When we arrived in Budapest, after driving up from Bosnia, we were wandering the streets dreaming of food desperately looking for an ATM as we were out of cash. This then turned into a bit of a situation as the ATM's seemed to allude us at every corner forcing us to be very hungry in Hungary. After finally finding some money we headed straight to dinner at a traditional restaurant, where we ordered beef stew and traditional goulash followed by a shot of house palinka. Having had an excellent traditional Hungarian goulash at our friends Frankie's house in Perth we enjoyed our meal,even though it didn't quite compare!
One thing that surprised us about Budapest was how much it reminded us of Melbourne, which was a great cure for our slight case of home sickness. We really enjoyed exploring the trendy, retro shops in the Jewish quarter and checking out the numerous restaurants and cafe's. We even managed to find a place called my little Melbourne opened by an Australian guy, which even had Bunderberg ginger beer! We also found saw a restaurant with a Ham hock baked into a pie with mustard gravy, Ryan was quick to head back there to indulge in yet another ham hock after Germany.
Our main reason for heading up to Hungary at this point of our trip was to catch up with our hungarian friend Frankie and his girlfriend Elizabeth on their visit back to Hungary from Perth. We were excited to see some friends from home and what would be a better way to see Budapest then with our very own local guide. Frankie, being the enthuastic tour guide that he is, took us on a walking tour through the city before taking us to a bar to try some different palinkas, quince, apricot and plum. We then went across the city to check out a few of the famous 'ruined bars' which were basically nightclubs in old ruined buildings. The next morning before Frankie and Elizabeth were off to see their parents before heading home, they took us to Cafe New York for brunch - a decadently decorated hotel/restaurant with excellent food. After our Hungarian breakfast sausages and French toast it was sadly time to say goodbye - thanks again Frankie and Elizabeth for making time to see us!
While in the capital of Hungary we were keen to explore the countries military history after learning so much about the war in the other countries, so our first stop was the Terror museum. This museum was particularly well done, with great interactive displays covering Hungary's involvement in each war and the oppression under forgein rule. We also spent a day wandering through the streets, particularly enjoying the trendy Jewish quarter an Ethernet central market, which sold almost everything you could imagine and had little cafe's at the top where you can watch locals do their shopping. We also made time for a trip to a local bath as we had read this was a must do, however, the place we wanted to go to was closed for renovations, so we went to a slightly more touristy one, which was absolutely packed with people enjoying louging in the spring water in the sun. Sadly, our visa for Europe meant that we needed to move on from Budapest, but we would love to go back one day.
We decided to visit some of the countryside in Hungary starting in Eger where they make the famous Bulls Blood wine and all the cellars there are carved into the rocky hills forming a horseshoe of wineries where you can taste the local wines for free. We then went on to Miskolc to visit a spa that was built in a cave, while it was extremely packed we splurged (4€ each) to have tickets to the sauna area - an excellent investment. Next we drove up to a town called Boldogkovaralja, near Frankie's hometown, as he highly recommended a number of things in the area. One of which was a palinka place called Bestillo, made by two Hungarians who had spent a lot of time in New Zealand, unfortunately they weren't there when we visited but the friendly lady there who spoke no English ensured we tasted a good range of their selection. Another excellent recommendation was the restarant 'my mother says' which was possibly one of our best meals of the trip - so far! We had crispy pigs ears to begin, beef checks and Zemplén lamb for mains, finishing off with an exceptional chocolate tart with salted caramel topping for dessert. I still can't decide if the pigs ears or the tart were the best part!
After exploring Hungary we were ready to continue our search for vampires in Romania.
- Louise -
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