Monday, June 26, 2006
OK, we didn't have Chinese for dinner last night. Instead, we found one of the restaurants recommended by Rick Steves (who does all the travel books and the shoes on TV) and had authentic Hungarian food. Eddie had a pork dish with a tomato gravy / sauce w/ paprika. I had roast pork w/ a similar gravy, but mine had potato wedges. Both were excellent. Apparently paprika is in all hungarian food, kind of like chili peppers are in mexican food. You just can't have one without the other.
Soccer fever is everywhere. All of the restaurants and bars have televisions either out on the sidewalk or in the windows where you can see them (most have open air eating areas also). Someone had also set up about a 60 inch flat screen monitor across from a little park, and people were there watching with their kids and stuff. You can walk down the street and see the game without missing any of it.
Today we took the overview we got from the open-topped bus tour yesterday and put it to use seeing Budapest. We went across the river to the "Buda" side, and climbed about a gazillion stairs to see the castle and Mathias Church. We discovered quickly that the Castle is closed on Mondays. Fortunately, the guide books said that wasn't a big deal anyhow.
The church was incredible, as most ancient churches are. Very beautifully rebuilt after it's been conquered by the Moslems, bombed out and rebuilt over time. They had those audio guides in a number of languages, so we could understand what was going on.
Fortunately, most everything is multi-lingual here. I wish we were!
The church has everything you'd expect. The only corpse of a Hungarian King that wasn't found and his bones scattered when the Turks invaded and took over is now housed there, along with his wife. Probably a case of having cheap realty that becomes prime -- he was buried elsewhere, in some cellar, and when things started to get bad, they filled in over his stone casket. Several hundred years later, someone apparently had an, "Oh, yeah! Forgot about them" moment, and now he's moved up to more prime realty on the hill.
The other funny thing about the church -- there was a statue of the Virgin Mary, and the workers didn't want to tear it down -- whether they were scared or it was just too darned big to tote out, I'm not sure. In any event, they just walled her in. Then, several hundred years later, there was some blasting going on for nearby construction. The wall fell down during evening prayers and the moslems were apparently somewhat startled by her appearance during evening prayers.
They gave the church back to the Christians after the Turks left.
We then went back DOWN a gazillion steps to the bottom of the hill, down the road a bit and then up the "pleasant hiking path" to the top of the next hill to see the Citadel, a military fortress that, like many government projects, was built and then decided to be unnecessary by the next administration. As a result, it's never been occupied, but it makes a great place for street vendors to set up and peddle their goods, plust the views of the "Pest" side of the city, as well as the back side of Buda, are spectacular. Even with a little haze in the air, it goes on forever.
This "pleasant hiking path" was a bit much for 2 fat boys to climb on a hot day. Even though it was nicely wooded, and paved, and had stairs at the steep parts, we'd already done a bit over 5 miles by my pedometer, and the extra mile and a half UP the hill didn't account for the fact that we were going up significantly from the river where we started.
We stopped at the statute of the Bishop 1/2 way up. By that time, rolling down the hill in a barrel of nails was starting to sound like not a bad deal. After all, it would be downhill, and you'd hit the water at the bottom and were bound to cool off then. We decided to press on, though.
By the time we got up, we were ready for a cold drink. Of course, like airlines and bus stations, the vendors know that they have a captive audience. I about had a stroke when I found out that a 1/2 litre "Coca Cola Light" was going to cost 400 Florints. Then I realized that 1 florint is about .0443 cents, meaning that the Cokes cost $2.00 each and I realized that was actually a better bargain than we got at the Charlotte airport.
Coming down was much nicer, especially since we found the steps that led straight to the bottom rather than taking the path with all the switchbacks. After a little lunch, we were ready for a nap and to cool down. It's hot and humid here, much on par with North Carolina when we left last week.
An interesting thing to note -- Hungarian men frequently take off or unbutton their shirts, without regard to where they are. Walking down the street, in a restaurant, panhandling -- doesn't matter. Most of them shouldn't. I wonder if there's not a Hungarian or two in our own heritage, maybe.
