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. :) )

Buffet, Baths and Buda Castle

This morning Shaun and his fiance's sister Helga were our tourguides for a few of the major sites in Budapest. We hopped on the Metro and headed over to the Buda Castle first. It is less what I think of as a castle, and more of a complex encompassing a few city blocks on top of one of the highest points in the city: Castle Hill. First we went to the Matthias church inside, so named for one of the favorite kings of Hungary, who got married there. (twice) The inside was unfortunately mostly covered in massive sheets of plastic for renovations and restoration, so we didn't get to see much of it. Right outside the church is Fisherman's Bastion, which has a lovely view of Pest and the Danube from high up on Castle Hill. After all that "strenuous" sight seeing, we took a break for a little ice cream, then headed back to the metro to continue our sight seeing across the Danube.

Gavin and I on Fisherman's Bastion with the Hungarian Parliament building in the background.

All of us in front of the statue of St. Istavan, the first Christian Hungarian king, in front of Fisherman's Bastion.

The view of Pest across the Danube as viewed from Fisherman's Bastion.

The Chain Bridge: the first bridge to join Buda and Pest.

Helga is lovely and a very nice tour guide, but she speaks very little English. Shaun told us he would translate for us, as he has learned a bit of Hungarian in his time with Agi. Here is how most of his translations went:

Olive: "Shaun, ask Helga if we need to bring our own towels to the Baths today."

Shaun to Helga, very slowly and gesturing in the shape of a rectangle: "TOWEL?"

Sometimes he would helpfully tell us what Helga said right after she had told us something IN ENGLISH. :)

I don't think he is cut out for the whole translation thing. :)

Tyler, Olive, Ian (and a little farther right) our lovely tour guide Helga and Shaun, looking tourity at Fisherman's Bastion. :)

After Buda Castle, we headed over to Pest for lunch at one of Helga's favorite resturants, which turned out to be an all-you-can-eat buffet! I though those were a purely American phenomenon! We got to sample a lot of Hungarian food, including thier pickled peppers and sauerkraut, paprika-smothered meatballs and chili pepper chicken. The food was decent, but the desserts were all rubbery custard-like things and rather disappointing.

After lunch we started working our way over to the highlight of our afternoon - a trip to the Szechenyi Baths. On the way, we stopped at Hero's Square to look at the monuments there, and then to City Park (Pest's version of Central Park) to check out Vajadhunyad Castle, which was a replica of a real castle built in Romania.

The Baths were beautiful! Outside were three large pools of different temperatures: the cold pool was only for doing laps, the warm pool had a central section with a current that pushed you around in a circle, and the hot pool had a nice fountain jetting out water at the perfect height for a neck and shoulder massage. :) Inside were about 8-10 more pools of different temperatures, from FREEZING cold to nice and warm. The water in every pool at the Szechenyi is from a hot spring below the city, and cold water is mixed in to get the different temperatures of pools. There were also a couple saunas, and I wanted to try out both. I walked into one, and there was nobody inside and it was cold. I saw a button on the wall with a word in Hungarian, and I assumed this was the button to turn on the sauna since I saw no other means (and no signs in English, despite that this is a touristy spot). I pushed it, and a few seconds later a guy walked in and spouted off something in Hungarian to me while pointing at the button. I assumed he wanted me to push it again for some reason, so I went to do that and he GRABBED MY HAND really hard and yelled "MEANS HELP DOCTOR" (probably the only English he knows) and more stuff in Hungarian that I couldn't understand and gave me the vilest look of "Die, tourist b!$ch!" he could possibly muster. I have rarely been on the receiving end of a look of such pure despising, and though the story is funny and I will look back laughing someday, it really hurt me to be despised for such a small mistake. But I think his reaction to me (and my surprising emotional reaction to it - I do have a sensitive nature. :) ) went way deeper than just a dumb tourist pressing a button; I think this guy really hated something I represent, whether it is Americans, tourists, women.... I will never know.

I heard at least three other languages besides Hungarian being spoken in these touristy baths, so they should post signs in other languages, or at least a pictogram, if they don't want idiots like me to push the emergency call button! :)

The Szechenyi Baths at twilight.

