13 May
Up reasonably early to drop our laundry off. Unfortunately its cold today and the only clean clothes are summer ones so I have to wear a slightly smelly tracksuit again. It will be nice to get some clean clothes back. The weather forecast for the rest of our trip is cool winds/rain etc so the coat has to come out again.
Today we have booked a Wine Tasting and Lunch so wandered to the meeting point - the main market - to make sure we knew where to go and how long it would take us to get there. Wandered back to the hotel via as many side streets and alleys as we could then chilled out for an hour or so.
Back to the Market Hall for our tour. It was interesting to see the many bits of animals that they eat (in fact nothing goes to waste), bit offputting at times. The fruit and veges were the same as us and there were lots of paprika stores. From here we caught a tram to a restaurant for lunch.
Again a bit disappointing as it seemed to be a 'special tourist' lunch of broth with carrots and dumplings (our guide couldn't even tell us what the dumplings were made of), a goulash with pasta (all meat and no veges) and a nice cake for desert. From here we walked the streets and ended up at the same place we did the segway tour from (their office) where we would have our wine tasting.
Down into the cellar we went where there were a few bottles of wine to taste with a little spiel on each one. They may think they have nice wines but I couldn' handle any of them - tasted like petrol to me.
All in all it was a very expensive tour and certainly not worth even half of what we paid. Big disappointment.
We walked back to the hotel, again just strolling along and taking in the scenery and collecting the laundry. Spent a couple of hours reading whilst Alan caught up on his photos and had a nap. We wern't too hungry so wandered down the street and found an Irish pub where Alan had a wonderful meal of rabbit (he enjoyed it as the only rabbit allowed in our house has been the live fluffy pet kind). Walked off bit of the dinner back to the hotel and then watched some Hungarian TV - well it was about 50% ads which were rather funny.
Tuesday 14 May
Nothing planned for today so had a lazy start as nothing opens before 10am. We found a metro station and caught the metro to the House of Terror. The metro was a little more difficult than other European countries as Hungarian is a stand alone language, it doesn't have any similarities with other languages, therefore very difficult to understand. We could always manage to read the French and German stuff on our travels but Hungarian is a world unto itself and there were no English translations anywhere in the Metro. We eventually worked out where we were going and got onto the right line and right train and got off at the right station.
We paid to get into the House of Terror, which was the headqarters of the Hungarian Nazis. Then between 1945 and 1956 the notorious communist terror organisaations the AVO and its successor, the AVH, took up residence here. The museum commemorates the victims of terror and hundreds were tortured and killed in the basement of this building.
Unfortunately nothing was in English so it was very hard to follow the movies and pictures etc on the walls. There were notes in English in each room with told the story of those years but didn't necessarily relate to the room you were in. Became very frustrating after a while but we continued through the building looking at the office of the head badguy and down into the basement where the torture room, execution room and cells were. Altogether a very depressing place but would be very powerful if you understood what was going on.
From here we decided not to get the metro back but to walk and explore some more of the city. We stopped for lunch at a cafe where we ate bad things again then walked some more (I think I will have to spend the next month on the treadmill to even make a start on shifting the extra weight).
Alan has gone off for a massage as the hotel beds are like sleeping on lumpy concrete and I'm updating the blog, then going to spend some time sorting the suitcases before dinner tonight.
Update post-dinner. We walked down to the riverfront to get our dinner cruise. This is another excursion which will get a very bad review in Trip Adviser. It was shocking. The boat was basic, the seats uncomfortable (mind you I don't think Hungarians understand the concept of cushions on seats) the food was dreadful. It was cold and tasteless. Needless to say it was a long 1.5hrs. We had booked it in Australia as we wanted to see the lights of budapest, unfortunately we didn't do our homework very well as the cruise ended at 8.30 and the sun doesn't set till 9pm. So no lights.
Less said about this trip the better.
Now all packed and we are off to Venice in the morning.
