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December 18-23, 2003
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Our honeymoon trip to Europe began on December 18th, 2003, as we awoke to news that some airports back east were having delays due to snow. Cincinnati was one such place having delays, and unfortunately, we were supposed to go there first before catching our next plane to Paris. However, when we got to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, the guy at the Delta counter rerouted us via Atlanta. The flight to Atlanta went well; the stewardess congratulated us over the public address, calling us "Mr and Mrs Siegler". Beth and I now use that name as a codename if needed. We had four hours in Atlanta to kill. We spent a lot of time seated in the gate area for our Paris leg, trying to figure which people were Americans, and which were Euros. The Paris leg of the trip was the worst, as the seats were cramped as tight as I have ever experienced. Eight hours later we were very happy to be out of the plane. We spent another four hours killing time at Charles De Gaulle airport outside of Paris. Finally, our last leg to Budapest, Hungary, went well. We landed about 6 p.m. local time and took a taxi to our hotel, the Hotel Erzsebet, in downtown Budapest. We figured we had spent nearly 24 hours in transit. After getting into our room, we ventured out onto the nearby streets and found a little restaurant nearby, where we had our first Hungarian meal. I had goulash- the real thing. The food was excellent. However, jet lag crept in and we were in bed by 8 p.m. local time.
We awoke the next morning and set out for a full day of walking around the city and sightseeing. Our hotel was on a street paralleling the Danube River (called the Duna in these parts), and it wasn't a far walk at all to get to the river. Unfortunately, there was dense fog occluding most views. Despite the fog, and the temps that were right above freezing, we could see enough to enjoy ourselves. Just across the river is a big hill called Gellert Hegy (pronounced "Hedz", meaning hill). We crossed the Erzsebet Hid (bridge) and came upon the steps leading every which way up the hill. After a few hundred feet, we came upon a huge statue of Szent Istvan Gellert (St. Steven of Gellert), a Christian martyr killed in the 11th century (photo below). We then walked up to the top of this hill to a fortress called the Citadel, built during the Austrian occupation. Nowadays it's a tourist destination. However, on this day traffic was light due to the cold and fog, I'm sure. We toured the grounds, viewed the historical markers, and talked to one shopkeeper who had a large set of paraphernalia from the Soviet years. We snapped some more photos, then walked down the other side of the hill. Along the way we visited a large church built into a cave, and then briefly visited a huge Turkish bathhouse set just at the southern foot of the hill (we went to this bathhouse a few days later).
 :  Left: Beth near the Gellert statute. Right: Scott in front of a statue near the Citadel on top of Gellert Hill.
Once down from Gellert Hill we walked north toward the Old Town and the Castle district. It was about a mile of walking, during which we walked through some neighborhoods. Already we'd noticed the large amount of graffiti, sprayed on just about every flat surface. Most of it was gibberish to us. The neighborhoods were run down but not necessarily dangerous. Just kind of depressing to look at. Finally, we arrived at a cable railway (called a funicular railway), paid a few hundred Forints (a few bucks) and got a ride to the top of the hill. This particular hill houses the traditional palace and governmental buildings, and today still contains many fine old buildings, some dating back to the 1300s. Once on top of the hill we were met by some guy with a big Soviet-era moustache and trenchcoat, who introduced himself as "Istvan Alexei" and offered to act as our personal guide for the next few hours. Beth and I were not interested in a guide, and immediately got a funny vibe from this guy. Whenever we'd try to kindly say "not interested" he'd raise his voice and say "Not to be interrupting me again..." and then continue to yammer on in Hunglish. Finally we just walked away from him, and he followed us, calling us names and declaring us "to have a world record for stupidity". What a loon. So, with that we walked around the large buildings, then made our way to the Old Town nearby. This area is dominated by a large cathedral (photos below), spiffy housing built in the 18th century, ruins of an old church from the 1300s, some embassies, lots of nice restaurants, and lots of tourists. We ate lunch, then walked to the church and toured the insides. This cathedral has been bombed a few times and rebuilt, so some of it is fairly new, but built to resemble the original. In one instance was found ourselves amid literally 40 Japanese tourists, all about 50+ years of age, all about 5'-3" or smaller, and all walking en-masse, snapping photos all at once whenever their tourguide stopped talking about something. It was pretty amusing. It was about 4 p.m. when we emerged, kind of surprised to find it already nearing darkness. We decided to walk back to our hotel and grab a nice dinner along the way. In this part of Budapest there were lots of places to eat, and definitely crawling with tourists- many, it seemed, from other parts of Eastern Europe. We also spent some time along the Vaci, a pedestrian street with lots of vendors and booths and people getting ready for Christmas.
