Winter Break II (Budapest)

Monday morning we flew to Budapest. In the airport, having trouble figuring out the rate of exchange, Bill got out 1,000 whatevers from the atm and we got a cab to our hostel. The cab fare was 6,000 whatevers. Oops. So we felt like ballers the whole time we were there, dishing out 5- and 10-thousand whatever bills. And everything was very cheap, which was a great blessing. What wasn’t a blessing was waking up Tuesday morning with a terrible cold. Both of us. So we went back to sleep until the afternoon, then ventured out into the snow to explore Buda and Pest (each city on either side of the river). I didn’t get far. After lunch in a very nice restaurant having a “Recession Friendy, 50% off all food” sale, Bill went on to cross the river and look around the castle district while I went back to the hostel to nurse my illness and escape the snow.

The first night in the city, having premonitions of the colds that were looming, we decided to take it easy and see a movie. We had an English-language monthly city guide that showed that Revolutionary Road would be shown, in English, at a theater about halfway between us and the main train station, on one of the bigger streets in the city. We walked along said road, stopping in one theater that apparently was the wrong one, until we reached the train station. Without finding the correct theater. So we walked all the way back down the road (it was about a 30 minute walk between the hostel and the station) determined to find the theater. Along the way we stopped back in the theater we’d checked out before, thinking we could see Vicky Cristina Barcelona if we couldn’t find the right place. But that movie was playing in Magyar (Hungarian). So we went back to the hostel and watch movies in the common room (they had about 200 on-demand movies, which was providential for sick travelers like us). The next day, after being sick and sleeping a lot, we decided to look for the theater again. I GoogleMapped it, found the exact block it was on. We walked there and…it was the same theater we’d visited twice the night before. We hadn’t known because Revolutionary Road was listed under its Magyar title, though it was playing in English. We felt dumb. To comfort ourselves, we had gelato for dinner, saw the movie, and went back to the hostel with brie and crackers to watch more movies (all in all, we watched The Departed, the new 007, Boogie Nights, and The Wedding Singer during our three nights at the hostel. We were acutely boring).

The next day I woke up feeling better and the sun was out, so we felt impelled to make the most of Budapest. We asked one of the girls at the hostel where we should get breakfast and were directed to a restaurant called Stex Haz. It was a bit startling to see men and women, young and old, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes at noon in a restaurant on a Wednesday. And Bill and I weren’t super hungry so we decided to split a large-looking entrée (we arrived too late for breakfast), composed of roasted potatoes, two rump steaks, “Parisian-style” chicken, sausage, and pickles (bleh). But the waiter said this was a meal intended for one person, and maybe we could split it but we should probably have appetizers first. We were suckers, so ordered mushroom soup and cheesy bread. Then couldn’t finish them. Then our enormous, “one-person” platter of Hungarian food arrived, served on a cutting board because it would never have fit on a plate. Needless to say, we didn’t even come close to finishing, so we had all but the pickles put into a leftover box and we took it home for the next day’s lunch. We walked down to the river and across the bridge, then along the river until we got to the cable car that climbs the cliff up to the castle. It was a very brief ride. In trying to get good photos of the river and city, I stepped over a knee-height chain that surrounded a very formal building and went to the edge of the cliff. As I was trying to take the photo Bill pulled me back, as we were being quickly descended upon by two guards wearing sunglasses, fur hats, and forest green snowsuits. And carrying weapons. We left, though one followed us for a minute.

The castle was interesting. Some ruins, or something, were behind it. They looked like old dungeons, but didn’t have any explanatory plaques, so who knows. I think it’s coolest to say dungeons. We walked a little. I wanted to find the castle labyrinth, which I found on the map. But it turned out to be more of a kid’s tourist destination, and the entry fee was too high for us to stomach. Plus, we’d just been in much cooler Erzgebirge mines. After dismissing the labyrinth, we walked back across one of the bridges to Pest, circled Parliament, paused so I could, somewhat discreetly, pull up my sagging tights, and found a coffee shop. Then we bought our tickets for the next day’s train trip to Bratislava, bought frozen pizza and wine, and went back to the hostel for more movies.

The next day was our last in Budapest. We woke up sort of late, of course. After breakfast we headed up to a park in the city’s northeastern corner, motivated by the nice-looking green space on our map. There was a castle there as well, and some impressive museum buildings. But the park itself was depressingly post-Soviet, aesthetically. And much smaller than it looked. So after circling it once in about 30 minutes, we found another coffee shop and walked back to the hostel to heat up our leftovers and pack. And walk to the train station with Bill carrying our enormous duffle bag with the straps backpack-style over his shoulders. Thank god I’m the girlfriend, because I never have to carry anything heavy.