This week had been highly anticipated for sometime... since the summer, in fact. Not only would André and I be reunited after six weeks apart (in Europe no less) but it would be his first time on the continent. To begin, I met him at the airport and we spent the day in Brussels. This time, I didn't need a map to find Delirium (the bar with 2000 beers) or the other major sights. It was a real chance for me to show off exactly how Belgian I had become! A severely jet-lagged André's first impression of Europe? "The coffees are really really small here." Don't worry, it was all uphill from there!
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| André in Brussels |
Day two meant travelling to Budapest! I couldn't have been more excited to travel to Hungary. I have been harboring a fascination with Central Europe since high school which was only reinforced by my recent trip to Prague. Of course, the major Western cities are incredible but there is something interesting about those behind the Iron Curtain. Perhaps in North America we are so inundated by images of Paris, London and Rome that, as you move eastward, everything, from the architecture to the food is different. I just can't get enough! My decision to bring André to Budapest (I was also considering Poland and Croatia) was sealed when my friends Sue and Ben gave it rave reviews. Luckily, it lived up or surpassed all expectations!
We rented an apartment through airbnb.com (André's find). It was so cheap and looked so nice online we figured it must be too good to be true. It wasn't. Spacious, full kitchen, amazing location, gracious hosts... What more could we ask for? Our first night we walked around acclimatization ourselves (mostly, to how cheap everything is). We enjoyed Hungarian food and drinks as we planned our weekend and took in the beautiful Chain Bridge (that joins the Buda and Pest sides).
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| Chain Bridge |
Sunday morning, we walked in on a mass at St Stephen's Basilica (conveniently located right down our street on the Pest side). In my last post, I mentioned my love for churches... this Neo-Renaissance design (also one of the tallest buildings in Budapest - equal to the Parliament) was breathtaking. Every square inch of its interior was richly decorated. Bonus, for a minimal fee, we climbed to the roof for a fantastic view of the city. Next we walked to the Buda Castle District. Located on a steep hill, you can easily appreciate the strategic location and see why this was the sight of so much bloodshed. We took in the Budapest History Museum (a disappointment) and wandered the area, a World Heritage Site.
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| St Stephen's Basilica |
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| St Stephen's Basilica, overlooking Budapest |
Travelling, you're often thinking of one thing even when you are taking in the tourist attractions: where is the food? And André and I both love to eat so finding where our next meal would be coming from was a bit of a sport. On our way back from the Castle, we settled on a pizza place suggested by Lonely Planet back on the Pest side. We took a few lefts, a few rights, a few wrongs and next thing we knew, we were kind of lost. Food didn't look like it was coming any time soon, since we were clearly in residential Budapest. And then we turned a corner. There it was, the most perfect of the perfect pizzerias that ever existed. It wasn't the one we were looking for, but it was better. It was delicious. This place was like Atlantis... It appeared out of nowhere just when we needed it and I'm sure if we went back to find it, we never would.
Next on the list of things to do was... Thermal baths (! If there was one, just one, activity we were going to do in Budapest, this was it. Lonely Planet offered a long list of options, but many of them had separate hours/days for men and women. Ben had suggested Széchenyi Medicinal Bath (first built in 1913) so we walked down one of Budapest's more luxurious avenue (you could tell by all the Gucci and Prada) to Hero's Square and City Park to the gorgeous Neo-baroque building that houses the pools. It was a little difficult figuring out the system for the changing rooms but once we did, we had an unbelievably relaxing few hours. There were too many different pools to count... we tried all different kinds and overall, had a blast. This is mandatory for anyone visiting Budapest.
During the remainder of the weekend, André and I discovered Budapest quite thoroughly: the spectacular Parliament Building, the Jewish district and the Citadel. My personal favorite spot was a place called 1000Tea... almost as relaxing as the baths (plus they were playing Johnny Cash, so you can't go wrong).
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| 1000Tea |
All of a sudden (or so it seemed), we were back in Belgium. André met my kot-mates and cooked pancakes with maple syrup for them (they commented that the food was so heavy, they needed mid-day naps to digest). Having someone visiting was a great opportunity to indulge (not that I ever hold out) in fries, beer, chocolate and waffles in copious quantities. I told you we love food!
And for André's last day in Europe, we went to Bruges... I thought there was no better city to show off what Belgium is all about.
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