After a nap, we were trying to figure out what to do and we decided to go to the Turkish Baths. This is a natural mineral spring, and it's been in use, in the same structure, since the 12th century. That's a lot of bathing. It had the advantage, however, of being close by and since there's no pool at the hotel, it sounded like a good option. Besides, when do you ever get to swim in an 800 year old pool that still works?
It's just across the Elizabeth Bridge, which is named for a former Queen of Hungary, and is right next to the river. It's primarily for locals, though, so although many signs were in both Hungarian and German, English was in short supply. Not necessarily a good thing if you're going to be taking your clothes off.
In an odd juxtaposition between old and new, the lady at the front desk used a UPC scanner to issue us electronic admission cards. 2000 florints each, and we were sent through the door to the men's side (they're not co-ed). Fortunately, the attendants there spoke some English.
As you check in, they scan your card again and give you this little cloth breechclout. We weren't sure what to do with this, but took it anyhow. Then one of the attendants realized we were clueless (since we started to go the wrong way), so he showed us our "cabins", which must be short for "cabinette", since they were roughly the size of a small closet. The changing rooms were prefabs of melamine covered fiberboard, so I suspect that they were part of the upgrades rather than original construction.
You put the card in, and this releases the key from the lock, so you can lock your stuff up.
After some debate, we left the cabins and went to the men's pool area. We discovered several things after we got there.
First, there are three categories of men -- some wear nothing, some wear the breechcloths, and some wear swimming suits.
It should come as no surprise that we were firmly in the "Swimming suits" category.
The next universal truth seems to be that those men who should NOT take their clothes off in front of others -- usually are the first to do so. Without a doubt, we were the youngest inhabitants of the facility, but that's probably not a surprise since it was 3:00 on a weekday afternoon. One would expect normal people to be at work.
The pool is pretty amazing, in that it's still standing after all these years. It's octagonal, with skylights above it about the size of a large tomato juice can. These have colored glass in them in no apparent pattern. There were probably 200 of them, and that provided most of the light for the place.
In each corner were mineral springs (that sulphur smell will open you right up!) of varying temperatures. Again, we wished that we'd paid attention in class when those Farenheight to Celcius conversion tables were taught! They went 28 to 42 degrees Celcius, which is "nice and cool" to "pretty warm". The big pool is somewhere in the middle, so it was nice to go from one to the other.
They also had a sauna and steam room. I couldn't do the sauna, although Eddie did a couple of times. I tried the steam room, though -- GASP! It was "flat tire on the blacktop in August on the way to Grandma's" hot in there. I lasted about 30 seconds. Then in another back room there were cold showers and a cold pool. After being in the heat, that ought to feel pretty good, right. WRONG-O, Mary Lou!
It was "pull the well in February on Valentine's day in a snowstorm" cold. I made it to my waste before even my feet were starting to shrivel and pull up. Fearing permanent damage, I went back to the middle pool for a while.
You come out, change your clothes, give back the breechclout, and then you take your electronic card and receipt to another receptionist. She then scans you again and you get a refund depending on how long you've been in there. We got 1200 florints of the 4000 we spent back. We then gladly plopped down 800 of them for a "Pepsi Cola Light".
They know their sales territory, just like up on top of the mountain!
It's funny, but everything is relative. The walk over had been miserably hot. The walk back an hour and a half later, though, was actually pretty pleasant. I don't think we even started to sweat until after we were almost at our hotels. Of course, we sucked down those Pepsi's like nobody's business, but that was just because we were thirsty, right?
Alright -- it's right at 7:00 in the evening, which means it's about 1:00 for most of you reading this in the US (or Noon for the Oklahoma folks), but we're off to dinner at 7:30. The actual "tour" starts tomorrow morning, as most of the rest of the group was arriving today. We haven't met any of them -- don't even know what they look like, but group activities are somewhat limited anyhow. After the overview tour and dinner that evening, I think most of the rest of our time is on our own. We still want to go to the Pest side, which is supposed to be the more commercial areas. There's a tour of the Jewish Quarter that's supposed to be very interesting, and I think we'll try to hit that, too.
