BUDAPEST PART 6: Hungarian Smiles

Budapest is a city with a very quirky personality. It's not exactly where I would expect to see a Hawaiian Santa in late May:

Or a steel building encased in a glass shell in a courtyard otherwise ringed by two-hundred-year-old structures.

However, Chris and I weren't too surprised to see Wolfgang sharing his chocolates:

. . . and somehow these door ornamentations seemed to fit the personality of the city.

On the other hand, it seems that the Hungarian sculptors are a bit clueless as to exact body proportions, although I can certainly relate to that hippy woman on the right:

This is Jozsef Attila.  Never heard of him?  Me neither, but he is one of the best and most famous Hungarian poets of the 20th century.  He was schizophrenic and committed suicide at age 32.

I was touched by the little memorial of red flowers, a red candle, and a red band strapped to Attila's wrist:

I'm always on the look-out for wedding parties when we travel in Europe.  They find the most romantic places for pictures.  Alongside the Danube in the waning light of day is a beautiful setting, don't you agree?

Aslan again!  Europeans sure do love their lions:

Two of these fellas guard the entrance to Budapest's famous Chain Bridge

Photo borrowed from here

In general, Hungarians also seem to like their dogs.  I'm not sure what this statue in the train station is supposed to signify, but I like it almost as much as . . .

. . . this impressive LIVE Hungarian sheepdog (he was huge) waiting outside a grocery store for his owner.

Then there were these ferocious beasts constructed of iron bars:

Bob and I were dwarfed by them.  I like how they are tethered to the building:

On a more pastoral and much gentler note, this shepherd plays his pipe for his sheep:

This portly policeman looked friendly enough, so Bob and Stan posed with him, and Bob even shared his hat:

The only thing better than eating gelato is BEING gelato:

Just in case you are wondering what time it is at the local McDonald's, this clock will let you know:

At first, this statue had me scratching my head:

Luckily, there was a plaque in English at the base that read: "Gabor Sztehlo (1909-1974), Lutheran Pastor saved with God's help around 2000 children and adults during the rule of the Fascist Arrow Cross Party, and later gave the orphans home, faith and dignity."

He did about the same thing that Raoul Wallenberg did, the Swiss man I talked about in a previous post.  He fabricated "Gentile" documents for 1600 Jewish children and 400 Jewish adults, thereby saving them from execution or deportation. After the war, he established an orphanage and continued to provide for Jewish orphans.

On the left is a close-up of Sztehlo's hand pulling up a baby, and on the right you can see Sztehlo's profile facing the right and the general sense of motion conveyed by the lines of the stone:

Again, I was touched by the simple memorial of fresh flowers lying undisturbed at the base of the sculpture:

On QUITE another note, did you know that Anonymous was Hungarian?  I didn't.  Supposedly this was the man who recorded Hungarian history in the 12th century.  His name really was "Anonymus."

Bob absorbing as much wisdom as possible from this erudite author:

Julie had him autograph her guide book, most of which he probably wrote (as he wrote a good part of everything we read these days):

Why is it that in foreign countries, EVERYTHING seems to be a work of art?

Even a man with goblets and water can be a spectacular musician in Budapest:

Isn't he amazing?

 Well, all good things must come to an end.  We had a blast traipsing all over Budapest with these fun people:

Chris, I think you are having a good dream.  Alex, what are YOU thinking about here?

But we had other places to go and other people to meet.

Good-bye to a truly beautiful . . .

magnificent city. . .

. . . and two beautiful and magnificent tour guides!

BUDAPEST PART 5: Hungarian Rhapsody

rhapsody, noun.  an ecstatic feeling or expression of enthusiasm.

Yep, this is how I feel about Hungarian food.

Before I get into the real thing, let me mention McDonald's.  Wherever we travel, I  like to check out McD's, always hoping that there is some regional adaptation of the menu.  The most unique McDonald's food we've had has been in Japan, but  usually we are disappointed to find that the standard menu is being served.

Yay! Stan found another ATM machine!  He was always on the lookout.

