Hungary? I'm starving, but not for that bread (yeah, I said it)

Saturday 5/2
After a train ride from Salzburg (that was supposedly super-speedy; at one point we got up to 200 kl/hr, though I thought all trains went that fast and that was the point of taking them) we pulled into Budapest. A cab took us to our hotel on the Buda side of the Danube (the city is actually two parts: Buda and Pest).

Once we were checked in, we walked down the road to Fisherman’s Bastion (Halászbástya) to walk around. There were some old castle-like structures, a church, and a really pretty view of the city. We could see the Danube, of course, but also a lot of other buildings we didn’t know and their Parliament, the largest one in Europe (or maybe the world?). That’s not surprising – it’s huge, and gorgeous. It looks like a big cathedral or something. Certainly not a government building.


Holly stopped in the Hilton, nearby, to ask for a good dinner recommendation. They told us to go to The Golden Duck, just down the road. The food was good enough, but the waiters were rude and unhelpful. No one smiled at us, I couldn’t find one when I needed ketchup, and here’s the big thing: Holly watched as the waiter picked up bread from a nearby table where a family was finishing up, walked over to us, and placed the same basket of bread on our table. She was in so much shock she thought she must have imagined it. I thought it was kind of funny, actually. Ridiculously horrible service, yes. But funny.

On the walk back to the hotel, we took a detour to get some pictures of Chain Bridge (Széchenyi Lánchid), the first bridge to be built between Buda and Pest in the middle of the nineteenth century (1948, I think). We ended up walking across it a few times later in the trip, but I just got a few pictures that first night.


I think understandably, Budapest is the most different place I've been to. The language has absolutely nothing in common with English (though, luckily, many people speak at least some English) and the money is weird. Here's me with about a bajillion forints (well, 50,000, but close). They don't even have symbol for their money, like $, but just write HUF (Hungarian Forints, like USD or GBP).