Buda is to Buddha as Alysa is to Alyssa. Welcome to Budapest.

The trip is flying by and I only have five days left before Alysa departs. Who am I going to share every conversation, destination and meal with? We have a system where it's understood that all of our meals and glühweins are half the other person's, especially if sharing food contributes towards our platinum status in the Clean Plate Club.

We had another awesome day in Krakow, mainly spent in the Jewish Quarter. I wasn't kidding when I said we were getting our fill of religious history, to round out our engineering degrees (a valuable combo, I'm sure). We joined a free walking tour group, which are found in many Eastern European cities, and braved the cold with the guidance of a chipper little Polish woman. She worked on tips only, part of which she gave to the tour company, and gave 2.5 hour-long tours in the snow. Alysa and I agree that it isn't a business model that we would invest in. Regardless, we learned a heck of a lot about Polish Jews and their tumultuous history.

Jewish Quarter

The Jews have been persecuted twice in recent history, first by the Hapsburgs from Vienna (hey, them again!) and then during the second world war. The enormous Jewish population was essentially kicked out of Krakow and banished to this tiny ghetto down the river while the Nazis were busy making Krakow into a mini-Germany.

not a nice place to live

street food along the way, called zapiepanki

A really cool illustration of this time period is in the Schindler's List story. Steven Spielberg actually filmed the movie on the same streets that we toured, and Schindler's factory is still located only a few blocks away. The factory was converted into one of the many crazy interactive museums that we've seen, right up there with the music museum in Vienna. We walked through gravel pits and barracks, watched countless reels of survivors telling their stories, and sat in a 1930's barbershop where locals gossiped about the war - all within the museum. Maybe Alysa and I had a negative outlook previously on attending museums because Americans just don't do them as well as Europe. I certainly can't think of any history museums in the US where I get anxious wondering what I'll see/smell/hear/step on in the next room.

Schindlers office

Krakow proved to be a great wandering city, which is a top-priority activity for me and Alysa. It's when we can immerse ourselves in the local culture and truly understand the city, and when I can be snap-happy/artsy-fartsy with my camera. We typically find dessert along the way to maintain our calorie count, and maybe some glühwein to keep us warm. In Krakow we stumbled into a tiny candy shop where they were rolling out warm candy by hand. We joined the row of six-year-olds pressed along the glass (while still clutching our glühwein) and didn't pass up the free samples of fresh-pressed sugar. It was a cool process to watch (and taste) and the sort of activity that can't be found in a guidebook. Wins all around.




We've also fully enjoyed the fun, friendly atmosphere of European hostels, as mentioned in our last blog. The one that hosted us in Krakow, called Greg and Tom,  ranks in the top one or two that I've ever seen. The staff cooked us breakfast and dinner and always made sure that we had our fill of Polish hospitality. The pub crawl that they organized was amazing, located just a few blocks from our hostel. It let us navigate the infamous nightlife of Krakow like a local, to pre-screened venues, and with a great group of people. To top it off, the girl running the activities was named Aga. (After our ridiculously fun summer working at AGA, Alysa and I knew it was destined to be a great time.) Leaving the hostel on Saturday night was tough for us, after a great evening spent sitting around the kitchen table with Aussies, Belgians, Brazilians, and other great friends. I'm always sad to leave a city that we've grown to know and love, but the excitement of delving into a new place always convinces me to get on the train :)

Budapest hasn't made me regret my decision, I can tell you that. After resting up from our overnight train ride, we conquered Buda. Yes, the city is split into two parts by a river - Buda on the east and Pest on the west. Our first dumb tourist question at breakfast was, "Are we in Buda or Pest?" Fortunately I've exasperated so many waiters with my "what's your favorite on the menu?" and "does it have meat?" questions that any prior constraint that I had is long gone. I am that tourist (with dimples, at least).

We meandered over to the requisite castle, which, again, was breathtakingly beautiful. Perched high on the hill of Buda, it offers stunning views of the city and a hefty climb up. We didn't take the trek ourselves (see, I don't make Alysa walk everywhere) but instead treated ourselves to a ride on the little funicular. We toured the grounds, found ourselves in a beautiful church, and took lots of photos :) We found an adorable hand-painted porcelain store among the shops along the cobblestone streets, where Alysa found her Hungarian owl! He's a cutie, let me tell you.

Our mid-afternoon thaw-out cappuccino break took place in a teeny tiny cafe run by a friendly Hungarian woman who was not much older than us. We enjoyed chatting with her about her cafe, life in Budapest, and her experience in the States. She said that she found the suburbs of Houston to be a bit boring and lacking in antique, elegant architecture. US living in a sentence, haha. Her modest business has suddenly been thriving because of TripAdvisor, she told us. Her homey little coffee shop has been open for seven years and she's saying that "it might work out." I find it fascinating how the Internet can drastically make or break a sleepy cafe on a cobblestoned street. We tried to help her out by telling others to visit her cafe (called Walzer Cafe and located close to the castle) and by informing her of other popular travel websites that she can use to advertise. Here's to you, Ms. Walzer!

While we were chatting away in the cafe, the snow started to fall and make Buda sparkle. More photos were needed, obviously. We carefully picked our way down the hill to the Parliament building, which is the second-largest in Europe and stunning.

Dinner took place at a mom-and-daughter Hungarian restaurant in Pest, where we treated ourselves to excellent beef/mushroom goulash. Goulash, or any meat/veggie dish with red paprika sauce, must be a requisite on any Hungarian menu - even our scrambled eggs for breakfast came with red paprika sauce. I won't tell you how many glühweins were consumed during the day, but I can tell you that Hungary makes them well :) We noted the difference in Hungarian wine compared to other countries, which Hungary is known for.  Strudel is another Hungarian delicacy, which we had no choice but to eat for lunch. Apricot and cottage cheese, and apple and peanut. Very tasty.

In asking fellow travelers for advice on Budapest, everyone raved about the restaurants and nightlife. Three separate groups said that we had to go to an eclectic bar called Szimpla, which happened to be down the street from our hostel. Alysa and I aren't about to turn down good recommendations or a good time, much less both at once, so Szimpla was a must-see. The bar was a "ruins bar", the first in Budapest, which means that it is housed in a previously abandoned building. Today it is decorated with all sorts of crazy lights and street signs, and located among many other popular hangouts.

While we were enjoying the live music and Hungarian beer, a group of Americans came over and introduced themselves. They were part of the Peace Corps, like most Americans that we've met in Europe, and stationed in Ukraine. They travel on weekends and use services like CouchSurfing and AirB&B to stay with a local host at little or no cost. Their Hungarian host came with them to the bar too, a sweet girl whose reason for hosting couch-surfers was that she owns a huge apartment and likes meeting people, so why wouldn't she invite travelers to stay with her? It's remarkable how many friendly, hospitable Europeans we've met on this trip. They trust foreigners from the get-go, which I think starkly opposes the American attitude, and welcome them as a new friend. I like that.

On to more new friends and food!

Szia,
Melissa and Alysa