Up reasonably early to drop our laundry off. Unfortunately its cold today and the only clean clothes are summer ones so I have to wear a slightly smelly tracksuit again. It will be nice to get some clean clothes back. The weather forecast for the rest of our trip is cool winds/rain etc so the coat has to come out again.
Today we have booked a Wine Tasting and Lunch so wandered to the meeting point - the main market - to make sure we knew where to go and how long it would take us to get there. Wandered back to the hotel via as many side streets and alleys as we could then chilled out for an hour or so.
Back to the Market Hall for our tour. It was interesting to see the many bits of animals that they eat (in fact nothing goes to waste), bit offputting at times. The fruit and veges were the same as us and there were lots of paprika stores. From here we caught a tram to a restaurant for lunch.
Again a bit disappointing as it seemed to be a 'special tourist' lunch of broth with carrots and dumplings (our guide couldn't even tell us what the dumplings were made of), a goulash with pasta (all meat and no veges) and a nice cake for desert. From here we walked the streets and ended up at the same place we did the segway tour from (their office) where we would have our wine tasting.
Down into the cellar we went where there were a few bottles of wine to taste with a little spiel on each one. They may think they have nice wines but I couldn' handle any of them - tasted like petrol to me.
All in all it was a very expensive tour and certainly not worth even half of what we paid. Big disappointment.
We walked back to the hotel, again just strolling along and taking in the scenery and collecting the laundry. Spent a couple of hours reading whilst Alan caught up on his photos and had a nap. We wern't too hungry so wandered down the street and found an Irish pub where Alan had a wonderful meal of rabbit (he enjoyed it as the only rabbit allowed in our house has been the live fluffy pet kind). Walked off bit of the dinner back to the hotel and then watched some Hungarian TV - well it was about 50% ads which were rather funny.
Tuesday 14 May
Nothing planned for today so had a lazy start as nothing opens before 10am. We found a metro station and caught the metro to the House of Terror. The metro was a little more difficult than other European countries as Hungarian is a stand alone language, it doesn't have any similarities with other languages, therefore very difficult to understand. We could always manage to read the French and German stuff on our travels but Hungarian is a world unto itself and there were no English translations anywhere in the Metro. We eventually worked out where we were going and got onto the right line and right train and got off at the right station.
We paid to get into the House of Terror, which was the headqarters of the Hungarian Nazis. Then between 1945 and 1956 the notorious communist terror organisaations the AVO and its successor, the AVH, took up residence here. The museum commemorates the victims of terror and hundreds were tortured and killed in the basement of this building.
Unfortunately nothing was in English so it was very hard to follow the movies and pictures etc on the walls. There were notes in English in each room with told the story of those years but didn't necessarily relate to the room you were in. Became very frustrating after a while but we continued through the building looking at the office of the head badguy and down into the basement where the torture room, execution room and cells were. Altogether a very depressing place but would be very powerful if you understood what was going on.
From here we decided not to get the metro back but to walk and explore some more of the city. We stopped for lunch at a cafe where we ate bad things again then walked some more (I think I will have to spend the next month on the treadmill to even make a start on shifting the extra weight).
Alan has gone off for a massage as the hotel beds are like sleeping on lumpy concrete and I'm updating the blog, then going to spend some time sorting the suitcases before dinner tonight.
Update post-dinner. We walked down to the riverfront to get our dinner cruise. This is another excursion which will get a very bad review in Trip Adviser. It was shocking. The boat was basic, the seats uncomfortable (mind you I don't think Hungarians understand the concept of cushions on seats) the food was dreadful. It was cold and tasteless. Needless to say it was a long 1.5hrs. We had booked it in Australia as we wanted to see the lights of budapest, unfortunately we didn't do our homework very well as the cruise ended at 8.30 and the sun doesn't set till 9pm. So no lights.
Less said about this trip the better.
Now all packed and we are off to Venice in the morning.
Sounds like Budapest was a bit disappointing. Oh and if you think Hungarian is hard, try Swedish!
ReplyDeleteHave some nice Venetian coffee for us.