Budapest!

I arrived in Budapest on December 10. I hung out at my lodgings, the Black Sheep Hostel, chatting to the two young ladies who worked there. One of the girls was watching 1D videos on an endless loop. (For those of you who don't know, "1D" stands for One Direction, the English boy band.) I wondered aloud which 1D-er would be the gay one, which would be the womanizer, and which would be the break-out star. "Harry Styles" was the answer to the last two questions, but the girls both insisted that none of the young men were gay.

"Ricky Martin from Menudo, Jonathan Knight from NKOTB, Lance Bass from NSync," I replied. "All gay. Statistically speaking, all boy bands must have at least one gay member." I have to admit, it was really fun getting those girls riled up, especially the one who was a massive 1D fan.

Later that night, I wandered out to forage for my dinner. I came across this place called "Lado Cafe" which boasts traditional Hungarian food. I started my meal off with Hungarian schnapps, called palinka. After the first sip, I added some water so that I could continue to drink it. Hoo-yah!



For my first course, I ordered traditional Hungarian goulash.





For my entree, I ordered the pork medallions with potatoes.



And finally, dessert called Somlói galuska. My God!



I'll try to stop drooling long enough to describe the dessert to you. From the first bite, I could taste walnuts, raisins, sponge cake (obviously) and something boozy that I couldn't identify. My research on Hungarian cuisine tells me that it's rum. Whatever was in it, this dessert was absolute heaven in my mouth. I waddled back to the hotel feeling full but lovely.

The next day, after enjoying the free breakfast at the hostel I had big plans: ride around for two hours on the hop-on, hop-off bus tour, come back to the hostel for a nap, then meet in the city center at 3:30 for the tour of Communist Budapest. Well, I missed the Communism tour because I woke up at 3:15. There was no way I'd make it to the city center. I did, however, get some beautiful pictures of the city from the tour bus.















I took an obsessive amount of photos of the Danube, but I've spared you, dear readers, from most of them. Oh, and here I am, on said bus!



That bridge in the first picture is the Chain Bridge. Construction on the bridge began in 1839 and was the first permanent bridge to be built that united the cities of Buda and Pest to become, in 1873, Budapest. When I saw the bridge from the tour bus, I decided that I would walk across that bridge the next day. And I did just that.

For dinner that night, I walked about five blocks to a gourmet soup and sandwich place called Bors Gasztrobár. I ordered the Kobuszos Chili Sutotor, a soup of butternut squash with coconut and chili. I had gulped almost all the soup before I remembered to take pictures of my food so that my fellow foodies could enjoy my culinary journey. Sorry, guys!



I also ordered a Mojky Way baguette which is a sandwich roasted duck liver, pear mustard, and caramelized onion jam.



I know some of you will be grossed out by those sandwich ingredients, but it was really delicious.