Budapest - Part 2

we stayed in Budapest for a total of 4 days.  Here is part 2.



we stayed here at Kazinczy street 7, Blue Danube Hostel.  The host, Sandor was great and a wealth of information.  I felt like I was on a special missions team and had to absord lots of technical information at breakneck speed.



its an apartment inside one of those courtyard buildings and it's pretty big.  cheap too.  it's a nice way to feel more like you're staying in budapest i think.





the grand market





plenty of food stalls here.



not that impressed with hungarian food.  here is a stuffed cabbage and some kind of saurkraut or something.



yoon described his as tasting like thanksgiving.  it was chicken, with mashed potatoes and cheese and other stuff piled on top and baked some more.





the park near szechenyi bathhouse



Budapest is known for its bathhouses.  This is Szechenyi, the biggest in buddapest.  there are many many hot baths in the surrounding buildings.  this is an outdoor one and in the back is a regular pool.  they say now that it's party city that young folks will party til dawn and then soak it off the next day at the baths and then do it all again.  They say the most beautiful one is connected to a hotel on the Buda side.  There weren't really any babes on this day and there were lots of middle aged to old hungarians.  There are chess tables in water in the far part of this outdoor hot bath with weathered old hungarian dudes who look like they play everyday in the sun.  it said some of the baths were 38 degrees C but they all didnt feel that warm at all.  In Japan it was usually painful to get in at first.



Terror House.  Its a relatively new museum opened in 2002 about the facist and communist regimes that tortured, and killed people in Hungary in the 20th century.  





It was the Nazi's who took over first then the Soviets.  the actual building was one of the places people were tortured and killed.  In the basement you can see the cells and torture chambers.  Hungary has basically gotten the short end of the stick for a long long time now and have only been free of communism since 1990.





the beer bike.  everyone has pedals while someone pumps beer



Instant.  it's supposed to be like an enchanted forest.  these rabbits remind me of that chinese artist that created the wolves flying through the air and crashing into a wall.



on the walk to the next place.



Morrison's 2.  It was the douchiest place we went to in Budapest.  horrible horrible music and just douchy people.  sure it was a wednesday night but still.





directly across the street from our hostel was this place.  It seemed like the most most Hungarian place in the area since all the other bars were filled with foreigners and cater towards them.  These guys were playing Hungarian songs and everyone was clapping, dancing and having a ball.  They were all very friendly too.  As a matter of fact everyone in Hungary seemed friendly and non aggressive or threatening.  The few times we though people were being assholes we realized they were actually being nice.  Budapest seems safe and free of violence.





Hungarian Pam Beasly from "The Office" was one of the violinist's girlfriend



we rented bikes and headed north of the city.  we kind of went on the fly and ended up in some interesting places



along the way i saw at least 2 dog training parks.



small town Hungary, although this looks like a very nice, rich neighborhood.  or maybe all of hungary looks like this.





loving the crazy roofs and how every house is really different from the next.



Hungarian desserts.  not very good.  so dry.  You know i don't really criticize food that much on this blog and that i'm a world traveller with a open outlook on things so you know this stuff has to not be that good.  I'm just saying to all that don't know me i am not a finicky eater at all but this stuff just wasn't doing it for me (similar to germany).



Unicum.  its a hungarian herbal bitters drunk as an aperitif and digestif.  It tastes like chinese medicine and sugar.  Not my thing, but neither is proseco, kir, absinthe, or any other super sweet anise tasting liqueur.  Palinka is a Hungarian fruit brandy that is available everywhere here.  we tried some.  super sweet and like an aperitif
.


oh and Zizzo, my old buddy from beijing happened to be on vacation for the exact same 4 days as us in Budapest.  What a small world.  In conclusion Budapest is a pretty cool city.  It's not that big, its safe, and the people are friendly.  I like the post communist feel of the place and architecture.  the food, not so good but that's based on eating goulash 3 times and some other stuff.  Who knew that Budapest was party central? Not me.  Next up, Berlin!