{"id":308,"date":"2009-10-13T08:53:01","date_gmt":"2009-10-13T08:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/?p=308"},"modified":"2009-10-13T08:53:01","modified_gmt":"2009-10-13T08:53:01","slug":"hungry-in-hungary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2009\/10\/13\/hungry-in-hungary\/","title":{"rendered":"Hungry in Hungary"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Budapest had a noticably different flavor from Vienna – uniquely beautiful and full of character. Despite forgetting our change at a train ticket booth and getting lost on our way to the hotel<\/a>, we quickly adapted to the new environment. Lunch was at nearby Horgasztanya<\/a>, where the hot, flavorful catfish soup put smiles on our faces. Refueled, we strolled along the Danube to the Chain Bridge<\/a>, then took a funicular<\/a> up the hill to the top of the castle district of Buda. Our walking tour took us past the Hungarian National Gallery<\/a> and Budapest History Museum<\/a> to Matthias Church<\/a>. Here, massive scaffolds concealed some of the roof tile mosaics, but the intricate interior decor was breathtaking. We then experienced the fine art of bathing at Szechenyi Baths<\/a>, where we soaked away our stress and fatigue in a variety of whirlpools, Roman baths, and saunas. Our post-bathing hunger was satiated with an all-you-can-eat Hungarian buffet<\/a>, which allowed us to sample many different but indifferently-prepared classic Hungarian dishes. Day two began in bustling Central Pest, where we were bedazzled by the Art Nouveau architecture of the Posta Takarekpenztar<\/a>, the former post office savings bank, and Gresham Palace<\/a>, now a Four Seasons Hotel. At St. Stephen’s Basilica<\/a>, we gawked with the crowds at the mummified hand of the first king of Hungary, for which the cathedral was named. Even more impressive was the Parliament<\/a> building, where a guided tour allowed us to explore its elegantly gilded interior. After some fozelek<\/a> and palacsinta<\/a> for lunch, we tiptoed through the House of Terror<\/a>, which despite sounding like a carnival freak show was actually a depressing exhibit about the Hungarian victims of the Fascist and Communist dictatorial regimes. But Melody brightened up with a trip to the Zoo Budapest<\/a>, where we petted noisy goats, fed hungry hippos, and frightened a lethargic lion. For dinner, we shared a platter of venison, wild boar, and pheasant that neither of us could finish. We spent our last full day shopping along Vaci utca<\/a>, using up our remaining fiorints on a scarf, a vase, and some paprika and saffron. A brief detour to the Museum of Applied Arts<\/a> provided us another chance to admire Budapest’s architecture. We wrapped up the evening with some night photos and yummy crepe-like palacsintas at Nagyi Palacsinta<\/a> (“Granny’s Pancakes”). On our final morning, we squeezed in the last tastes of Budapest before our flight home – freshly baked retes<\/a> and a big bar of marzipan<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Budapest had a noticably different flavor from Vienna – uniquely beautiful and full of character. Despite forgetting our change at a train ticket booth and getting lost on our way to the hotel, we quickly adapted to the new environment. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}