Stepping back in Hungarian Time

My parents aren't ready to give up on car trips, even when traveling in Europe. While Ian & I are full fledged fans of train travel and have a growing love for cheapo plane trips (yes- even Ryanair & EasyJet), we have to admit seeing Europe by car is an entirely different experience.

Buda Love

Once again, we have decided to rate the cities we are visiting with the parental units. The first leg of our mini- central European tour, we start with breath-taking Budapest.

To elaborate on yesterday....Budapest

What I mean by,

"Ian is trying to kill me" 

was that his planning for the day left us hiking up to the top of a Budapest's hilltop Citadel with no food and wandering the streets aimlessly for hours! Not the best of ways to stay friends with your girlfriend. Luckily, we re-grouped, went to a grocery store, bought a jar of pickles, apple juice, and some rolls and feasted. Why those things? We were hungry and hunger thinks all food is beautiful.

Hungarian Pickles

Budapest has been interesting. We thought we were really going to like it and it was still going to be pretty cheap & it has hit more on the OK meter. Maybe it's not Budapest- it's us. Whatever the case, we have enjoyed the architecture and strangeness, but haven't loved everything geared toward English speakers & touristy being so pricey and not being able to speak any Hungarian. We try, but it is much more difficult after being able to get around in German.

This is how I was feeling about Ian before we ate

No food or water at this point - I wanted that cannon to go off

After our emergency grocery meal, I was feeling a lot more charitable about the city.

Finally - some goulash!

Tonight we are off to Shigisoara, Romania where Vlad the Impaler (Dracula) grew up. We should be able to get into some small town nature and relax. Ahhhhhhh. Sounds great.

As we board the night train (which turned out to be the trip from hell, almost as bad as the 26 train to Istanbul) we will take care to cover our necks, put on the garlic necklace, and watch for bats as we enter Transylvania.

Pictures of Budapest

Update:

At the time we were a bit confused why the city didn't strike us. Looking back, it seems clear that a lack of planning and failure to take care of basic needs like food and water left us out of sorts. We arrived late after a perfect visit to Vienna, a city we had visited before and German speaking. To make matters worse, we had nothing reserved (only a tenuous couchsurfing option that didn't work out) and it was a national holiday. This was a crash course in what not to do, and for the rest of the trip we actually did much better.

Luckily, we got the got the chance to visit the city again with my parents and it was wondrous.

Buda Love

Ian is trying to kill me

and it is only the second day of the trip. Wish us luck in Budapest.