Budapest: Day 5

First things - this blog has not died. I hate having to say that. Hopefully, my actions in the next few will speak louder than these words. On to the photos.

Day 5 was a major tourist day. First stop, the parliament. You remember the outside, right? Well, here's what it looks like inside. Like any good tour, ours started at the entry.
Those of you who have made the trek to my pad will know that this entryway is only slightly nicer than mine. Their roof, however, is way cooler.

This is the inside of the main dome and it's absolutely gorgeous. I suppose it's fitting that they keep the crown jewels underneath it.
True fact: the cross on the crown used to be straight, but it got bent in the 17th century and no one has bothered to fix it yet.

Here's one of the two rooms where business gets done. This one's red and apparently, the other one is blue. Looks pretty gold to me.

Here's another look at the ceiling, courtesy of Alpna.
She also caught a pretty nice view of the hallways.

This is what a 100-year-old air conditioning system looks like.
Turns out, this building was pretty ahead of it's time. During the summers, large blocks of ice were lowered into these pits and air passed over them and into the building. Remember that room where the business gets done? Under each seat there is a grate where the cold air would escape. Pretty clever.

As we left, I snagged this photo of kids playing outside the parliament.
From there we moved to St. Stephen's Basilica. I tried taking photos of the outside, but all the good ones I got came on my last day in town, so I'll show you those then. For now, here's the inside.


Next stop: the Párisi udvar. This place looked a lot cooler in the guide book. So much cooler, that we walked right past it. Turns out it's pretty much a poorly lit alleyway with a small little closet of a jewlery store and and a fantastic looking roof. So, while Alpna got busy shopping, I took some photos.


All this sightseeing requires energy, so on our way between the Párisi udvar and our Opera House tour, we sopped at the Gerloczy cafe, where my sanity was once again called into question by a waiter after ordering goulash. Yes folks, I know it's soup.
The wait staff's foray into psychology aside, this place won me over. Unlike too many places I've eaten at in New York, this place was not trying to prove anything - probably because they proved themselves decades ago. The food was good (excellent pastries), the wait staff was perfect and the inside was lovely. I know this might sound silly, but this place really highlights the differences between what I know of Europe and the US, and is the reason I don't hope to ever find anything but a european style cafe here. Enough editorializing. On to more photos.
As I mentioned earlier, our next stop was the Opera House. I had to pay extra to take photos inside, but the place is beautiful, and the fee was only 50 Forint, so, money well spent.




The main hall is breathtaking, and I had really hoped to see an opera there. However, we arrived shortly before the season was to start, so we missed out. Next time, I guess. Anway, they had lowered the chandelier for cleaning, allowing me to get the shot you see above.

Last stop of the day was this marketplace down by the river (name escapes me at the moment). It's was pretty huge, and was my final stop for knick-knack purchases.

I passed on the many jars of paprika and finally bought a wooden bowl, which I'd be happy to show you next time you visit.
Can anyone explain this sign to me? We saw this all over town, including ones without the stripe. My best guess is that there are all kinds of "no old men in hats walking children" zones. Must be a hold over from communism.
Somewhere along the line we had returned to the hotel to pick up my tripod, and as we left the market and walked along the river, I gave Alpna some much needed rest time, while we waited for the sun to set. I grabbed this one of the castle in Buda,
and Alpna grabbed this one of the Elizabeth Bridge.
Finally, after about 40 minutes of forced waiting, I felt the time was right to begin setting up my equipment and getting a few shots off.

After a bit of shooting around a traffic island on the Pest side of the Chain Bridge, I moved us down the bank to get another shot.
I wan't the only one there, though, and this is where I get to tell the story about the biggest jerk in all of Budapest. As you can see below, there were some Asian tourists doing the same thing we were, sharing the same space between two parked cars. Then, along comes this rather pissed-off looking Hungarian in a white Ford Focus, who decides it's in his best interest to park halfway between said cars. Sounds pretty normal until you see the space:

White Ford Focus rear...
... and front.
All I can say is this man was acting like an incredible tool. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt though and say he was having an off night. Turns out he left us plenty of room (though by the look on his face he would have stretched his car then and there if he could) and I still got some good shots.
Turns out that's all we did that day, so we decided to go back to the hotel. I'm guessing you feel pretty worn out reading all that drivel, and I sure am from typing it. Get some rest and head back tomorrow. There's still plenty of Budapest to see.

