Budapest, Hungary

There is one statement that best describes our day-trip to Budapest, “Under Construction.” The entire town, both sides (Buda and Pest), had construction work being done everywhere (much more on the Pest side)!! Along with new buildings being built, old architecture is under renovation. The town was extremely busy, with bumper to bumper traffic and people crowding the streets. We all agreed that the city felt like a cross between downtown Los Angeles and downtown San Francisco.

From all of the hype we have heard about Budapest, we were extremely under-impressed! Without the GPS, we would have been completely lost (literally). Even with the GPS we made wrong turns and had to make about 3 U-turns. Before leaving Pápa, we entered Vörösmarty tér into the GPS. Unfortunately, the Vörösmarty tér the GPS lead us to, was not the main square in Budapest that we were looking for. Instead it took us to a tiny-litte street in a residential area. So, we decided to re-set the GPS to St. Stephen’s Basilica, which I knew was in the Vörösmarty tér.

We left Pápa at 7:30am in order to make it to Budapest for a free walking tour, which left from the Vörösmarty tér at 10:30. Unfortunately, because of our GPS incident, and the grid-lock traffic, we missed the tour! But we chose to make apple juice out of oranges and found a parking spot near the square, before taking our own tour.

We began our stroll downtown when we spotted a beautiful old-building. After reading the informational signs in front of the building, we learned it was a synagouge. We then walked through the fashion district and then made our way to the Vörösmarty tér. Interesting to note is the way to cross the streets in downtown Budapest. Instead of walking across a crosswalk, we had to venture underground! There are large staricases, which lead to pathways under the street in order to get to the other side. While roaming around underground, there are stores to shop at. Basically, it is an open-air market, under the city streets.

Walking beyond the square, we found ourselves overlooking the Danube River, and peering across at the Buda side of Budapest. Large castles, magnificant statues, and ancient ruins clustered together for an enchanting view. We next wandered into a historic-looking Catholic Church. The interior was beautiful with pictures and statues. Other tourists roamed through the fairly large church admiring the Catholic artifacts.

Continuing to walk through the streets, we popped in and out of shops before sitting down for lunch. We chose an open-air restaraunt in the direct center of the Vörösmarty tér, which had a sign offering 990 forint Gyro sandwiches. The restaraunt, Open Jam, is part of a conglomerate called ”Summer Jam”. Open Jam had an extremely friendly staff who all spoke English, and a menu which offered sandwiches, salads and larger entrees. To mention it, we did not encounter anyone who did not speak English during our day-tour of the city. The Summer Jam menu also included a list of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks...Dusty and I tried their Virgin Mojito, good, but not a good as the ones in Slovakia at The Twenties restaraunt. We all ordered the 990 forint gyros, which came only with turkey. The sandwiches were delicious!! They were served in the same type of bread as the Döner Kabob offers, and were filled with turkey, lettuce, tomato, onion, cabbage, yoghurt sauce and a spicy yoghurt-paprika sauce. All five of us finished our gyro without any problem.

The weather had treated us very nicely, at a cool 85 degrees. Though at lunch the wind began to pick up, and we decided to head back to the car. We reached the parking lot and paid the attendee for the 4 hours we were charged for, even though we were there only 3 ½ hours. The parking was however, very cheap, at only 300 forint an hour (under $1.50).

Our day in Budapest was enjoyable. We took in the sights and had a great lunch. However, none of us can call Budapest our favorite city. Based on all of the construction that is underway, Budapest is soon to be a sparkling gem of Europe (maybe even as nice as Prague). 