Budapest Part 1

Friday and Saturday, July 12 & 13, 2013

Friday morning we awoke to begin our big travel day.  We flew from Glasgow back down to London Heathrow, where we had a three hour layover before we boarded our two-hour flight to Budapest.  We were lucky to leave Heathrow before operations were shut down for over an hour due to a fire on an empty 787 at the airport!  

Leaving Heathrow, off to Budapest!

Our flight arrived without incident, we took a cab to our lovely hotel, Le Meridien, where we were greeted with a fancy plate of bonbons, compliments to Gavin, as a very elite Starwood preferred guest--Ooh la la!

A little welcome gift for Mr. Starwood Preferred Guest

We settled in, changed our clothes, and asked our concierge for a dinner recommendation.  She directed us to a quite fancy, modern Hungarian restaurant a short walk away, with a lovely outdoor terrace lined with colorful potted flowers.  I wasn’t sure what to expect with Hungarian cuisine, as it was unfamiliar, and  hasn’t caught on in the states, but we turned out to be very impressed, with not only the food, but the wine as well.  We had an exceptional dinner, and retired happily to our hotel.

Enjoying a lovely dinner on the terrace

Mommy and Daddy enjoy their wine, as Ewan entertains himself with his "ePhone"

The next morning we decided to sleep in, as travel can be tiring when we are constantly on the go!  Gavin had been looking online to purchase our train tickets to Vienna, which would be our next stop, but unfortunately the website wasn’t allowing it.  We asked at the concierge and learned that we had to go directly to the train station to purchase the tickets, as it was Saturday, and the ticket office in town would be closed.  Luckily, the train station was an easy subway ride, just three stops away.  It turned out our hotel was ideally located at the convergence of all three subway lines in the city--how convenient!  It took us a while to get our bearings in the subway station at first.  The Hungarian language is so foreign--and I’m pretty good with languages--but it’s not like the Latin languages where it’s somewhat easy to get the gist of something.  There are virtually no common or familiar words.  In any case, we managed to get to the train station easily enough and we found the ticket counter for international rail.  Of course we had to wait in a long, slow line behind several humongous backpack-clad Euro-students, but we were able to purchase our tickets no problem.  We decided to entertain Ewan’s request for ice cream at the ubiquitous gelato stand at the station, given it had been a long and boring morning, and we hoped the sugar might perk us all up.  After we indulged, we hopped back on the subway to our next destination, the Hungarian Pariliament, building, one of the most famous and impressive sights in the city.  

Hungarian Parliament building... the surrounding area
is under considerable construction, unfortunately.

We discovered that the ticket office was closed, but it was possible to purchase tickets online.  The 1:45 tour was just heading in and we missed it, so Gavin pulled out his trusty iPhone and booked tickets for the final tour of the day at 3:00 PM.  Since we had an hour or so to kill, we wandered into a corner market and picked up a snack, and then walked toward the river where we found a small park where we ate and let Ewan play on the slide.  

Having fun while we wait for our tour to start

We walked back in time to join in our tour of the famous building.  It was difficult to understand and hear our tour guide, but it didn’t matter as all three of us were too busy snapping photos of the famously opulent interior of the building--yes, even Ewan was snapping away.  I gave him my point and shoot camera to manage, which luckily held his attention for the duration of our visit.  That, along with  gawking at the handful of stony-faced guards sprinkled throughout the building, standing at attention, donning crisp, pressed uniforms and wielding shiny, sharp swords.

The lavish interior of the Parliament building

 

Ewan made a friend

After the 45 minute tour, we began walking back in the direction of our hotel.  We came across another, much larger and interesting playground in one of the squares on along the way.  We indulged Ewan and let him play for close to an hour, given he had endured the rather dull morning of having to trek to the train station and wait in line, followed by a boring tour of some old government building.  It’s good to let him blow off steam when we can!  We then walked the mile or so back to our hotel, where Gavin took Ewan to yet another playground, across the street from our hotel.  We had a while in our room to relax before dinner. 

We found another, better playground while walking back to the hotel

We passed by the beautiful St. Stephan's Basilica on our walk back

We had made reservations to attend the traditional Hungarian folk night at our hotel, which I was slightly skeptical about beforehand, but I liked the idea of going to a buffet where we could try lots of different things, as well as have the benefit of live music and dancing.  I knew we’d be surrounded by other tourists, but hey, the wine was included in the price, so how bad could it be?  Well, it turned out to be not bad.  Not bad at all!  In fact, we were really impressed with the quality and variety of the food.  The live music, provided by a quartet playing traditional Hungarian folk and classical music, was lots of fun.  

Three pairs of lively dancers entertained the crowd; the men slapping their knees and heels, the pretty girls twirling around sending their embroidered skirts aloft.  It was a fun, festive evening that all three of us enjoyed very much.