After the Baths, we went back to the hotel and had a drink in the lovely outdoor terrace. Feeling fruity I ordered a piña colada. I think this hotel needs to do a little more research on their drink menu, as when it arrived it seemed to have the correct ingredients, but it was missing a key part of a piña colada: it wasn't blended. It was delivered with full size ice cubes - a piña colada "on the rocks," as it were. :)

Before I continue with the travel story, I need to sidetrack a bit and tell another story from Shaun and Agi's past. Evidently Hungarians despise gypsies, and the gypsies living in Hungary are evidently a large part of the crime problem. Hungary is a country of very few colors: the "natives" are all white except the dark skinned gypsies. This leads them to believe all dark skinned people must be gypsies including Gavin's Indian family. When Agi's mother showed her a picture of Shaun when they first started dating, she was very upset and said something like "Don't expect me to go picking up your gypsy children from school!" Evidently Hungarians can be "a bit" racist toward dark skinned people. This became a huge joke with our family, and we was tease Agi about it frequently ("Tell your mom to hide the silver, all the gypsies are incoming to visit Hungary!"), and Agi's mom now loves Shaun and was very welcoming to us all when we had dinner at her house the first night in Hungary.

I believe tonight we got to be on he receiving end of more Hungarian racism towards darker skinned people - it was a vibe that both I and Olive got, so I tend to think my instinct was right.

We went in search of a resturant for dinner (there aren't that many restaurants on the Buda side of the river), and the one Gavin had picked from Rick Steve's was closed, so we walked across the street to another. As soon as our group of 6 walked in, one of the waiters glared straight into our eyes and shook his head. We continued standing there and another waiter approached us and said the restaurant is full, though there was one empty table outside and the inside looked nearly empty. I asked him about the empty table and he said it was reserved, (at almost 10pm on a Thursday, really?) then I asked him about sitting indoors and he said "Indoors is not air conditioned, and you don't want to sit there." He obviously didn't want our patronage, so we left.

The next place we stopped was almost empty except a few people sitting outside, but one waitress came rushing out from the back of the restaurant making rude shooing motions with her hands. I tried to question her, so she went to the back and got someone who spoke English and he said they were closing and couldn't seat us.

The next place we stopped I (the only fair skinned person in our group) made sure to walk in first and ask if they had seating, and when they said yes I brought all the "gypsies" in and it was too late for the restaurant to change their minds. :) This restaurant treated us well, though it was higher priced with rather small, fancily presented plates. (but very tasty! I had a really nice homemade tagliatelle pasta.)

After our late dinner, we headed back to the hotel to sleep.

The Beautiful Blue Danube...

...in daylight is actually more of a brownish green. :)

Today was a day for a lot of sleeping in and running errands, and not so much sight seeing. I was up at 8am, so did some working out (I bring resistance bands on vacations "just in case" I have time to work out), but I had to get Gavin out of bed at 10:30am since he was still sleeping and everybody else was ready to go. :) We had lunch at a little outdoor cafe a block away from our hotel, then headed across to Pest (pronounced "Pesht") to run our errands.

I didn't know that Budapest is actually sort of two cities: Buda on the east side and Pest on the west side of the Danube river. They are connected by several bridges, one of which is the Chain Bridge, the first bridge to connect Buda and Pest. Our hotel is pretty close to it, making crossing over into Pest an easy, but long walk. We walked over to buy our overnight train tickets to Prague and get groceries, then walked back over. Later, we crossed by car to take Gavin and his brothers for tux fittings. Olive and I dropped off the guys and then tried to find parking... but Gavin took our map with him, leaving us to navigate on instinct and sense of direction alone, which are VERY poor in my case... :D After driving around a bit trying to find free parking, failing, then struggling with how to work the Hungarian-directions-only parking machines, we finally got the car parked. We walked to the tuxedo rental place, which actually seemed to be a costume shop, complete with fake muscular chest plates, "sexy pirate" costumes and glitter-covered penis headbands... But the suit coats looked nice. :)

After errands we went back to the hotel, where everybody but me promptly fell asleep, so I used the time to read about things to do in Budapest and pick a place for dinner. We went to eat at a restaurant only a block away from our hotel. It was a Hungarian resturant recommended by Rick Steve's, one of the few on the Buda side that he recommended. The menu was meat, meat and more meat. I ordered a lighter-looking shrimp dish, and wasn't disappointed. But I also mooched something off of almost everybody else's plate just to taste, including a complete stranger sitting at the table beside us! :) (he was by himself, and offered us some Hungarian "Fried Dough," since he couldn't finish all of it) Olive ordered veal, so I tasted veal for the first time. Pretty good, though it was hard to taste the meat itself through all the sauce and spices. Tyler had a side dish called "steak potatoes" that tasted like someone had taken a steak and wrung it like a sponge over the potatoes - YUM!