Larry & Eddie
Soccer fever is everywhere. All of the restaurants and bars have televisions either out on the sidewalk or in the windows where you can see them (most have open air eating areas also). Someone had also set up about a 60 inch flat screen monitor across from a little park, and people were there watching with their kids and stuff. You can walk down the street and see the game without missing any of it.
Today we took the overview we got from the open-topped bus tour yesterday and put it to use seeing Budapest. We went across the river to the "Buda" side, and climbed about a gazillion stairs to see the castle and Mathias Church. We discovered quickly that the Castle is closed on Mondays. Fortunately, the guide books said that wasn't a big deal anyhow.
The church was incredible, as most ancient churches are. Very beautifully rebuilt after it's been conquered by the Moslems, bombed out and rebuilt over time. They had those audio guides in a number of languages, so we could understand what was going on.
Fortunately, most everything is multi-lingual here. I wish we were!
The church has everything you'd expect. The only corpse of a Hungarian King that wasn't found and his bones scattered when the Turks invaded and took over is now housed there, along with his wife. Probably a case of having cheap realty that becomes prime -- he was buried elsewhere, in some cellar, and when things started to get bad, they filled in over his stone casket. Several hundred years later, someone apparently had an, "Oh, yeah! Forgot about them" moment, and now he's moved up to more prime realty on the hill.
The other funny thing about the church -- there was a statue of the Virgin Mary, and the workers didn't want to tear it down -- whether they were scared or it was just too darned big to tote out, I'm not sure. In any event, they just walled her in. Then, several hundred years later, there was some blasting going on for nearby construction. The wall fell down during evening prayers and the moslems were apparently somewhat startled by her appearance during evening prayers.
They gave the church back to the Christians after the Turks left.
We then went back DOWN a gazillion steps to the bottom of the hill, down the road a bit and then up the "pleasant hiking path" to the top of the next hill to see the Citadel, a military fortress that, like many government projects, was built and then decided to be unnecessary by the next administration. As a result, it's never been occupied, but it makes a great place for street vendors to set up and peddle their goods, plust the views of the "Pest" side of the city, as well as the back side of Buda, are spectacular. Even with a little haze in the air, it goes on forever.
This "pleasant hiking path" was a bit much for 2 fat boys to climb on a hot day. Even though it was nicely wooded, and paved, and had stairs at the steep parts, we'd already done a bit over 5 miles by my pedometer, and the extra mile and a half UP the hill didn't account for the fact that we were going up significantly from the river where we started.
We stopped at the statute of the Bishop 1/2 way up. By that time, rolling down the hill in a barrel of nails was starting to sound like not a bad deal. After all, it would be downhill, and you'd hit the water at the bottom and were bound to cool off then. We decided to press on, though.
By the time we got up, we were ready for a cold drink. Of course, like airlines and bus stations, the vendors know that they have a captive audience. I about had a stroke when I found out that a 1/2 litre "Coca Cola Light" was going to cost 400 Florints. Then I realized that 1 florint is about .0443 cents, meaning that the Cokes cost $2.00 each and I realized that was actually a better bargain than we got at the Charlotte airport.
Coming down was much nicer, especially since we found the steps that led straight to the bottom rather than taking the path with all the switchbacks. After a little lunch, we were ready for a nap and to cool down. It's hot and humid here, much on par with North Carolina when we left last week.
An interesting thing to note -- Hungarian men frequently take off or unbutton their shirts, without regard to where they are. Walking down the street, in a restaurant, panhandling -- doesn't matter. Most of them shouldn't. I wonder if there's not a Hungarian or two in our own heritage, maybe.
After a nap, we were trying to figure out what to do and we decided to go to the Turkish Baths. This is a natural mineral spring, and it's been in use, in the same structure, since the 12th century. That's a lot of bathing. It had the advantage, however, of being close by and since there's no pool at the hotel, it sounded like a good option. Besides, when do you ever get to swim in an 800 year old pool that still works?