 :  The cable railway leading up to the top of the hill, plus a view down to the Danube.
We spent most of the next two days (the 20th and 21st) walking around the immediate areas of our hotel. We went back to Old Town again because that area definitely required another near-full day to properly visit all the nooks and crannies. The weather improved slightly so that the fog wasn't so thick, and the temps rose to about the mid 30s. We decided to indulge ourselves and go to the Turkish Bath house. This place is very popular but not so much so with the tourists, it seems. Lots of locals come here to bathe, relax, get massages... much like we would at any gym. First of all, the architecture is amazing. The building is huge! Budapest sits atop many natural springs and these pools are built over these springs. There is a central pool where men and women can intermingle, and then there are segregated places, too. They do not allow nudity, however. The signs in front, written in various languages, told us as such, in a somewhat ornate and awkward English, "The Management most kindly wishes to inform its treasured guests that bathing suits must always be worn, in place of stripping...". I wore my regular trunks, out of place amid the speedo-wearing Euros. I got yelled at a few times in Magyar (Hungarian) for whatever infraction I had committed. The staff speaks no English. In one case I forgot my bathing cap. Beth and I checked out the communal pools then the segregated ones. Beth says she got yelled at by the female attendant, as big as a refrigerator, for not having a towel. All in all, good Hungarian fun, and cheap, too! We also wanted to go visit the Parliament and the National Museum, but both were closed for tourists when we showed up. Oh well. On the 22nd, we got bold and took some subway trains to outlying parts of Budapest. There are some old Roman ruins at a place called Anquincum, about 8 miles north of downtown. We got there fine, once we figured out how and where to get tickets for the trains, and where to validate them. We got off the train at our destination and again found the place "closed", although we could easily walk around the perimeter. We also walked into a local neighborhood just to see what was happening. Not much. We then walked back out to the ruins. I wondered why the Romans always seemed to build their buildings about 3 feet high and without roofs. Beth knows me well enough to not respond to me sometimes. Coming back into downtown proved to be challenging. The train dispenser kiosk was busted, and when we asked some people where tickets could be bought, we got responses ranging from being totally ignored (by an older woman probably conditioned to not talk to anyone during the commie years) to fast-talking Hungarian responses. So we just decided to board... and it turned out no one checked and we were just fine. The buildings outside of downtown were those huge, ugly Soviet-style blocks that went on and on forever, and graffiti was everywhere. That night we had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant called the Karpatia. Some gypsy musicians played some brilliant music and the food was wonderful. The restaurant itself was ornately decorated. Definitely a 5-star place by any standards! This served as our treat to ourselves, to splurge at a nice place like this on our last night in Hungary. The next day we got on our train for a full day's ride to Prague, which you will have to read about by clicking here (link is dead for now).
 Beth in front of a tiger on Erzsebet Hid (Bridge).
All in all, Budapest was incredible. It's a place that is still coming out from under its past which includes lots of foreign occupation (the Turks, Austrians and Soviets). Anyone older than 45 seemed to walk around, head down, as if they would be taken away at any moment. The younger people were completely the opposite. It has incredible architecture and beautiful buildings, but is still a poor place overall. They are supposed to join the European Union soon, which will probably help, and I am sure in 20 years it'll look even more spiffy. But this did not detract from our experience at all. It was thoroughly amazing and we made an effort to learn of its history, what best we could in four days.
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