So sad to leave! Silvia (Airbnb owner) showed up promptly at 5:28am to check us out, and we were headed out to catch the airport bus a few minutes later. The bus ride was a piece of cake, we had purchased tickets the night before and the stop was right across the street from our Airbnb. The adventure started once we got to the airport.

Check-in for the flight had not opened yet, and we stood around in crowds until it opened, 2 hours before the flight. Similar to the way there, had a layover in Istanbul.  Getting through security was easy and fast, and we had plenty of time to get some breakfast and some last minute souvenirs. The Budapest to Istanbul flight was short and uneventful, and I actually don’t remember anything about it.  Istanbul to Chicago turned out to be a bit more interesting.  Luckily, we decided to head to the gate early, where we then proceeded through 3 checkpoints where our boarding passes and/or passports were checked, and one where are bags were checked and we were patted down. Phew! Reminded me a little of Panama, where we had to move away from the gate so security could then screen us again (and take our just purchased sealed beverage bottles). Finally done with all the security, sort of.  There was one woman trying to bring either three bags of coffee or three bags of sugar (Egg thinks coffee, I thought it was sugar).  She and her traveling companion didn’t seem to understand that airport security was not going to let them bring it on board.  Honestly, I don’t exactly understand why.  Either way, the guy kept saying, it’s ok, it’s mine, and the security kept telling him, it doesn’t matter who it belongs to, you can’t bring it on board.

Egg says that Ryan and I are cursed when it comes to travel. At least it appears that way for this trip. There were operational problems with our plane. The flight was delayed 20 minutes, then another 30 minutes, then two hours. At that point, the airlines gave us food and drinks, which is never a good sign! After that, they changed our gate. Luckily, we all stuck around, and just got shuffled up to the new gate. Anyone who had wandered off had to go through the at-gate security process again! Being delayed did allow us to FaceTime with Sam before he left for school. Pretty sure he was more interested in the chocolate milk mom was giving him for breakfast than actually talking to us.

We boarded the plane and got to our seat, where there was a small boy, maybe about 5 years old, standing with a large bag. He didn’t speak English and we weren’t quite sure what to do. Eventually, his grandmother came from further back in the plane to fetch him. Our row, bulkhead, consisted of Egg and Kate on one side, Ryan and me on the other, and a family with two kids, 3 years and 1.5 years, in between us. The row behind us had another baby, and they were all playing musical chairs with the bassinet in the bulkhead.   I cannot imagine traveling with little kids on that long of a flight, but I guess you do what you have to.

Wednesday was our last day in Budapest, and we packed it with sites and fun. First stop was the Dohany Street Synagogue, where we took a tour, learned the history of the synagogue, visited the gardens with the Tree of Life Memorial, and listened to a Klezmer band. The synagogue is the largest in Europe. The architects did not know what a synagogue should look like, so they built it like a cathedral, with an organ and the small raised pulpits on the sides. The synagogue was bombed during WWII, and Estee Lauder and Tony Curtis provided a large percentage of the funding to restore and renovate it in the 1990s. We really enjoyed listening and clapping to the Klezmer band that played in an auditorium on the grounds.

Modeling my new spidey sunglasses

Next up was the parliament tour, that Egg scheduled in advance because it is so popular! The House of Parliament, as can be seen in some of the previous photos posted, looks more like an ornate castle than a government building. The building was gorgeous and filled with gold decorations.

Parliament chamber

Cigar holders in parliament hallway

Original master clockwork of parliament building

After the tours, we grabbed some delicious lunch and went to checkout the Szechenyi Baths for some relaxing before the day of travel ahead.

Lunch starters

The baths were huge, with 18 hot pools (indoors and outdoors), saunas, cabanas, massage rooms, and who knows what else. It was actually a surprise that we all found one another, after going in different entrances and splitting to go to locker rooms. We settled into a large outdoor pool, alternating between floating in the water and cooling off on the chaise lounges, and doing lots of people watching. Ryan was introduced to the European style of women’s bathing suit, not quite a thong, but also not quite covering all of the wearer’s tush either. What a great way to finish up our vacation! (I mean the baths, not the bathing suit bottoms) :-).