After dinner we took a night cruise up and down the Danube. The boat had two levels: the lower level was glassed in and the upper level was open air. Everybody on the boat went right up to the top level, where we put on our headphones and got to listen to a cheesy pre-recorded tour about the buildings we were passing and their background; the recording included a lot of fake "first person" characters, like The Danube, King Mattias, etc. (i.e. "I am the Danube. I was jealous of the views from Castle Hill, so I tried to overflow my banks..." or "King Mattias" who spoke perfect English with an American accent...) But cheesy soundtrack aside, the city on both sides of the Danube is beautiful at night...

Putting on my headphones, getting ready for the night cruise.

The Buda castle at night.

The Elisabeth bridge.

The Hungarian parliament building on Pest side.

About halfway through the tour, it suddenly started to rain, sending all of us fleeing for the safety of the glass-domed lower level. By the time we got off the boat, it was pouring, cold and windy... and we had a half hour walk to get back to our hotel... There were taxis lined up at the boat dock that knew the end time of the tour, but given our various experiences with ripoff taxi drivers waiting for unsuspecting tourists and Rick Steve's recommendation to never take a taxi off the street, we decided to walk anyway, braving blustery winds and getting pelted by rain all the way across the chain bridge, climbing under barriers to cross the street instead of walking out of our way to the real crosswalks, and finally traipsing our drenched bodies across the lobby of our hotel, much to the displeasure of the front desk staff. :) From then, it was a hot shower and a good night's sleep.

Gavin and I, soaking wet, outside our hotel. :)

Cholesterol Overload. :)

After a long day/night of flights, we finally arrived in Budapest, only to have to wait in the airport for almost seven hours for the rest of Gavin's family to arrive; we were supposed to be on the same flight from Frankfurt to Budapest, but their flight from the US had departed late, taking up all of their short, 50 minute layover. We grabbed our rental van, the "biggest available," which was about the size of a station wagon with seats for exactly all 6 of us, but the last two seats unfortunately unfolded to fill the entire cargo space, leaving no room for our luggage... Luckily Gavin's brother and fiancé had met us at the airport and were able to take some of our suitcases!

This particular trip is to go to the wedding of the aforementioned brother Shaun and his fiancé Agi. Gavin's whole immediate family is here with us, including his parents and two other brothers. I am not sure if this part of the trip will be a lot of sightseeing, as they may need help with the wedding planning, but Budapest already seems like a lovely place to visit.

But first a little tangent about the marked difference between American airlines (not the company American Airlines, the broad category of all American airlines) and non-American airlines, which we have experienced again and again, but it was especially apparent on this trip. On our overnight flight across the Atlantic, we flew United. Our flight attendant never smiled, never responded to my "Thank you" with any acknowledgement, and as we left the plane said "Have a nice day." in a tone that seemed equal mixes of boredom, sarcasm and surliness. Many of them just HAVE to hate their jobs to be as dour as this guy was.

By contrast, as SOON as we stepped off the plane onto the tarmack, knowing we had only 20 minutes to get through passport control (with probably more than 100 people in front of us) and get to our next flight, so almost SURE we would miss it, we were met at the bottom of the stairs by a Lufthansa Airlines representative (our flight to Budapest was with Lufthansa.) with our flight number on a board. He caught the 4 people on our flight who were running late to the Budapest flight, got us on a special bus just for us (a HUGE bues that could probably hold 40 people) and took us to the necessary terminal. Another representative met us there and walked us through the bowels of the airport to bypass all the lines and put us through rush passport control. Then the two of them speed walked us all the way to our gate, saw it had been changed and called the new gate to hold the plane for us, and all this with a cheerful and friendly demeanor and a smile on their faces. The phrase "great customer service" seems a little cliche, but over and over again, we get that on foreign airlines, whether it be Qantas to Australia, LAN to South America or Lufthansa to Europe. Some American airline companies could definitely take a few lessons...

