The morning came early today as we fell asleep before 9:00 last night. We wandered down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. I am a breakfast lover in general and a European hotel breakfast never disappoints. We tried very hard to eat just a small amount as our entire day was going to be about food!
We had the extreme pleasure of spending the day on the “Budapest Delights Tour” that we had booked with a small company called Budapest locals. Our tour guide Barbara met us in the lobby of our hotel at 10:00 and we were on our way. The tour was the perfect way to spend our first day as our guide not only was very knowledgeable about the history of Hungary and its food traditions, but also taught us how to use the public transit system and helped us with recommendations for the rest of our trip. With so many sights and so little time it was nice to have someone help us choose among the possibilities.
After riding the tram one stop, the subway two stops, and walking past a Basilica we stopped for (our second) breakfast of the day. We settled into a cozy corner table and shared a plate of sweet Strudel and coffee at “The First Strudel House of Pest”. The business itself is only ten years old but the building was built in 1812. We had strudel like I have never seen before, stuffed with things like poppy seeds (brought to Hungary by the Turks) cottage cheese and apricots, and sour cherry. They were fantastic and we insisted on having about half of them wrapped up to enjoy later as we knew we were just getting started.
Barbi at the counter ordering our Strudel and coffee.
So many delicious options.
After our snack, we walked past several political statues including the only remaining Soviet monument left in Budapest. All of the others have been removed from the city but this one is actually a tomb with soldiers buried underneath, so it was left undisturbed. Ironically across the street is the US Embassy and as Barbi said the people feel like the two can “keep an eye on one another”. We wandered to the back side of the parliament building and then hopped on the tram along the Danube River to the central market hall.
The central market was very calm and organized compared to many markets we have been to other places. The top floor was full of souvenir stalls, the ground floor was fruits, vegetables, butchers, and paprika vendors, and the basement was where you can buy pickles and fish. We tasted several wonderful things including sausage made from very hairy pigs, horse meat (yep we ate horse meat), “scones” (more like a small popover) filled with cheese, potato, and pork cracklings, various pickles, and hot sauce.
Pickle vendor (above) and her cat-shaped pickles.
Outside the market, we hopped back on the tram and headed a few stops down the line to the entrance of the Jewish Ghetto. Barbi told us that the Ghetto was only enforced by the Nazis for a few months before liberation but at the time 70,000 people were forced to live in 4000 flats. Though we had been eating all day, Barbi declared it was time for lunch! We went to a little restaurant called “Cupakos” which is known for its meat. Once again she ordered a variety of dishes for us to enjoy. Goulash soup to start, followed by beef sausages and duck liver stew. All accompanied by great red wine, and the always present bread and pickles. We managed to eat about half of the food between the three of us. It was all extremely flavorful but also extremely rich. We knew we weren’t done with food for the day so we tried to restrain ourselves.
Feeling really stuffed at this point Barbi took us to the most famous of the “Ruin Bars” Szimpla Kert. This bar was built in the shell of abandoned apartments that the landlords didn’t want to pay to renovate. They simply went to the flea market and bought a bunch of furniture and junk to decorate and opened a bar instead. We enjoyed tasting a pear and an apricot flavored Palinka, which is the national alcohol of Hungary. It almost tastes like a cross between vodka and a fruity brandy. It was actually quite good and we will probably try to bring some home.
One more short ride on the tram took us to the last stop on our tour. The “August 1870 ota cukraszoa” or – a really amazing and old cake shop. There we split three lovely cakes including Dobos Torte which is a Dahlhausen (Charlie’s maternal grandparents) Christmas tradition. Our guide was beside herself when she discovered that we knew what it was, and could pronounce the name perfectly. It was a lovely way to end an amazing tour. From there we said goodbye to Barbi and confidently hopped on a bus and tram back to our hotel.
After a short nap, we knew we needed to get out and stay up to beat the jet lag so we took the subway to a lovely Christmas market. We wandered the craft stalls and shared a hot “Palinka Punch” before heading back to our hotel. We stopped at a bustling restaurant for a cheeseburger and beer as we needed a little break from all that paprika.
It will be hard to top today, but Budapest seems to have a surprise for us around every corner. I can’t wait to see what we find tomorrow.