Heroes Square

Castle in City Park, across from Heroes Square

Once of the many entrances into the baths

We decided I should probably not try to bring this sign home

The evening was spent snacking on leftover sausage, cheese, and bread, packing, and taking a walk out for rose gelato.

The currency in Hungary is called the Forint, but being Americans, we kept referring to it as Fortnights.

Good to know I can bring my tree saplings and monocycle on the metro

Egg and Kate made a game day call on Tuesday, and decided to take a monster scooter tour around the Pest side of the city. First bikes, now scooters! I don’t even recognize my brother on this trip. They gave rave reviews and said it was a great time and their tour guide was awesome.

Ryan and I decided to sleep in and then head over to the Buda side of the city for some suburban hiking to a few sites. We visited the Cave Church seen previously from the boat tour, and then hiked up to the Citadel with the Lady Liberty statue. The Citadel is situated on a big hill in the middle of a park in the city, requiring us to walk up many many steps. Of course, we also could have taken transportation up to the top.

Monument to St. Stephen outside the Cave Church

After the Citadel, we walked all the way down to the Hospital in The Rock. It was a lovely walk through a hilly suburban area, past parks and schools, with amazing views of the Pest side of the city.

Nice views on the walk

Street signs are typically universal. Any idea what this means? Warning, magnifying glass ahead?

The Hospital in the Rock was very interesting. It was first used as a hospital during WWII and then used as a nuclear bunker. The first half of the tour included the hospital portion, showing all the different patient rooms, operating rooms, surgical instruments used during WWII. The second half included a special exhibition about nuclear weapons, the horrible destruction they cause, and the nuclear threat still very present today. It included a description of the largest nuclear bombs held by countries today, 100s of times stronger than thos dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and a map showing the fall-out area if bombs were dropped on major cities around the world. Fascinating and frightening.

After that very uplifting tour, Ryan and I were getting hangry, and decided to walk to the Feny Street Market for some food. The market was definitely a local market, probably the least touristy thing we did in Budapest. It consisted mostly of produce stands and meat counters, though we did find one counter serving food. We ordered a traditional langos, with sour cream, cheese, and garlic. After a few bites, we had both had enough. It just wasn’t an enjoyable feeling to have that much fat in our mouths at one time. We finished our afternoon with a walk through the mall attached to the market, picking up a small Politie car with a siren and lights for Sam.

Traditional langos

The evening plan was to catch an organ concert at St. Stephens, but that was quickly scrapped. We got to the cathedral, found out tickets were $25ish per person, they only took cash, Kate went to get some out of the ATM, her Discover card was denied, and we all decided to bail.

Everyone trying to sort out the credit card issue

Kate and Egg went back to the Airbnb to sort out the card issues. It was a hassle, but luckily Kate got it all resolved via Twitter of all things. Ryan and I went to Pontoon, a bar on the river, to grab a bite and meet up with Attila. We had some pizza, drinks, and tried Palinka (yuck). There was some live music at the bar, so it was more crowded and noisy than usual, and Attila suggested we move to a place next door after finishing a round of drinks. The second bar was awesome! We sat on Adirondack chairs on the beach overlooking the river, just chilling and chatting.

View from the bar

Attila educated us on Hungarians’ favorite parts of U.S. pop culture.
– Hungarians love the show Dallas, and play a drinking game to it.
– They also love Colombo and have a statue of Colombo and his dog in a city park.
– American Pie, specifically the Stiffler character, was a big hit in Hungary, and there are many bars called Stiffler.
– Hungarians swear much more creatively than Americans, saying things such as “I cut off your head and pee in your neck”.

We stayed out much longer than expected but had a very fun evening!