Here's a fun statistic I read in our Rick Steve's Eastern Europe travel guide: the average Hungarian eats ONE POUND of lard a week! (they cook with it). Looks like this will not be a healthy eating vacation... ( not like any of our vacations ever are...) :)

Agi's family had invited us for dinner, and we had to go straight to her mother's house from the hotel due to the missed flight. She had been cooking all day and had prepared an amazing feast for us! We started off with a toast of champagne (not icky, dry champagne, but a deliciously light and fruity one), then Agi's nephew informed us that it is traditional in Hungary to take a shot as soon as guests arrive at a house, so the poured out shots that were actually pleasurable and smooth; they tasted like grappa, though I have never taken grappa as a shot. :). Right before the meal was served, they poured another different kind of shot - this one more like a smoother, more subtle version of Jagermeister. I guess shots are not just for college drinking binges in Hungary; even Agi's mother took one! :)

The first course of dinner was the well-known dish goulash, but it is different in Hungary, especially from my own mom's Midwestern version that was pretty much lasagna with macaroni. :) Goulash here is a thinner soup with beef and potatoes, deliciously spices with the quintessential Hungarian paprika and also chili pepper for a bit of heat. Agi's mother's goulash had to have been cooked for HOURS; the beef was so soft it just fell apart as soon as it was touched and was completely infused with the spices. To make it spicier, there was a dish of dried chili peppers on the table. I crumbled half of one into my bowl, and then made the mistake of wiping a little sweat off my face. The heat from the pepper remnants on my skin gave me the feeling I had spread Tiger Balm all over my cheeks, but I loved the spicy addition to my goulash. We ate the goulash with a very soft bleach-white looking bread.

Second course was pork, thickly breaded and deep fried, served over rice and cheese. The breading was crunchy outside and soft inside (reminded me of a funnel cake sans powdered sugar) and as thick as the pork itself, which was also cooked so perfectly it fell apart in my mouth. The rice was so rich and soft it tasted like it had been cooked in a pot full of butter instead of water. This course was served with what is probably the closest thing I am going to get to a salad in Hungary; a plate that was equal parts shredded carrots and mozzarella cheese. :)

After dinner we headed over to the Art Otel where we are staying for the week. On the way we got to see some of the lovely architecture of central Budapest, all brightly lit at night. Our hotel is right on the Danube river (the namesake of the famous "Beautiful Blue Danube" orchestral piece.) and directly across from the incredible parliament building; our room has a view across the river. Now it is time to crash and get caught up on our missed night of sleep!

A friendly greeting from the TV at Art Otel. :)

The view from our window of the parliament building across the Danube.

Lyin' around in Lima

This morning we flew out of Cusco for Lima.  We had around 12 hours in Lima, so we had planned to take a taxi from the airport and head over to Miraflores district to look around and have dinner.

Unfortunately, Gavin woke up with a nasty fever and felt awful, so instead we rented a room at the hostel where we had stayed for our first night in Peru, and Gavin slept all afternoon while I read a book.  Thus ended our adventures in Peru.  :)

Peru is one of the only places we have been where leaving I have a strong desire to go back!  Most of the time I feel like there are so many places to see in the world that there is no time to visit somewhere twice, but I feel like in only a week we missed SO much!  Since I was sick at Lake Titicaca, I definitely want to go back and spend more time hopping around the various islands (this time armed with anti-altitude sickness meds!  :)  ). I'd love to fly over the Nasca lines, and I'd love to see and sand surf on the dunes of Huacachina.  And we didn't get to see any of Lima other than the VERY sketchy part close to the airport.  We also missed seeing some of the lovely towns around the Machu Picchu area, like Santa Teresa and Ollantaytambo.  I also would really love to hike the Inca Trail; there was definitely no time for that in our week trip.  We also were nowhere near the Amazon jungle area of Peru, and I'd love to see that someday, too.

Plus, the people of Peru were so incredibly nice, friendly and welcoming!  (and HONEST - I still can't believe we got Gavin's iPad back...)  We had so much fun talking to everyone, from taxi drivers to street vendors.  It made me very glad we "sort of" speak Spanish and were able to converse, as everyone seemed happy to talk to us and tell us about their lives.  It was one of the most open and friendly places we have experienced.  Yes, we'll definitely have to go back someday!

Me and my trusty Lonely Planet book in front of Machu Picchu.