The Compound City: Buda + Pest =

   Our trip is beginning to get to become a bit of a whirlwind, as we are trying to see and do (I know Mark's parents are laughing and not surprised about this) it all in the limited amount of time we have in each city.  Budapest was amazing; we only wish we had allocated more time here as compared to our time in Prague and Vienna.  Between those three cities alone we would rank Budapest as our number 1.

   We learned Budapest is a compound city so to speak with one side of the river called "Buda", and the other side called "Pest" (pronounced: pesht) side.  Two types of Hungarians exist: 1) Those who live on the Buda side and 2) Those who wish they lived on the Buda side.  Our place of residence for the 36ish hours was the Pest side.  We went on two walking tours while we were there and didn't really enjoy the first one, as the guide was a bit awkward and her English was challenging to understand.  Our second walking tour of the city was great, and we loved the guide.  Dora was her name, and she shared a lot of interesting information about the history along with sharing personal tidbits from her family's and her experience growing up in Budapest.  The city is extremely clean, has an open feeling, and is the architecture is stunning.

We are standing in front of St. Stephen's Basilica, the largest Catholic Church in Hungary, and one of the tallest.  The city has laws about how tall buildings can be which was great, because skyscrappers cannot obstruct the beauty of the city.  St. Stephen's Basilica apparently houses St. Stephen's right hand (The 1st king of Hungary).  Mixed stories abound about how the hand came to appear in the basilica, but we did not end up going in to check it out.

The city is in the process of erecting a Holocaust memorial for the Hungarian Jews killed during WWII.  However, a large group of people do not feel as though they are doing a "just" enough job with the memorial, and have started building their own.

Walking through the fountain...it stops splashing up when you approach certain pressurized tiles which explains the break in the squared water jet fountain layout.

Parliament (located on the Pest side)...originally built when Hungary was 3x its current size, but now they have lots of extra space that is not being used throughout the building.  Hungary lost considerably amounts of land suffered from the effects of WWI.  A funny thing with the building is that the President doesn't work there as he elected to move to the Hungarian "White House", and now the Prime Minister is heavily considering to make the same move.  The White House is on the Buda side which had Mark and I wondering if what we learned about the two types of Hungarian people is true.  

 Military guards marching in front of Parliament.

The Danube River that separates the two sides, Buda and Pest.

Mark has been wanting to check out the thermal baths or springs that give evidence behind Budapest being given the name "City of Baths" since we began our travels.  Budapest is the only capital city resting on top of such springs with its natural healing qualities.  The natural mineral water with abounding components has been scientifically proven to aid with degenerative spinal pain, joint inflammation and more.  Most of the baths date back to the 16/17th centuries; needless to say we checked them out.

Both of us felt somewhat weird taking pictures inside, so we snapped a shot when we left.  You can see one of the pools in the background.

Cafe' Alibi - I took this purely for my dad, who frequents Alibi's in Indy.  Unfortunately I don't think they served beer nor had anyone as loyal as Barb working there.  Regardless, it made me think of you dad and wanted to send you the picture. :) 

There was the Central Market across from where our hotel and it was so fun to walk around and check out the different produce and meat. 

I tried the vegetarian eggplant for lunch one day; the dish Mark ate can be viewed later on.

Chain Bridge - one of the oldest bridges in Hungary 

View after climbing up "Castle Hill" on the Buda side.

The gate leading to the Hungarian "White House" where the President works.  It was somewhat funny/interesting to see the lack of protection given how close you could get to the doors.  It is quite different than our White House in Washington DC.

Gulash is a common dish over here and is typically served in a bread bowl.  This was Mark's lunch on the day I had the vegetarian dish, but it was not as good as other places. We learned to not accept what we learned were add-ons to dishes out here when they ask if you want rice or something else on the side, as they charged us nearly $5 for a tad of rice that we thought was included. No worries, we fought it to the point where they took off the rice so we wouldn't have to pay for it.

Central Market in line to get lunch...it was pretty packed, especially compared to when we went earlier that morning.  

With my or should I say The Caveman ready to go exploring underneath Budapest.  The caves served as fallout shelters during the bombing of WWII and the potential scare(s) during the Cold War.  Let's just say that you had it easier if you were smaller and could better contort your body in and around the plethora of rocks and tiny crevices that we encountered.  But, both of us successfully navigated our way through and through.

The door to the caves.....

In the cave taking a break from crawling through some tiny spaces and sliding down on both sides to get through different parts.  We experienced what true darkness is wherein one part during our caving everyone in our group turned off their helmet light.  You could put your hand just up to your nose but could not see it.  If you were to stay in complete darkness a bad side effect is that you would start to hallucinate thereby driving you insane.  So Mark and I turned our lights back on as we felt like we were already insane in the membrane.

There was a family from Finland on our tour, and the guide had a couple of the kids go through this tiny hole for fun.  They loved it!

A fellow American celebrating the 4th of July~ it was neat to have people on our caving tour wish us a "Happy Birthday" for America.

It is common for people to take a bottle of wine and enjoy the view of the city at night on top of the bridge. So, that is exactly what we did on our last night.

We then went to one of their "ruin bars" in the Jewish Quarter/District that was erected from the ruins of buildings from World War II. This place was neat in seeing how they turned an old alley into a bar by connecting two opposing apartment buildings into a multiple room venue.  The place was massive, and we even enjoyed a beverage before heading back to our hotel.

We were both sad to leave Budapest and wish we had more time there, as we didn't see or do all that we wanted there.  We highly recommend this city to anyone who is looking to travel in Europe. 

Random things we learned in Budapest:

1. Crosswalks are called "zebras"....give it a sec to think about it.

2. The following inventions came from Hungarian people: Ballpoint pen, contributions/work on the atomic bomb, Rubiks cube, the match and binoculars to name a few.   Our tour guide said that many inventors and people in general who know the Hungarian language thrive due to the uniqueness and difficulty of the language as it forces one to think in a more creative and critical manner.  Maybe that is why Hungary is home to more than 20 Nobel Prize winners.

3. Hungary was tricked into joining Hitler's side, as he told them he would get their territory back that they previously lost and "coincidentally" their Prime Minister who was against joining Hitler "committed suicide" the day he rejected the agreement.

4. It is quite annoying to purchase anything in Hungary, as the currency exchange rate is 1USD= 228 Hungarian Forints, so things looked really expensive on first notice

5. The Hungarian people originated in various parts in Asia, but during various leadership/Socialism movements, they were forced to lose a lot of their culture.