October 7, 2015

 

 

Happy Time in Budapest

Happy Birthday to me!  At 50 you think you’re old but know that you really aren’t, at 60 you’re enjoying the advantages of “senior citizenship,” and at 70 there isn’t any dodging the issue.  There are no more advantages, no more upsides, only hanging on as long as you can to keep the party going and that’s the plan here.  I’m starting by having a great day today.

It starts at breakfast.  While were scarfing down a big breakfast (Mary an omelet and John fried eggs with ham and mushrooms), Andrus gets on the mini-bus to Zagreb project.  There is a reasonably loud phone conversation in Hungarian and by the time he hangs up we already have an email from the tour company that we are booked on a trip to Zagreb Friday morning, time to be confirmed later.  90 euros apiece door to door which is about twice the price of train plus taxis but a small premium to get where we need to be.  Happy birthday!

Andrus sells us a couple hop-on-hop-off bus tickets which we will use to catch up on our Budapest geography lesson today.  When we get to the bus pick-up point we have 25 minutes to kill and the market is across the street.  Let us take a small break to get a Langos, exhibit “A” on a list of Hungarian street food.  It is a Frisbee sized circle of fried dough that is topped by sour cream, garlic and cheese.  Mary has a bite to say that she did and John gets through the first half before we need to run back to the bus stop.  It cost HUF550, otherwise known as $1.90, so a small price to pay for an authentic local food experience.

The whole bus route is a 2-1/2 hour, 21 stop tour around the city.  We are boarding at stop number 18 and are riding through stop number 15 so we will be sitting for most of it.   Again, it is nice enough to sit up top in the elements although a little chilly when the wind blows.  We repeat some of the route we walked yesterday and then add new visits to Hero’s Square, the Parliament and across the river to the castle.  That’s where we get off.

We’re now in Buda, the hilly castle side of the Danube.  Pest is the flat city side of the river where you find most of the action.  The castle is the former home of kings, queens and occupying governors that held the defensible high ground over the city from across the river.  There are some dignitaries in attendance today.  We know that because a couple of streets are closed while lined with black cars and drivers, and there are several TV reporters filming background stuff while waiting for whomever to appear.  We don’t wait.

The whole scene is a reconstruction of the historic buildings and there are very few pieces of the authentic past.  One exception is St. Mathias Church sitting on a precipice near the fisherman’s gate overlooking the river and Pest.  John coughs up the 3 bucks to visit the church while Mary acts as official volunteer tourist photographer for those who want pictures with Budapest splayed in the background.  Both projects are well executed.

We have been told that we should visit the reconstructed hospital that is under the castle grounds, but an hour tour is required and doesn’t start for 40 minutes so we aren’t giving up that amount of time. Instead we hop-on and move to the next stop on the tour which is down our very steep precipice and up another about a mile away.  This is the citadel, the highest point in Buda.  From here you get breathtaking views of the Pest side, the Danube and back at the castle hill.  This has been the defensive fortress for Budapest since there was a Budapest continuing through WWII and well into the Russian occupation.  Now it is all about hauling tourists up here in big buses for photo ops which works for us.

We abandon the bus and decide to follow whichever path we see that looks like it is going down.  Most of the paths are paved or smooth dirt with a lot of switchbacks that pop us out of the trees at the Elizabeth Bridge.  Not ours, but we can find our way home from here.  No broken bones or skinned knees.

It’s time for our afternoon break.  Our B&B guys have made a 7:00 reservation for our “Birthday Dinner” tonight at Borsso, a French bistro next door.  We get a nice corner table and a couple glasses of bubbly as our birthday treat.  The place comes highly recommended and the menu looks like somebody is paying attention.  John has the sautéed lamb liver with Brussels sprout appetizer (it was a lot better than you might think) and the Oxcheek Bourguignon with a vegetable/pasta cake and every bite is like heaven.  Mary had the corn quenelle with mushrooms and camembert appetizer and the ocean perch and sweet pea risotto dinner and all is perfect.  The Hungarian Cabernet is just the right touch to complete the picture.

Soon after we’re seated a group of 6 “elderly” ladies is seated next to us.  It is hard to avoid being sucked into their atmosphere and soon enough we are like a group of 8.  They are from Scotland, all in their 70’s, all were schoolgirls together and have been taking a trip once a year for more than 50 years.  Somebody picks the destination and the only requirement is that it has to be a direct flight from Edinburgh.  They are having quite a time and pretty soon a birthday party breaks out with way too much laughing and funny accents for a French bistro.  You probably had to be there.

We take a long arm-in-arm stroll around our neighborhood before getting back to our Hungarian home.  This ranks right up there in a pretty long line of memorable birthdays.

What did we learn today?  Actually confirmed that when you open yourselves up to new experiences, good things will happen in your life.