In the mean time, though, here's what transpired on our last Budapest adventure.
Dropped our stuff at the hotel and headed straight for the main market...
... to stock up on some spicy sausages.
And to gaze longingly at the ubiquitous cases full of deep-fried pork cracklings. (Drool.)
Grabbed a coffee at the adorable Cafe Frei, then headed to dinner at the amazing Csalogany 26.
The tasting menu is really the only way to go here, since everything is so ridiculously good. We started with am amuse bouche of the tiniest parsnip-filled egg roll topped with sour cream, then went on to a clear broth soup with julienned carrots and parsnips, pak choi, tiny mushrooms, and chunks of polenta. Next came pumpkin risotto (photo above) with paprika and sour cherry sauces and some pumpkin seeds that were so smoky they tasted almost bacony, which they paired with a fantastic white wine that was amazingly apple-y; mackerel with polenta cake, cream sauce, and corn kernels; a second (milder) fish course with crisped skin, wilted spinach salad, and a crispy roasted potato; lamb with roasted Brussels sprouts, tiny grilled onions, and potato puree; and foie gras with parsnip puree. The first dessert was millefeuille layered with cream, served with passionfruit sorbet and a Jerusalem artichoke caramel sauce; and the second was a chocolate rum raisin ganache mousse with a rum-raisin-soaked cookie, all topped with whipped cream.
Wandered past Szimpla Kert on our way back to the hotel, but didn't stop in: the line was loooong.
Next morning, passed through the always-spectacular Ferenciek Tere on our way to Central Kafehaz for some pastries and coffee...
...and wandered past this spectacular Art Nouveau edifice...
...which was in desperate need of repair last time we were there. No more.
(Seriously. This place was crumbling--here's what it looked like in the spring of 2015--and now it's incredible. I know 'cause I took heaps of photos of it last time, too.)
Found our way over to Parliament, which was having a free open-house due to the fact that the next day was a national holiday. (October 23 is memorial day for the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.)
This building is reputedly so huge that the government can't afford to keep the lights on in the whole building all of the time, and periodically shuts down whole wings.
No idea whether that's true, but even the limited portion we were allowed to see was vast and grand. (No photos were allowed in the rotunda room--under that massive dome you can see from outside--where they display the Hungarian crown jewels [under heavy guard, of course]).
View across the Danube (on the other side of that grass) from Parliament to Mathias Church, with bonus equestrian statue of Gyula Andrassy (prominent statesman at the end of the 19th century).
Across from Parliament, iron plugs marking bullet holes left after the massacre in Parliament square on October 25, 1956, in which somewhere between 100 and several thousand unarmed, peacefully demonstrating civilians were killed. (Those numbers are obviously still in dispute, as are the circumstances surrounding who shot first, and from where, that day.) I remember seeing this last time, but the tragedy was especially poignant this time around, since the holiday commemorating the Revolution--which became unstoppable after the massacre, but was ultimately brutally put down by the Soviet occupation--was just around the corner.*
All around the city were displayed these flags with holes in them, symbolic of the flags out of which revolutionaries cut the Soviet symbol during the Revolution.
On an entirely less sober and utterly unrelated note, found these glorious Art Nouveau (or as it's called in Hungary, Szecesszio) details on a couple of buildings near Parliament.
Some of these buildings remind me of ice cream, the way those little balconies flow.
LOOK AT THOSE DETAILS. So magnificent. Can barely stand it.
In the late afternoon, we headed to the Museum of Applied Arts, which is in this fantastical building from the end of the 19th century. (Those Zsolnay tiles get me every time.)
Inside, it looks like this.
And this.
And this. (Oh, the fancy events one could host in a space like this!)
Zsolnay bowl from 1902.
I'M TAKING THIS CHAIR HOME WITH ME. (Parisian-made, around 1900.)
THIS CLOCK, TOO. (Locally made, 1899, and impossibly awesome.)
Zsolnay vase with dancers, made around 1900.
There was a nifty exhibition in which everything was sorted into rooms by color, and I found this masterpiece in the Green room, where I could have quite happily lived forever. (Ahhhh, green...)
LOOK AT THAT TRAIN. Impossible. I think I may need this in my closet. (20th-century Hungarian gala costume. For all your gala needs.)
Gorgeous vase in the Blue room (also amazing), from the Herend porcelain factory (also Hungarian), 1900.
The next day, we met up with my aunt and uncle for a light breakfast at Budapest Bisztro (famed, apparently, for their goulash, if only we'd known!); strolled around Parliament for a bit; then wandered towards the Dohany Street Synagogue, which was, of course closed for the national holiday. Oops.
Walked past this wonder on our way to our next destination..
...Szimpla Kert in the daytime.
Where they were having a farmer's market!
All manner of breads and meats and veggies and sauces and honey and things...
...but you know it was the lovely cheeses that held my attention.
We stopped for what turned out to be a feast of meats and cheeses, plus a bowl of this homemade pork and white bean soup topped with a veggie cake (the proceeds from which went to help "save the trees"). Here's my aunt checking out the soup and talking with the delightful man cooking it.
Next stop was the Kazinczy synagogue, which wasn't open during our last trip.
Definitely worth a visit, though.
Really gorgeous.
Then tromped past these amazing streetcars (I'm developing a bit of a thing for vintage streetcars, don't ask me why)...
...past this awesome thing at Deak Ferenc ter...
...this one, too (which has all sorts of weird faces and figures in it!)...
...and ran into this ginormous, beautiful, street food market, at which, I am sad to say, we were all too full to buy anything.