Budapest: Day 4

Day 4 - Finally some real sightseeing

For better or worse, the last day of our conference was canceled, so that meant we got to get out a little sooner and see some sights. First off was a trip up the Andrassy to Heroes' Square.
Here's the obligatory travel snapshot of the place.
And that's the Archangel Gabriel up there saying hello to all the Hungarians as they walk by. Personally, I was a big fan of the statues in the semicircular colonnades. Each one represents an important figure in Hungarian history. This one is of the Burger King, who first declared that Hungarians could "have it their way" in 1342.
Behind the square is the entrance to City Park. Our first stop was the completely unpronounceable Vajdahunyad Castle. I guess this thing was originally built out of cardboard for some sort of exhibition and then rebuilt in stone. There's always time to do things twice, but never time to do it right the first time is what my Dad would say. Well, he doesn't speak Hungarian so it doesn't matter.
Alpna snapped these next two of the church at the castle. As I got closer to the door, I began to hear some singing. An angel perhaps? No, probably just an opera mad Hungarian practicing. Apparently Hungarians are big fans of the opera, but more on that later.

The park was really beautiful, and I particularly liked this little bridge across the central pond.
Here's the entrance to the Szechenyi baths.
Budapestians (?) are nuts about bathing with each other. The plan was to do as the Romans (literally, since they were among the first to build baths here) and spend a day hanging in the baths. Turns out we're both too self-concious to hang out with geriatric Hungarians in Speedos. In retrospect, I should have done it.
On our way out, we passed this pond, which was steaming. Turns out there's all kinds of thermal springs all over the city, which is why there's all the bath houses. The water was really warm, which I bet these ducks love.
That night I kept vetoing every restaurant we passed, which didn't make Alpna very happy (in her defense, she wasn't really mad either). The biggest reason I kept giving her was that they were empty. Seemed pretty petty in the moment, I'll admit. Finally we (I) settled on a place called Cafe Vian, which was packed full of all kinds of people, mainly Hungarians. Turns out my pickiness paid off since both of us agree that this was the best food we had all trip. Alpna is a vegetarian (much, much more about that during the Africa trip), so she had some fruit soup, but I had something much meatier - steak topped with grilled goose liver served with a paprika stew and these perfectly fried potato wedges. Probably shortened my lifespan a few days, but highly worth it. Things started getting really good on day 5, so stay tuned.

Budapest - The first 3 days

Ladies and gents, if you ever get the opportunity to go to Budapest, take it. Up until a few months ago, I hadn't given much thought to the place. When I was given the opportunity to go, I simply thought, "This is my chance to go to Europe, even if it is just Hungary." Turns out, that thought was way off base, since Budapest was an amazingly beautiful place.
And so begins the story of all my travels. For those of you who don't know (and I doubt there's anyone reading this blog who hasn't heard me ramble on and on about it), this trip to Hungary was only the first of 3 trips that I had the opportunity to take this Fall. So, for the next few days, I'm going to do my best to share with you a very small percentage of the 1,000+ photos I took and somehow keep it interesting. So, wish me good luck and some for you too, because this might take a while.

Day 1 - JFK to Ferihegy
I love planes. I grew up in Seattle and it seemed that everyone knew someone who worked at Boeing. Take me for example. Several of my friend's parents worked there, my Dad's employer is heavily dependent on them and I grew up going to their museum. Part of me gets really excited when I go to the airport because I get to see things like this:
Our ride to Budapest. Malev is the national airline of Hungary, and before you get any ideas about a national airline of a formerly communist country with only 1 of their 27 planes servicing the US, let me just say that the service was excellent. Economy was comfortable, the food was good and the service was very professional. Makes me wonder why we can't do that in the US. Oh, and one of the flight attendants looked like Pete from The Muppets Take Manhattan.
I should take a moment here to restate that the service was excellent, and in no way were there any rats on the plane, especially not backtalking muppet rats. Once we got there and settled in, we decided to go for a stroll around and get our bearings. Turns out it was much colder than I had thought (you'll see gray skies in most of the photos from this trip, sadly), and I had forgotten my coat. Oh, and it was raining, so I needed an umbrella. Fortunately we were staying near one of the malls of Budapest, and after a few hours of bumbling around, jet lagged and completely baffled by the Hungarian tongue, I managed to find both a jacket and an umbrella. I also learned that the mall is the place to go if you're looking for some nookie. Every seat was filled with hormonal twenty-somethings and several times I had to dodge a couple as they decided that right there in the aisle was the best place for a make out session. Ugh.

