then put the toppings on top of that. Pizza on crack. :) As if we hadn't already consumed enough calories to power a team of Clysdales, Gavin and I then split a "squirrel" crepe filled nutella and nuts.

Lángos, one of the Hungarian food groups. :)

We also noticed that one could order a lángos with "Hungarian Special Sauce." We saw a bottle sitting behind the counter that had a yellow label taped over it that denoted it "Hungarian Special Sauce." However, the red bottle with the green top gave it away; their so-called "Hungarian Special Sauce" was obviously Sriracha. :)

After stuffing ourselves on the second floor, we nearly lost our lunches when heading down to the basement. The basement is the fish market, and it is a POTENT aroma down there. I can see why most fish markets are open air... They not only had dead fish, but there were also tanks with huge live fish crammed in with barely enough room to swim around. We didn't linger in this area, but farther along in the basement were stalls of pickled things: pickled peppers, pickled onions, pickled cabbage and more. Some of the glass jars of pickles had their contents cut and arranged artistically into flowers, smiley faces and butterflies that were visible on the outside of the glass. Cute!

A view of Great Market Hall from the second floor.

We left Great Market Hall and headed across the street to Váci Utca, a pedestrian-only street that is the main tourist shopping area in Budapest. We weren't all that impressed - just a bunch of kitschy shops and some restaurants. We walked to the end (well, what we thought was the end... we found out otherwise a few days later) and then went back to catch the tram to our hotel.

Me on Váci Utca.

As today was the day before Shaun and Agi's wedding, we all dressed up to take some wedding photos around the Buda Castle area. Poor Agi wasn't wearing her wedding dress: something earlier during the day she sneezed while wearing the dress and her zipper broke! (hello, bridal nightmare come true...) She wore a beautiful party dress instead.

Shaun, his brothers and Mike (their friend from Denmark), lookin' sharp!

After photos, we went back to the hotel for a couple drinks, and I watched while Agi's niece (also the wedding coordinator) attempted to teach the unenthusiastic groomsmen a dance for the wedding reception. :) After that we had another meal at Matróz Koscma, drove Shaun back to Agi's mom's house, then went to sleep.

Agi, a couple of her bridesmaids, Shaun and his brothers striking a pose at Buda Castle. (and the REAL photographer's head in front. :) )