Stupid dinner reservations. Stupid big, unintentional lunch. Next time I am coming for you, sandwich.
Next, we crossed the river to Buda, to visit Mathias church.
Zsolnay strikes again.
The church is all Art Nouveau-ily painted inside.
It's extraordinary, a place that is totally unique to Budapest.
The oldest remaining part of the building is this 14th-century tympanum.
In front of the church is this ridiculous confection-y thing, the Fisherman's Bastion.
Around the corner, we found the absolutely massive ruins of a 13th-century Dominican church that was destabilized by the building of said bastion.
No, seriously...it's massive.
After a little coffee to warm up, we wandered into the Faust Wine Cellar (carved into the rock next to the ruins of the Dominican cloister) for a lovely tasting, then bid farewell to my aunt and uncle and bundled them into a taxi back to their cruise ship, since they had to be up at 3:00 the next morning (yikes) to catch their early flight back to the US. Mike and I then headed to the fantastic 21 Restaurant for some dinner, and started with the pumpkin soup (with chunks of just-tender cooked pumpkin, roasted seeds, and a spicy shrimp) for me, and the chicken noodle soup (with plenty of carrots and herbs, in its own tiny, adorable, tin cooking pot!) for Mike. He then went with the bone-in chicken paprikash, the noodles of which were more like the lightest imaginable spaetzle, and I had a mixed salad with a lovely light dressing and a little fried strudel filled with goat cheese. We then split a plate of local cheeses (2 soft, 1 blue, 1 hard), and sampled their apricot and plum palinkas. Great food and friendly service--definitely worth a visit, if you find yourself in Buda around dinnertime.
The next day, our flight wasn't until late, so we caught breakfast at the Central Kafehaz again, since Mike generally has no interest in going anywhere else. (They have the best coffee, he claims.)
I'll admit, it is pretty grand inside...
...and you get to eat things like this.
Next, we ran back to the central market because I'm an idiot and managed to lose one of Mike's beautiful gloves newly-purchased from there, and so we needed to replace it...but also to get a fully-loaded langos to share.
Spicy salami, arugula, bell peppers, red onions, pickled peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, shredded cheese, sheep's cheese, and yogurt-dill dressing atop fried bread. So, so, so good.
Oh, hey, manhole cover.
Stopped in front of the market for a few shots of the Buda side; this is Gellert Hill...
...and the entrance to the cave church carved into the hill. Neither of which we've visited yet.
Nor have we visited the huge baths of the same name, on the other side of the lovely Liberty Bridge.
We did, however, make it to the Shoes on the Danube monument, a memorial to Budapest citizens (many Jewish) who were forced to remove their shoes on the banks of the river as they were executed into it by members of the the fascist Arrow Cross during WWII.
Just past Parliament and the Shoes monument is Falk Miksa, a street lined with antique shops, where we chose to spend our last few hours in the city. There is literally Art Nouveau everywhere, and it's probably a good thing that it's generally quite expensive, as I might have tried to bring all of it home with me.
Found the massive, labyrinthine Pinter auction house and strolled through its jam-packed basement for a while.
Huge salmon-pink Nouveau candle stand. I probably need this.
A few Zsolnay pieces, which are most certainly not in the "affordable antiques" range.
Eighteenth-century Venetian mirror.
So, so pretty.
Seriously, every time with the Nancy, France, artists. This is museum-quality, with an actual famous name on it, and it boggles the mind that for just a gajillion forints or so, it could be in my house. (I know I said something along the same lines previously, but it's still just as boggling.)
I am pronouncing myself never, ever allowed to go into the Nautilus antique shop ever again. There were whole cases of this stuff.
Pretty vintage colors.
Peering into a very Budapesty courtyard.
At the tram stop, waiting to go back to our hotel.
Seriously, the architecture in this city is beyond amazing. I never stop craning.
And with that, we grabbed our bags and headed back to the airport with suitcases full of Hungarian sausages and Hungarian wine. No better souvenir than food and drink, people. None better.
Next up: my surprise birthday trip, which will undoubtedly be a multi-parter. That's going to take some effort, folks, so if I don't write again before we leave for the US for Christmas, I wish you all a safe and peaceful holiday season.**
*If you're interested, there's a short summary of the Revolution here. Every time we go eastward, I'm reminded that the history of Eastern Europe in its entirety is one of tragedy, and yet the people there are--in our experience, anyway--lovely and kind and proud of their heritage and of their country. I am always amazed and humbled by that resiliency and spirit.
**Normally I'd have something more festive to say here, but here's how the world looks to us these days. If you're as dispirited, sickened, and afraid as I am in the face of the coming four years, I'll leave you with a list of organizations to which you can donate to help defend against what's already headed our direction. You may have already seen this list on John Oliver, but just in case...
- NAACP Legal Defense Fund
- ProPublica (investigative journalism)
- Subscribe to the NY Times or Washington Post
- Trevor Project
- Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund
- Planned Parenthood
- Natural Resources Defense Council
- International Refugee Assistance Project
- Southern Poverty Law Center
Were I in the US, I'm fairly certain I would be spurred to activism and marching and all sorts of fighting-back. Since I am far away, however, for my part, I plan to donate, donate, donate; to be as intolerant of racism, sexism, hatred, bigotry, and willful ignorance as possible; and to pray for the safety of my female and LGBTQ friends, and of friends of color, in the US. (Well, and anyone who falls into those categories, actually, whether I know them or not.) Again...peace and safety to you, friends. We are thinking of you.
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