Budapest Day 1: Buda

March 24: This morning I got up and made myself some breakfast before heading out in search of an ATM. I took out 15,000 Forint which seemed absurd until I realized it was only 60 euros. Then, it was off to buy a metro pass for my Tour de Hungary. For the record, Budapest was originally 2 cities - Buda and Pest, and they are on either side of the Danube river. Today was my tour of the Buda side and Castle Hill.

As it turns out, Easter monday is a national holiday in Budapest, so all of the museums were closed. However, I did wander quite a bit of the city, including Matyas Cathedral -which will be under restoration for the next 10 years (right, top), the Fisherman's Bastion-it overlooks the Danube and has a tower for each of the 7 Magyar tribes who settled inthe Carpathian Basin in 896 (one tower on left), and finally stumbled across the Royal Palace on the far end of Castle Hill. Since it was also the beginning of spring, they were having a medieval festival (booths shown on right) inside the castle courtyard complete with hog roasts, sword-fighting, themed tents, and traditional dress. I decided that there was no better time than a festival to try a traditional Hungarian funnel cake. Mmmm...

From there, I headed back to the hostel to rest for an hour or so before meeting up with my Hungarian friend Zsuzsi. We walked around some of the Easter markets, and decided to try Gulash(beef, potato, and paprika soup) for dinner. According to her, it's just about the most Hungarian meal there is. She gave me a tour of Pest by night, which is absolutely beautiful. Parliament in itself is enough to take your breath away, but unfortunately my camera is getting old and doesn't like night pictures.

Finally it was off to Club Simple, one of the popular bars in the area. I guess the newest style of nightspots is to find a building that should be condemned, keep the lights low, add a variety of delapitated furniture, and call it trendy. It was a good time though, and we tried traditional spirits: Futyulos, which is a kind of Palinka.... which a very common fruit alcohol.

A few hours later, I made it back to the hostel. Jorde was there, and his brother had stopped by with his family's Easter leftovers. It was not an acceptable response that I was full, so I tried some Hungarian holiday foods. I quickly learned that Hungarians like their food... and with good reason! It doesn't look fancy, and actually usually looks kind of disgusting, but it's soooo good. Yum.