2012 Trip #3 - Budapest, Hungary

We have been making the most of opportunities to travel around Europe lately and with a three day holiday weekend for Children's Day? Perfect chance to getaway. [Sidebar: apparently this is not just a Turkish holiday, although the Turks combine it with sovereignty day or the day the national assembly was established.  According to my online 'research' the US celebrates Children's day as well - am I the only one who missed this growing up?]

We continued our streak as we travelled North through Eastern Europe (Turkey > Bulgaria > Romania > Hungary; guess we need to try Poland next!) to Budapest, Hungary. I will have to say this is probably my favorite city we have visited since moving to Turkey. It is the perfect, quaint European town, despite boasting a population of nearly 2 million people.

The weather was yet again predicted to be rainy, but we ended up having nearly perfect weather with only a light, quick spring shower on Saturday night. I'm starting to wonder about these weathermen. We were leisurely tourists again, wandering aimlessly, enjoying cafes and definitely some good Hungarian food, which came along with jokes about being hungry in Hungary. Yes, that happened quite a bit.

Weirdest thing about Budapest? The currency. The exchange rate is somewhere around 220 HUF to 1 dollar. That means a meal usually cost around 3,000 - 4,000 HUF; 200 HUF is in a coin and we even got a 20,000 HUF bill from the ATM. Needless to say, I had trouble keeping the conversions straight all weekend.

 Chain Bridge - looking across to Pest

Matthias Church - also converted to mosque when the Ottomans came into town.  

Man, those Turks were everywhere

                             View from the top of St Stephen's basilica                                  Inside the Basilica                       

 St. Stephen's basilica at night

 Oh, did I forget to mention we did a segway tour? 

I promise I was much better at it than I look in this picture

Favorite pic of the trip - notice Paul's dancing on the segway

Quick History
- In its long history, it has been controlled by Romans, Magyars, Ottoman Turks and the Communists
- It is actually two distinct cities - Buda and Pest, which are separated by the Danube
- They were under communist rule until 1990 - ya, that's right, the 90's. Luckily, unlike Romania, alot of the historic and beautiful buildings were left intact during this rule

What to see
- Chain Bridge: it gives you a great view of the Danube and is a beautiful bridge
- Matthis Church and Fisherman Bastion: after crossing the Chain Bridge, get a ticket for the funiculer to get great views on your way to the top to see Matthis Church. We didn't go inside, but the roof is something like you have never seen before
- Parliament Building: get a great view from the Buda side of town; take the metro over to the Parliament and night is an especially good time to see it all lit up
- St. Stephens Basilica (and HAND!): take a quick peek around the inside, view St Stephens hand (and he died around 1100 AD) , then head up to the top to see great views of the city. Afterwards, head back down to grab something to eat.  Our favorite restaurant? Tom George's
- City Park and Hero's Square: This is a great place to people watch and enjoy beautiful weather of Budapest
- Jewish District: this is a great neighborhood to wander around, with lots of restaurants and pubs.  We tried Szimpla Budapest - it has a quirky vibe that reminds me of a hole in the wall place you would find somewhere like Austin

2012 Trip #2.5 - Romania

I would like to call this trip from last weekend trip 2.5. Yes, only a half trip because only I went, no Paul. So while I won't necessarily count it as number 3 (unless we get all the way to 9 and this trip puts me over the edge), I still wanted to share it with you all.

In case anyone was thinking that I was an adventurous traveler, heading out into the great unknown alone, do not fret, or think me more courageous than I am. My friend from college Katy came and spent a week with me in Istanbul before heading to Prague, so we decided Bucharest was a perfect middle point between the two. Plus it was one of the few places that was cheap and easy to get to and neither of us had visited before.

Week before we leave, we check the weather - rainy forecast. Great.

Day before we leave, Katy researches things to do. Bucharest pops up on Rick Steve's list of worst places in Europe. Even greater.

Needless to say, we went into the whole thing with pretty low expectations.

Perhaps it was these low expectations that made the trip so pleasantly surprising. Or perhaps it was that we acted like Europeans and besides a walking tour and day excursion, we mostly randomly wandered side streets, ate and drank at little cafes and caught up on old times.

Bucharest probably gets a bad wrap because of its architecture.  After being part of a communist nation, you have lots of grey, block concrete buildings to look at.  But, despite that, there are tons of lovely things to see too.  Somewhere I read that Bucharest was a mini-Paris (although maybe that was actually Budapest), and you can see that in some places.  Narrow streets, steeped roofs, little cafes can be found interspersed throughout the not so lovely block buildings.

People's House (Romanian Parliament) - this building is the second largest building by surface area, after the Pentagon. It is so large that some of the people from Top Gear raced in the basement during an episode 

 St. Nicholas Russian Church - we attended a midnight Easter service here. Or rather stood outside. It gets so crowded that everyone lines up outside to have their candles lit just after midnight.  The service can run for several hours.  Seeing that it was raining and in Romanian, we lasted 30 minutes.

While my hands were full with a candle and an umbrella, I missed a photo op. Luckily I found this one on the Bucharest Life blog. And yes, as mostly Orthodox Christians, Romania celebrates Easter a week later later using the Julian calendar.

After exploring Bucharest, we wanted to visit the mysterious Transylvania region of Romania. This is the supposed home of Dracula according to Bram Stoker. The character Dracula is based off the Romanian leader Vlad the Impaler (known as such because of his cruel treatment of the Turks). Common myth however, and tourist trap, because Vlad lived in the Wallachia region which is to the south of Transylvania and includes Bucharest.

