eastward bound: continued.

And now, we pick up right where we left off: Budapest. Lovely, intriguing Budapest.

Day 3 was action-packed, and brought with it another tour, but this time, it was an eating one, of course. We met up with our sweet and very energetic guide, Gabriella, at our hotel, then set off for breakfast at an old-school pastry shop called Jegbufe, which just happened to be in that mad, giant building we'd seen the first day. We had espresso and shared three pastries--cheese, walnut, and one with a surprisingly tasty cooked poppyseed paste inside--and then went to take a look at the inside of the building. As with a surprising number of large, gorgeous buildings in Budapest, this one is empty inside, but there are (supposedly) plans to turn it into a hostel.

Menu and pastries at Jegbufe. These sorts of beautiful, hand-written signs were all over the place, in and around restaurants and shops. I kinda love them.

Matching palaces at Ferenciek tere, one of the more grandiose squares in the city, in my limited experience. The palace on the right is next to this ol' thing:

 Yeah, you remember this one. The one with ceramic torsos all over it. (Jegbufe happens to be in one of the street-side shops on the ground level of this building. Outside = in use, inside = empty.)

Interior ceiling of what I'm now calling the torso building. The entire interior, while run down, was still genuinely stunning. I really hope they can pull together the hostel, or some other sort of interesting use(s) for this incredible building. Such a shame to let it stay empty and deteriorate inside.

Also in the torso building: Communist-era phone booths, because private phones were not allowed. These public ones were, of course, bugged.

Ahem...but back to the food. Next stop: Molnar's, for a few samples of walnut-flavored kurtoskalacs, or chimney pastries. These things are a common street food, sold out of the tiniest booths imaginable, and every time you walk past they smell absolutely ridiculous, but we stopped in this cafe to watch a girl making them expertly by hand. She was fast and impressive.

Mmmmm, pastries.

Next stop: traditional Hungarian fast food at Fozelekfalo Etelbar, which was full of lots of deep-fried things and lots of gorgeous, vegetable- and bean-laden soups. Yes, please, to both.

We sampled a creamy potato soup, heavy on the bay (yum), and a traditional dessert made by soaking a croissant in cooked milk, then topping it with poppy seeds and vanilla sauce. Simple, but really tasty.

Then, it was off past some glorious buildings, Central Kafehaz again, and a lovely, quiet park, to a butcher shop cafe--Belvarosi Diznotoros, which Google Translate says means "downtown pork". Heh.

That's pork knuckle, some sort of piglet cut, liverwurst, bloodwurst, and sweet/sour red cabbage (not sauerkraut, though--it had apples in it!) with some excellent mustard and raw horseradish. Not pictured: a dish of ridiculously good pickled dried tomatoes and green and red peppers stuffed with cheese. Don't kid yourself: everything we ate here was insanely good. Yum, yum, and yum again.

Next, we traipsed past some seriously grand university buildings and this amazing facade...

Jesuit church...

...to Balaton Izlelo, a tiny little gourmet shop full of delicacies from the Lake Balaton region. We sampled a few Hungarian white wines--I gotta say, the Rhine rieslings tend to be my favorite--along with some chocolate-covered pumpkin seeds, pear and apricot palinkas (the apricot was incredible--so fruity!), and some of what our gregarious host, Zoltan, called "country cheese." Naturally, we were given the hard sell on returning to Hungary someday, for the sole purpose of visiting Lake Balaton itself.

If their cheeses are any indication, I think I'd like the place very much. Here, thyme, smoked basil, and plain cheeses.

Next, we headed to our last stop: the giant central market hall, whose cavernous and rather train-station-y interior was designed by a man who studied under none other than Mr. Eiffel himself.

You can kinda tell.

So Hungary has this classification called "Hungarikum," which is sorta like DOP in Italy--it means that things with this label are origin-certified (and protected) as authentic and uniquely Hungarian.* Among these is Pick Salami, which is everywhere, and is fantastic. (Especially the spicy version.) 

Specific labels of paprika are also Hungarikum-designated. At the central market, paprika, in all its various forms, is everywhere.

Also at the market: loads and loads of pickles. Hungarians love their pickles, and in traditional Hungarian cuisine, these are your vegetables. Thankfully, they're wicked good. We tried out a veggie mix, plus some cucumber pickles that are made without vinegar, but with a slice of bread over the top during fermentation. Really different, and really good.

As we strolled through the market, we also sampled a tremendous savory strudel stuffed with cabbage; some local apples and strawberries (early in the season for strawberries, but they were still excellent); some Tokaji wine (which is super sweet and rich--very much a port-like, dessert wine sort of flavor); and a tiny glass of Unicum, which is Hungary's national drink. It's a strong, sweet-but-also-bitter, herby liqueur, and not really for me, but hey, there's no accounting for taste, amirite? (Both the Tokaji and Unicum are also Hungarikum products.)