Days 2 &3 - The Conference
The next few days were mostly filled with the conference that was the reason I was there, but we did manage to get out a bit after the meetings and see a few things, including the Hungarian Parliment.
Don't worry, there'll be more about that later. Here I am, in my new jacket, looking like a total goof as my travel buddy Alpna takes my photo.
Speaking of my travel companion, she was fantastic. As I will be mentioning her a lot in the next few posts (she was there for all of my trips), I thought I'd put a face with the name.
Just so that you know, this isn't Budapest, it's Cape Town (Hooray for foreshadowing!). And if you're reading this Alpna, don't get mad. You look fine. OK... where did I leave off? Oh yes, Budapest. Here I am at the famous Lanchid bridge.
The reason it's so famous is because it happens to be the first of many bridges to cross the Danube and connect Buda to Pest. Plus, it's a pretty bridge, which adds to the famousness. More pics to follow.
One of several interesting signs that we saw during our stay in Budapest. What's interesting about it is that we found it right by the Lanchid bridge, right in the middle of Budapest. Odd. And speaking of street signs...
... I really liked this stop sign. Don't know why. This is on Andrassy Blvd., right near our first dinner destination, a place called Callas - named after the famous soprano and located next door to the opera house. I decided to try some real Hungarian Goulash, a decision that was met with a little bit of confusion from my waitress. "It's soup. You want soup?" she says. Yes I did. In case you're wondering, goulash is pretty much like your Mom's beef stew recipe, if your Mom's beef stew recipe calls for a lot of paprika. So, not bad, but not fantastic. What was fantastic was the dessert. Pictured below is the only photo of food you'll see during my travels, Alpna's Sacher cake.
What I really should have taken a picture of was my Esterhazy cake which was worth the plane ticket over there. Imagine thin layers of cake with equally thin layers of cream - probably about 7 of each. On top is a layer of fondant icing, flavored with walnuts and a hint of maple. Really, really tasty.
On our way home, I stopped to take a photo of this 24 hour pharmacy. Not much to say, but I liked the way it came out, so I'm sharing.
So, that's the first 3 days of the trip. Really, it's not much more than a teaser for things to come, so don't worry. The real sightseeing starts on day 4, which I'll get to tomorrow.

Preface

So, I've been promising travel photos for some time now. My apologies for not having done it sooner. My hard drive is small and my pictures are plentiful so I've been busy shuffling megabytes around, selecting the good ones and applying my very basic photoshop skills to make up for my inexperience as a photographer... but I've got the first bunch ready to go, so from here on out, I'm all in. I'm looking forward to sharing some great trips and finally getting all this out of the way so that I can actually start blogging about all the random crap this blog is known for.

Remember kids, go out and vote!

And now for a horribly outdated clip...

Gotcha!

I bet all our weekends were better than this guy's.

Happy Halloween...

Because I've had this song stuck in my head for the past few days and because this movie is freaking hilarious:

And I couldn't not make reference to this scene, since it reminds me of old times and good friends (start at 6:40 - sorry, no discrete clip).

Happy Halloween to you all!

Really? More travel?

I've got to admit it folks, I'm a bit road weary. In the past 5 weeks I've been traveled 30,000 miles and been to Europe twice, California and Africa. I guess I'm a bit of a lightweight, since that doesn't seem like much now that I've written it all down. Either way, I'm happy to stay at home for a while and enjoy the comforts of my own bed and the city I'm growing more comfortable calling home. But here's the rub: I've got a free flight that I have to use up before I head to Seattle for the holidays. It's on JetBlue, which means limited destinations, and there are restrictions, which means it'll be nearly impossible to find a travel partner. Don't get me wrong, I realize that this is a pretty good situation to be stuck in, it's just that the timing is all wrong. The passes are transferable, so I've been thinking about flying someone out here to visit, but I haven't found a good situation yet. Anyone want to come visit me? Anyone want me to visit them?

Hiatus over!

Folks, it feels good to be back, both in my own bed and in the blogosphere. In case you are wondering, Cape Town was amazing, but more on that later. Just wanted to let you all know the blog is still alive and to expect stories and photos about Hungary, San Diego and South Africa very very soon.

Shrinking the list

So, just a brief update from Cape Town before I get kicked off the computer, and can I just say that if you ever have the opportunity to go to Cape Town that you should take it? Spend your parents frequent flyer miles if you must. This trip has been amazing, and I really haven't left the conference center much. Here's just a quick glance at my life goals that I've placed a big check next to:

• Riding on a double decker bus (in London)
• Going to London
• Seeing the Southern Cross
• Spending money with ferocious animals on it (more on that later)

And here are a few that hopefully will get checked off soon enough:

• Seeing where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet
• Driving on the "wrong" side of the street
• Hanging with penguins in their natural habitat

Well, that's about all for now. Seriously, I know I'm a bit backed up on the travel posts, and I can promise you that as soon as I get back I'll start working on telling you all about this past month of craziness.