I left Kyiv this morning at 4am; my flight was at 7:20. Ouch. I had a very strong coffee and some cereal with yogurt while I waited for me flight. I slept every minute of the flight; didn't see a thing. It was a nice change of pace to swing through Vienna and hear some German for a short while. We had to go through customs and then back into the int'l terminal. I'm assuming that was the case because Ukraine (and Canada had a flight arrive too) is not part of the EU; nothing else made sense. But, it felt good to be able to help some non-German speakers get to the right place after so many strangers have helped me in Italy and Ukraine. Shockingly, the flight to Budapest was delayed in Vienna -- so unlike them. But, it was about a 40-min flight. Everything was fine; Hungarian is another language that you can't fake; at least the letters are in Latin, but I don't think it's like any other European language, so I can't just guesstimate here either! I got a shuttle service to the hotel, which is equally astoundingly beautiful. I have a chandelier in my room and a desk and a love seat. It's 1pm here, so I think I'm going to venture out to find some gulash or something. And, I plan on arranging a Danube river tour too.
Greetings from Pest...not Buda (that's on the other side of the Danube river)!
The money here is the Forint. It's about 2x the US dollar. So, you'll see a Coke for 600F or so, which is hard to swallow at first.
My hotel is amazing, and there's an Easter market going on directly behind it, so I strolled around there for a bit to explore. had a Hungarian hotdog, which looked and tasted remarkably like a bratwurst with mustard. hmmm. The market area reminded me a lot of a German holiday market with semi-permanent stands selling seasonal and artisan crafts and food with local musicians tooling around too.
Then, I met up with my friend. She walked me around a little to see St. Steven's Basilica and then we took a 1-hr boat tour up and down the Danube (for 1900F). We passed under a yellow and red bridge while listening to the tour guide in English und auf Deutsch! She also showed me the city's largest market, although it was closing as we walked in. There's a terrific statue of a woman holding out an olive branch that the citizens erected during WWII to call for an end of the war. Lots of other Soviet statues and religious icons; that's a very strange combo since Soviets were anti-religion.
She is "directionally challenged," so we worked together with ME getting her back to something SHE recognized!!! I had been here for less than 6 hours. Then, we got into her second choice for Hungarian dinner; I had a mushroom broth soup, pork chunks (? I think it was fatty pork, like thick, undercooked bacon??) with fat ladkes and sour cream. And, I tried the national liquor: palinka in plum flavor (it comes in lots of other fruits). After two small sips, my whole body was reacting. It was a little scary, actually. I had pins and needles in my hands and lower arms; sweating profusely down my neck and face; and felt hot enough to take off my cartigan (and it's chilly here). it's like drinking gasoline! She is an EMT and jumps on medical issues -- thinking I could have been having a heart attack (what!?). After 2 bathroom visits and a glass of water, it passed totally. I didn't think it was the booze, since the reaction was so quickly afterward; who knows. It was so strange. We stopped by a strudel shop for sour cherry strudel and a melange (coffee/chocolate) and watched the head baker make these strudels with apples and cinnamon; cherries; peaches; poppy seeds (which apparently is as common as dill in Ukraine!). He would spread his dough so thin and then tuck it around the edges of a table, spread the filling in one straight line, and then roll it up with the table cloth! it was incredible. Then, some CA tourists cornered us for a chat; they were here for "dental tourism" -- yes, lots of Americans come to Hungary to see the dentist and have work done here.
I walked back to my hotel. Streets are darker than I would like, but I don't feel unsafe at all. It's a little disheartening to AGAIN not be able to figure out the language. But, at least it's not in Cyrillic, so I have a chance this time.
I have some free time tomorrow to seek out some goodies.
No comments:
Post a Comment