The buffet hall at lunchtime. Everything here smelled and looked fantastic.

Last stop: the candy counter for some handmade, cherry-and-syrup-filled dark chocolates. My greatest regret of this trip is that we did not just buy the place out of these. Holy wow.

With that, our culinary tour of Pest was finished. As if we had not eaten enough, we headed back through Central Kafehaz for afternoon coffee and pastries...

...where we sat outside across from this majestic Art Nouveau heap (I love this building)...

...and around the corner from this Trabant. We saw a handful of these around town; I think at this point in time, they're more decorative than useful.

Post-pastry, we were navigating towards a street rumored to be full of antique shops, when I got sidetracked by this:

Crazy-amazing Art Nouveau.

Also saw this down the street. Don't know what to call this style, or what this building is, but I love it.

And then I realized that we were about two minutes from the Magyar Szecesszio Haza--with "Secession" being the Hungarian name for Art Nouveau. Naturally, a visit to this little museum was high on my list of priorities, but this being Mike's birthday trip, I didn't want to push too hard. Thankfully, he knows how much of a freak I am for this type of stuff, and so in we went.

Jeesh. Just look at this place.

Naturally, I took about a zillion photos of the goodies inside.

Hee! Mustache mug!

One doesn't see many pieces of religious Art Nouveau, but they had several here.

I think Mike secretly enjoys this stuff as much as I do, since those guys did lots of really incredible woodworking. 

As in, phenomenal.

I'd like this one in my house, please and thank you.

There was an entire wall of really beautiful graphic designs, too, and also: look at that moulding.

After we'd had our fill of flowers and garlands and swirly patterns, we headed off to find the antique shops. At first, we were a little worried, as they were more like super-high-end art galleries, but then we found the smaller shops and absolutely incredible hoards of silver, pewter, ceramics, all manner of chandeliers, furniture, and--of course--Art Nouveau treasures. I wasn't sure how the proprietors would feel about my taking photos in their shops, and so I didn't (to my current dismay). There were some genuinely amazing items to be had, though, and I saw both a genuine Daum and a genuine Galle for sale. I could have had the real thing in my very own living room, people! At an insanely steep price, of course, and goodness knows how we'd get those kinds of things home safely, or even keep them safe once they'd arrived, but still...sigh. 

The Daum. (The Galle was much shorter, in shades of green.) Other coveted treasures included a wide, shallow glass bowl with a tall, swirly, silver stand; a flowery pewter basket with a cobalt blue glass bowl; some extremely tiny, silver, photo-frame-like brooches; and these beautiful little ceramic plates covered in twining flowers and leaves, in shades of pastel blue and mauve and ivory and pale green, that were surprisingly ubiquitous.**

Even the architecture on the antiques street was taunting me...

Since we'd spent most of the day eating, we decided to keep things low-key for dinner and set off on a tour of ruin pubs, most of which offer snacks. I now present to you (a handful of) the ruin pubs of Pest!

Started the night off at UdvarROM, which was a neat place inside one of the tiered courtyards so typical of the architecture in Pest. Sadly, the place was entirely empty, so we moved on to the next.

This is Mazel Tov, also in a courtyard, but with a distinctly more upscale vibe and a menu full of various Middle Eastern foods. And so naturally, this place was my favorite of all, and I could have stayed there all night, but since Mike was in charge, we downed some hummus with grilled pita bread and some ridiculously good falafel and went on our way.

Walked past this place, but didn't go in. I just liked their vibe. (The ruin pubs are tucked into courtyards and alleyways all over the place, and filled with all kinds of colorful lights, hammocks, couches, street art, and other intriguing and artsy touches.) 

Stopped for a while at Ellato Kert & Taqueria (kert means garden, in Magyar), where we shared some awesome tacos (one each of black bean, pork, and beef). 

Our final plans for the evening involved heading back to Szimpla Kert to close out the night, but Mike got distracted along the way, and we ended up in the tiny Bar Pharma, where I had one of the most inventive cocktails of my life: gin and lemon juice with hand-minced parsley and parsnip, served over crushed ice. Sour from the lemon juice, but sweet from the parsnip, and so very, very green and fresh from the parsley. Incredible. Sadly, though, we found ourselves at Szimpla Kert a little too late, as the street food corral next door was already closed, as well as the food stations inside (which had smelled so, so good that first night!), but all was not lost: we stopped at the kebab shop next door and shared one of the best kebabs ever. It had red cabbage, plenty of paprika, and cheese in it, people. Melty, white, gooey cheese!!