Aside from a few strange names,  everything seemed more or less the same as an American McD's.  Darn.
I figured a McWrap cost about $4.00, so even the prices were comparable. 

 Instead of eating at McDonald's, Julie and Alex took us to Nagyi Palacsintoazoja, or Granny's Pancakes, for our first Hungarian meal.   I'm not sure what is "Non Stop" there--perhaps the cooking, or maybe it refers to the type of eating you want to do once you see the menu.

We had a selection of both savory and sweet crepes.  *Drool*

Our next stop was Fejedelmi Peksutemenyek (aka "Princess Bakery").  It's pretty obvious why Julie and Alex scored an A+ as tour guides.

A day or two later, Julie and Alex took us to an outdoor market where there were tables of colorful, tempting treats:

. . . and a cheeseman . . .

. . . selling slices of all kinds of cheese.

He had Emmentaler, which I love, so we asked for a slice:

It was not your average-sized slice and was incredibly delicious:

Of course there was plenty of gelato:

I noted in my journal that this combination of Mozart gelato (marzipan-flavored) and dark chocolate was one of the best combinations of the entire trip:

That's Stan up there a the gelato stand, looking through his wallet for some coins.  He MADE Chris and me buy three scoops this time:

Cream cheese, chestnut, and chocolate gelato.  So which one was I supposed to turn down?

This bread that Julie was holding was much better than whatever that vegan glob in Bob's plastic bag was:

One of the meals we had been looking forward to the entire trip was Trofea Grill, a place Andrew had labeled "The Best Restaurant in Europe" after he ate there in 2007. He was living on a shoestring on that trip to Europe, and this place was one of his splurges.

In fact, one of my favorite pictures of Andrew of all time was taken in this very restaurant:

It wasn't exactly in a tourist part of town (which is actually a good sign as far as I'm concerned), and the decor was, well, rather unique.

It kinda made me wonder what was on the menu.

Well, pretty much everything you can think of was on the menu.  This was a Serve-Yourself-All-You-Can-Eat-Make-Sure-You-Get-Your-Money's-Worth Buffet.

Fruit bar

Salad bar part I

Salad bar part 2

Fish and sausage bar

Pate bar

Side dishes bar

Dessert bar

Unique water container "with gas."  I'm not sure if Stan was thinking about the way his stomach felt or about the bill.

We pretty much had to be carted off in wheelbarrows when we were done.

Trofea Grill did a great job of stretching our stomachs so that on our last day in Budapest we could eat at the Central Market Hall, the largest indoor market in Budapest.

I had a gigantic goose leg, spaetzle, and red cabbage.  Nirvana.

I don't remember exactly what this dish is that Stan had.  I think it was joint of something?  Whatever it was, it was enough food for a small army.

Even Bob was able to find enough vegan food to fill his tummy.

The Central Market was loaded with fun stuff to see.

The top floor had booth after booth of Hungarian crafts--clothing, ornaments, carvings, toys--typical tacky tourist stuff mixed in with some real finds.

Andrew is obsessed with mushrooms.  When I saw these hats at the Market, I knew I had to buy one for him.  They feel like leather,

but they are hand-made from a woody mushroom that grows in Hungarian forests:

Andrew was pretty excited about the hat.  Apparently he had seen them on his own trip to this market, but hadn't purchased one and had regretted it ever since.

The lower level of the Market was full of food products, both fresh and preserved.  There was one stall that had dozens of bags of chicken feet.  Yum!  (*cough*)

Paprika and paprika products were everywhere.  Paprika is made from the red peppers that can be seen in this picture:

Andrew told us to look for paprika paste in tubes.  We bought several kinds, along with a few bottles of paprika sauce, and when we got them home and tasted them, we wished we had shipped a few cases to California.  We have found a source in the States and have already replenished our supply, but everything cost three or four times what we paid in Budapest.  If anyone is planning a trip to Hungary and has just a bit of extra suitcase space . . . 

Alex and Julie were not only good tour guides, but they were good sherpas as well.

Of course, they also made sure we got the right nutrients to keep us going.

Next: Budapest Is a Quirky Place  (my final post about Hungary)