NOTKA: WERSJA POLSKA POD TYM LINKIEM
I wasn't here for ages. Right after my last post where I said that I didn't get any writing job, I got a gig -- two articles about French cheeses and wine. A nice job as I had a lot of freedom, the client is happy, and I hope that I will get more of such works.
Bench with a crab. Because pretty.
Beer and a Christmas dinner for dogs. Found in Tesco in Budapest.
Interior of the Unicum Museum.
Moreover, our trip became a bit crazy -- we'll be in Japan in less than a month, and we're in Poland, we have to unpack, pack again, download the photos and upload them to stock sites. A handful of work.
Not to mention the necessity to go to the dentist and gynaecologist. Uh huh. It's so much to do that my blog was left behind, but I didn't forget about it.
Maybe you noticed that now there are two language versions of the blog, the Polish one włóczykijAda and English Ada Wanders.
I've also signed up to the affiliate program of Booking.com, so when you make a booking for your trip, you might use my site and then I will get a small provision at no cost to you. The booking banner is below every post.
Smog saw from the Gellert Hill.
Tired because of travel, period and computer, I needed a moment of rest to come back to writing. So enough of this prologue, let's see Budapest!
We arrived in Budapest by train from Ljubljana. We left it after nine hours trip, not too tired and quite relaxed. Somewhere at the border between Slovenia and Hungary, a group of men with worn wrinkled like canyons faces, potato-shaped noses and scary looks went into the train. But they barely went in; they were gone on the next station. Later we saw much more of such faces, usually more or less drunk.
When we started to search for the right exit, some woman approached us with a smile. I didn't pay much attention, as I didn't expect anyone to get us. But I was wrong!
It was Agnieszka, a Hungarian friend of Tomek's mother. She speaks Polish and Russian. She escorted us to her sister, and we got a hot tea and a nice dinner. After all those times when we had to look for the way, bus, flat or whatnot ourselves, it was a lovely change.
Tomek started sightseeing from a SPA. I meant to join him, but my biology decided differently. My luck. When Tomek was soaking in steamy 40 degrees in an outside pool of an old SPA (just 1 degree outside), I was lying at home, watching Noragami.
Luckily, I managed to get myself together, and we went to see the Margaret's Island. We were walking through the park that was almost entirely under construction. We saw a Zoo (for free) where the rescued birds are spending their life -- there were falcons, eagles, storks, ducks, turkeys and much more.
After the walk, we went for a hot soup, tea and palinka as, according to the Google, it meant to be 10 degrees. It was three, and we were freezing. It was my first, and last, of food fails -- when I read the menu and saw "soup with meat and potatoes" I expected something like a stew, but instead I got a broth, full of wheat noodles. At least the liquid part was hot, and Tomek got the noodles. I made it up with a cake, but you will read more about Hungarian food in the next post.
Stork in the Zoo.
The next attraction was a view from the Gellert Hill where we were watching a panorama of Budapest with gorgeous Parliament. It was way too crowded, but the sunset was beautiful.
Sunset on the Gellert Hill.
Afterwards, we went to the Fisherman's Towers. A beautiful kitch. ;)
In middle ages, different guilds had various parts of the city to guard, and this one belongs to the fisherman's guild.
After some time, the Matthias Church was built in the way to fit the rest. The towers with spiral stairs, cone tops and arcades were reminding me of Disney movies.
In the end, we went to the Városliget Park and The Hero Square. It was still freezing, and the park looked miserable with all the bare trees without leaves.
From there by metro, we went to the Cafe Gerbaud that resembled a Central Cafe in Vienna. We used the first line, that looks like a big toy or a small tram (it was the second line in Europe, the first on the continent)
Elegant, neat, with gentle background music and many types of coffee. I took the specialite de la maison -- cafe Gerbaud with apricot liqueur, apricot marmalade and cream -- the last part for Tomek). It was delicious, although the jelly on the bottom wasn't the best idea in my opinion. Tomek has finally tried the classic Dobosz torte that looks gorgeous with black and white parts (chocolate pastry and cream) and a caramel top. The caramel was so hard, though!
I wrote about metro. The metro trains are tiny and short, and the waggons have maybe up to ten seats. The stations look like bathrooms with white tiles on the walls and green tiles making the names of the stations.
The four line is the most modern, and it goes like the one in Dubai. That's how the modern technology is mixed with tradition in Budapest.
The camps of homeless people that we saw straight after walking to the underground are quite shocking. Piles of mattresses, beer cans, flowers made of cut beer cans and groups of homeless people around make a strange underground ambience.
We've spent the last day by checking ruin pubs that are now trendy in Budapest. They were abandoned flats or factories, but they were taken over by a bunch of people.
You can see dogs there, buy a carrot for your drink, play table football or soccer. Cool idea but I didn't like the execution. It's not a squat, not a pub and not quite a ruin. They look cheap and dirty, with paintings of penises, sexual slogans and poor drawings, neon lights and mismatched paintings. I've been walking in quite a lot of abandoned buildings, factories and houses and I think I prefer when they're left untouched. The pubs seemed quite overdone but the evening was going fast while talking about Poland, Hungary, the friendship between our nations and life.
Tomek in Szimpla Kert, one of the ruin pubs.
Have you been to Budapest? What do you think about ruin pubs?
The next post will be either about Unicum or the gluten-free food in Budapest. You will find out soon. See you!