Budapest Parliament Building
I rode the Seattle light rail to Seattle airport just as Spain defeated Argentina in the World Cup.
I had to go to the long lines at Condor Air because the only way I could do online check-in was to pay for a seat which I refuse to do. Fortunately, for both legs of the flight, I got the left hand aisle seat.
During the flight over Canada and Greenland, Iceland and down through Europe to Frankfurt, I enjoyed watching two movies, “Sinners”, and “One Battle After Another, followed by a four hour sleep. The airplane food was not very good, vegetarian pasta, quinoa, salad, and a brownie. For breakfast it was a pastry filled with some peach like gummy jam. It made me look forward to having some Hungarian goulash for dinner once I got to Budapest, Hungary.
Our plane from Seattle arrived at Frankfurt about 45 minutes later than scheduled which made for a tight connection since I had to go through immigration. The line for non-EU European Union residence was very long. The woman in front of me had two kids born in the US, but she was Swiss so the staff let her go over to the short EU line, I realized I would never get to the plane in time, so I joined her in the EU line.
When I got to the immigration official, he asked me if I had any relatives that were German, and I told him my grandfather was, so he stamped my passport, and I was off and running to the airplane, which had a very long passage with one of the long horizontal escalators out.
As it was, this plane did not leave at 5:40 PM as scheduled, but rather at 6:30 PM so even those who were in the long line made it to the plane.
After arriving at the Budapest airport, one of the staff members pointed me to the 100 E airport bus. To ride the bus, I first had to buy a ticket from a kiosk, which was difficult to use, but a Russian family helped me navigate the system. I was able to get both the airport bus ticket as well as a three day Metro ticket using the kiosk, and joined that family for the ride to downtown Budapest.
From the airport bus stop, it was just four blocks to the Wombat Hostel.
I had booked an eight room mixed dorm with the bottom bunk, and the receptionist gave me a bottom bunk in a four room mix dorm which is very nice. There were only three of us here: Lola from the UK and Delmonico from Italy. He had bicycled his way from Vienna along the Danube River. The receptionist even gave me a complementary towel that normally rents for two euros.
The receptionist also referred me to a nearby restaurant called Getto Guynas where I enjoyed some delicious Hungarian goulash served along with lentils and a large glass of peach nectar.
I learned there were two types of goulash a soup called Gulyas, and a stew called Porkolt. This was the stew.
After a nice hot shower, I got to bed early, and in the morning I got up about 7 AM. The Hostel offered the charcuterie type breakfast for nine euros, but that’s not my kind of breakfast, so I headed out over to the Buda part of Budapest across the Danube river.
Using the three day pass, I caught the number 16 bus that went across the Danube River. I got off near the funicular to the Royal Palace, Castle, and art gallery, and began looking for a restaurant, but they all seem closed until about 8 AM. To pass the time before the restaurants opened, I took the street car that ran the along the west side of the Danube river.
After a breakfast of eggs, Benedict and a coffee latte, I rode the funicular up to the castle area. It was a pricey, but once in a lifetime ride.
The Royal Palace was shrouded in construction tarps and debris, so I ended up spending a few hours at the art gallery filled with Hungarian artist as well as other famous artists.
The view from the ramparts was spectacular, which included the Danube River, several tour boats, other working boats, and the skyline of Pest— the other part of Budapest. I left there about 2 PM as the crowds began to surge.
Titled Greek Woman 1845, the artist is Jacob Marastoni, The most famous Hungarian artist painting in the gallery
Here are 2 Monets: Plum Trees in Blossom and Three Boats, 1879.
The first picture is of the ruins of the Ancient Greek Theatre in Taormina, The next is the same, but painted by. Hungarian artist, Csontvary Koszika Tivadar, and he did The Shaffhausen Falls painting in 1803.
Artwork in the cupola of the art gallery
I again, rode the streetcar both north and south to their ends, much of them along the Danube River. After that I took the #16 bus back across the bridge to the Pest side of Budapest and rode the street car north along the Danube River that passed the Parliament building.
When I returned, I first viewed the largest Jewish synagogue in Hungary. It was very close to the Wombat Hostel. When I return with the Intrepid Tours group, I will take the tour of this synagogue as well as see more tour sites like some of the hot springs/Spas.
On my way to dinner I toured the Saint Stephen’s Cathedral, another large, beautiful building.
I ate dinner at the Backila café overlooking Saint Stephen’s Cathedral. I had a delicious beef goulash soup—Gulyas— with ample pieces of bread and a peach lemonade. I went to the Gelato Rose ice creamery next-door for dessert with these beautiful rose shaped ice cream cones, tailor-made, with several varieties of ice creams and sherbets to choose from. They were real works of art. My choice was the raspberry chocolate cone.
Again, it was early to bed after a nice hot shower. This has been a bit of a time zone adjustment.
For breakfast, it looks like many people do the bakery pastry, takeaway foods and drinks. I prefer to sit down and have a breakfast of eggs with coffee. It seemed like the only one that was open early enough for me was the nearby Starbucks, which I usually avoid, but I enjoyed their cream cheese, scrambled eggs, and bacon bagel for breakfast along with a coffee latte for about $9 compared to $25 for the eggs Benedict the day before.
The check out was about 10 AM, and I hung around till about noon in the lounging area before heading by Metro to the Keleti train station. I got there early so I decided to see if I could get an upgrade from a seat to a bottom bunk sleeper seat. I originally bought the ticket online and it kept telling me the seats for sleepers were fully booked so I ended up buying a seat instead for about $48. At the station, the reservationist was able to get me a bottom sleeper so I only had to pay about $20 more for a lot more comfort.
The #79 Muntenia sleeper carriage was pretty well used. My cabin had six bunkbeds, fortunately I was the only one in it. Unlike sleeper beds in other countries like Thailand, this was a do it yourself making and setting up the bed. Most long-distance trains I traveled in have served food and beverages along the route, but this train had nothing. It was a good thing. I had three granola bars stashed away for dinner and breakfast.
The scenery along the way was mostly farmlands and fields full of grains, vineyards, sunflowers and other plantings. I enjoyed a good sleep as the sunset and the train rolled on.
Shortly after the sun came the sky filled with morning fog.
With the one hour time change, I arrived about 10:30 AM in Bucharest, Romania.