Anyhoo. Continuing on! I had left Day 4 entirely unplanned so that we could improvise a bit, and so we crossed the Danube to visit a bit of Buda for the morning. First stop: Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion.

Its current form is high Gothic, but this building was originally built in 1255, and then expanded, renovated, converted to a mosque, damaged, converted back to a church, damaged again, and finally rebuilt according to 14th-century plans, over the next 700 years.

Inside, it's pretty darn impressive, with frescoes done in the 19th century approximating medieval Hungarian patterns...but in the style of the era. Yup: that makes it a quasi-Art Nouveau design scheme (!).

Art Nouveau angel. Yes.

So pretty much every inch of this place, floor to ceiling, is painted with those fantastical designs. It's not hard to imagine why this place was chosen as the coronation site for several Hungarian and Hapsburg rulers (including Franz Joseph himself).

A few older elements still remain, like this column capital from about 1260.

I loved these giant ceramic candlesticks.

Staircase leading to upper gallery.

Back outside to Fisherman's Bastion, built around the beginning of the 20th century, and so named because the fishermen's guild was traditionally responsible for defending this section of the city walls. Interesting fact: the 7 towers, of course, represent the 7 founding chieftains of Hungary. That's a statue of St. Stephen in the foreground.

This thing serves no purpose other than to be decorative, and it is certainly that. 

 Good views, too. That's St. Stephen's Basilica, the building that set the maximum height for all ensuing construction in the city. (Seriously, it's a law. And you can tell.)

Parliament and the Danube.

Next, we stopped for an extraordinarily good meal at the Pest-Buda Bistro, which came recommended by Gabriella, our food tour guide. Because I can't eat nearly as much in a day as I'd like, and because their menu was jam-packed with absolutely fantastic-sounding dishes, it was painful to limit ourselves to mains...but we made it, somehow. Mike went for house-made sausages with paprika and Tokaji wine with a side of baby parsley potatoes and some really excellent chewy grainy bread, and I finally got to have the big winner: a plate of stuffed peppers filled with pork and rice in a sweet tomato sauce, surrounded by those same baby potatoes. Out-freaking-standing. And it didn't hurt that this was the view out the front door, either:

Lovely old street, and that building at the end is the National Archives. (FYI: the buildings in Buda are much older than those in Pest, due to a massive flood of the Danube in 1838 which absolutely swamped the low-lying Pest, but missed Buda in its entirety, due to its hilltop location.)

Around the corner from the Archives, we found the remnants of the Church of Mary Magdalene, a 13th-century Gothic structure from which only parts of the (reconstructed) tower...

...and this rebuilt window survive.*** 

After poking around Buda for a while, we headed back down the hill and across the river into Pest, where we decided to pop into St. Stephen's to check out the interior. (St. Stephen became the first king of Hungary in about the year 1000, and his name [Istvan, in Magyar], as well as his likeness, appear all over the place.)

Gratuitous shot of Fisherman's Bastion as we were walking down the hill.

Side shot of St. Stephen's. It's pretty impressive from every angle, since that dome is 96 m (315 ft) tall. The number 96, of course, commemorating the founding of Hungary in the year 896. The only building in the city even near this height is that of Parliament, which is also 96 m tall.

Interior.

Main dome.

Reliquary of St. Stephen's hand. The whole, mummified thing.

Back outside, where it was shockingly warm for early May, we stopped for cold drinks in the shadow of this building:

Want this balcony.

...and then headed to dinner at Menza, where we had some outstanding soups--pumpkin for Mike, and goulash for me, with little bites of veggies and the wee-est dumplings imaginable!--and then Mike went for a steak with fried onions, and I went a little lighter, with an herbed goat cheese salad. And with that, it was time for a good night's sleep before our train to Bratislava the next day.

Next up: Bratislava. What an interesting little place.

*Unlike DOP, however, Hungarikum also includes people, artworks and crafts, buildings, literature, inventions, music, sports, customs, and landscapes. It's a pretty interesting concept, actually.

**In retrospect, I'm relatively shocked as to how much self control I had around those little plates (which apparently fall under the category of "majolica"). See also this, this, and this, but mainly this. Sigh. So, so pretty, and so affordable, as antiques go!

***GAH, I just can't contain myself...this church is too interesting! Originally used for the Hungarian-speaking congregation, it was the only remaining Christian church in the city (if not the country) under Ottoman occupation until it, too, was converted into a mosque. When the Ottomans left, the church was given back to the Franciscans, who may have "restored" the church in the Baroque style, or used its stones (depending on which account you read) to build a different church, leaving mainly its tower. Everything left over was damaged during a WWII air raid and Communist rule, and so now all that's left is the building footprint, this tower, and the rebuilt window. Talk about history...!