It's just across the Elizabeth Bridge, which is named for a former Queen of Hungary, and is right next to the river. It's primarily for locals, though, so although many signs were in both Hungarian and German, English was in short supply. Not necessarily a good thing if you're going to be taking your clothes off.
In an odd juxtaposition between old and new, the lady at the front desk used a UPC scanner to issue us electronic admission cards. 2000 florints each, and we were sent through the door to the men's side (they're not co-ed). Fortunately, the attendants there spoke some English.
As you check in, they scan your card again and give you this little cloth breechclout. We weren't sure what to do with this, but took it anyhow. Then one of the attendants realized we were clueless (since we started to go the wrong way), so he showed us our "cabins", which must be short for "cabinette", since they were roughly the size of a small closet. The changing rooms were prefabs of melamine covered fiberboard, so I suspect that they were part of the upgrades rather than original construction.
You put the card in, and this releases the key from the lock, so you can lock your stuff up.
After some debate, we left the cabins and went to the men's pool area. We discovered several things after we got there.
First, there are three categories of men -- some wear nothing, some wear the breechcloths, and some wear swimming suits.
It should come as no surprise that we were firmly in the "Swimming suits" category.
The next universal truth seems to be that those men who should NOT take their clothes off in front of others -- usually are the first to do so. Without a doubt, we were the youngest inhabitants of the facility, but that's probably not a surprise since it was 3:00 on a weekday afternoon. One would expect normal people to be at work.
The pool is pretty amazing, in that it's still standing after all these years. It's octagonal, with skylights above it about the size of a large tomato juice can. These have colored glass in them in no apparent pattern. There were probably 200 of them, and that provided most of the light for the place.
In each corner were mineral springs (that sulphur smell will open you right up!) of varying temperatures. Again, we wished that we'd paid attention in class when those Farenheight to Celcius conversion tables were taught! They went 28 to 42 degrees Celcius, which is "nice and cool" to "pretty warm". The big pool is somewhere in the middle, so it was nice to go from one to the other.
They also had a sauna and steam room. I couldn't do the sauna, although Eddie did a couple of times. I tried the steam room, though -- GASP! It was "flat tire on the blacktop in August on the way to Grandma's" hot in there. I lasted about 30 seconds. Then in another back room there were cold showers and a cold pool. After being in the heat, that ought to feel pretty good, right. WRONG-O, Mary Lou!
It was "pull the well in February on Valentine's day in a snowstorm" cold. I made it to my waste before even my feet were starting to shrivel and pull up. Fearing permanent damage, I went back to the middle pool for a while.
You come out, change your clothes, give back the breechclout, and then you take your electronic card and receipt to another receptionist. She then scans you again and you get a refund depending on how long you've been in there. We got 1200 florints of the 4000 we spent back. We then gladly plopped down 800 of them for a "Pepsi Cola Light".
They know their sales territory, just like up on top of the mountain!
It's funny, but everything is relative. The walk over had been miserably hot. The walk back an hour and a half later, though, was actually pretty pleasant. I don't think we even started to sweat until after we were almost at our hotels. Of course, we sucked down those Pepsi's like nobody's business, but that was just because we were thirsty, right?
Alright -- it's right at 7:00 in the evening, which means it's about 1:00 for most of you reading this in the US (or Noon for the Oklahoma folks), but we're off to dinner at 7:30. The actual "tour" starts tomorrow morning, as most of the rest of the group was arriving today. We haven't met any of them -- don't even know what they look like, but group activities are somewhat limited anyhow. After the overview tour and dinner that evening, I think most of the rest of our time is on our own. We still want to go to the Pest side, which is supposed to be the more commercial areas. There's a tour of the Jewish Quarter that's supposed to be very interesting, and I think we'll try to hit that, too.
Larry & Eddie
posted by me | 9:37 AM
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