FUN-travel: Budapest, Hungary – Full Day 2
October 3, 2013 by Susan Clarke
Day 15 – Monday, September 30 – Budapest, Hungary – cool, windy, ominous dark clouds threaten – 50’s
What I LIKE
- 10:30 – off for the “free 2nd day w/Danube cruise” – WWIT!
- *11:20 – hop on for one stop
- 11:30 – change to red line for 3 stops
- 11:40 – stroll down Andrássy – they say “the Champs-Elysées of Budapest” IDTS – (I don’t think so)
- **12:00 – back to deal w/women @ local vendor market for souvenirs for grandkids
- walk to cruise dock
- 1:00 – river boat cruise
- 1:25 – Margaret Island stop – nice walk through huge park (takes up over half the island)
- claim to fame – musical fountain & old church ruins
- once again Chris is beside himself, bowled over by all the beauty (not!) it’s this or the hotel and not willing to spend my day that way
- 2:25 – take boat back
- 2:50 – arrive dock @ Pest side
- 3:00 – hop on bus shows up – IT (imagine that!)
- no rain all day
- 3:15 – hop off for good!
- walk to restaurants for dinner choice
- 3:30 – goulash soup & beer break @ Voros Postakocsi – 1ST TE (time ever) – they have pista (pronounced peeshta) hot, red chili paste – YUM!
- 4:00 – room R & R
- 6:30 – head to bar for “free cocktails” from bathroom incident on Saturday – Tullamore Dew neat & dry Bombay Sapphire up w/extra olives
- 7:00 – walk to Soul Café – TA rating good – 2011 Áldás St. Andrea Hungarian blend – warm walnut encrusted goat cheese w/salad – salmon w/tarragon risotto – chef special dessert, pancake w/poppy seeds & plum jam (for mama!) = 15,523 ft = $75 US & really VG!
WWIT (What Was I Thinking) – clearly not!
What I DON’T LIKE
- *11:15 – bus late – IT (imagine that!)
- **they still won’t deal for 11 things! best I do is save 400 FT = $2.00 – usually I get 1 thing free! she throws in a magnet – to which I reply “I don’t want a magnet, only this.”
FUN-fact – The Danube river starts in Germany’s Black Forest and is 2800 kilometers long. It runs through 8 European countries and 4 capitol cities.
Not so FF – Budapest was the least impressive city of the past two weeks. People don’t seem very friendly here.