Our first stop on the Transylvania tour was Peleș Castle in Sinai, the summer residence of the royals of Romania. This is their version of Dolmabahçe Palace, built between 1873 and 1914 by Carol I, the president from Germany.  It is almost so over the top that you can't believe it was really used.  A sliding ceiling? Vacuum sockets throughout the palace? Or maybe we just had a tour guide who enjoys tall tales.

 Exterior of Peleș Castle

Next stop, Dracula's Castle or more appropriately Bran's Castle. This was a medieval castle that was a stop on the Silk Road and housed traders and government tax collectors. Once Romania became unified, the people of Brad gifted the castle to Queen Marie. It is most famous though for its associations with Dracula.  While it isn't really Dracula's Castle (see above, and yes really even though the guide may deny this and says vampires are real), it could have perhaps been what inspired Stoker's description of Dracula's castle in the books.

 Dracula's Castle - ooooh, creepy!

 View of the castle from the watch tower. 

 View of the town of Bran from the watch tower.

Last stop was the nearby town of Braşov. After a great lunch, including some goulash which show the Hungarian influence in the area, we wandered around the quaint city. It was such a cute little town, but impending storms took us home.

Braşov

Moral of the story - don't judge a book by it's (communist) cover. 

Jet Setting

I have been slacking in the blogging over the last few weeks – my apologies.

BUT, the reasons being that I was:

a) Visiting the States getting in my fill of family, friends, American food (think Sonic happy hour, Honey Butter Chicken Biscuits and bacon daily) and margaritas. Yes, margaritas make the list
b) Busy being a tour guide to my old college roommate Katie! She spent her last spring break ever with me traipising around Istanbul
c) Working from my company's London office for a week, catching up with my colleagues, doing a little bit of sight seeing and TONS of reading the Hunger Games which they got me addicted to.

I have really enjoyed the last three weeks, but alas, back to reality – and blogging.

Over the last few weeks, I have spent a lot of time on planes which has been unusual for me as of late. I used to travel a lot when I lived in Dallas. I wouldn’t necessarily have called myself a “road warrior,” but I often was travelling at least 3 times a month to all kinds of places – California, Canada, Philly or glamorous South Texas.

Even after all that time on the road, I still have to say that flying in Turkey is different than anywhere else I have travelled before.  The planes are mostly the same, you have little legroom, loud passengers, entertainment system (which I will say is nicer than a lot of planes) and even bagged nuts; the experience though?

1. Ataturk Airport. Never until flying through this airport have I had to go through security twice. Once when you first enter the airport before you even can get your boarding pass, and another time before you go to the gate.  Not necessarily complaining and I can see more airports doing this in the future, but just more times of being stuck behind those slow pokes in line who can’t figure out how to remove their liquids (have I mentioned that I am not a patient traveller?) 
2. Boarding. I do not think that any type of boarding is efficient, and yes, that includes Southwest, but this is especially inefficient. As soon as they announce that they are ready to start boarding, the whole waiting lounge goes up to the gate to board.  Who cares about boarding groups? Elderly and children? Pshaw.  Everyone for themselves to get on board and claim the overhead space. 
3. Arrival. Once we make a safe landing, you hear people clapping. Not the whole plane, and not always loudly, but people are definitely clapping. I think this perhaps intrigues me the most. Is it a way to say thanks? Are they saying job well done? If that is the case, it scares me a bit. I would like to hope that we should always land safely and while it deserves thanks to the pilots for their service, not necessarily a congrats of a job well done.

 Despite some of the hassles of international travel, I wouldn’t change it in for the world. As Paul said this week, a year ago, who would have thought we would nonchalantly be discussing heading to Italy for the weekend for a quick getaway, or could take a 3 hour flight to almost anywhere in Europe? What a wonderful life.

 My London stay - the heart of Picadilly. I love Turkey, but London has my heart too.

Christmas Market in Germany

This weekend Paul and I took my first trip since I moved here - I must say, I love being able to take a quick 3 hr flight for a weekend trip in Europe.  We had heard alot from other expats here about the Christmas markets in Germany and decided to give it a try.

The markets were so amazing - the market stands were all over the city.  We spent two whole days exploring them.  Apple wine, nutcrackers, ornaments, lots and lots of food, toys, scarves, carved wood, art, steins, so much more. 

It was great during the day because you weren't fighting the crowds.  We got to enjoy looking around.  At night, the crowds kicked in - and I know why.  It was magical at night to see everything lit up.

While we had expectations of doing some much needed Christmas shopping, we ended up spending most of our time eating, with some walking in between! We had brautwurst, fries, schnitzels, potato pancakes, some uber delicious apple pancake (apfel pfannkuchenspezialitaten according to the sign - see delicious picture below!), apple wine, mulled red wine, hot chocolate, beer, crepes, delicious choclate creme pastry, candied pecans, and probably lots more I am forgetting.  It was delicious.

We also had a chance to attend a vesper service at the St Nicolas church that is right in the middle of the Christmas markets.  It was such a great way to get into the holiday spirit and nice to be around people speaking English :)

We head back to the US next week for the holidays - Merry Christmas everyone!

My favorite food of the market - apfel pfannkuchenspezialitaten with cinnamon and sugar on top!

More German food

View of the Market and Christmas tree

Market with St. Nicolas church in the background