July 15, 2013 - Travel Home

What a day.  We woke up at 4:00 am.  Got ready to leave with all of our bags packed.  We cleaned out the fridge and had our cinnamon and chocolate rolls for breakfast.  We started taking our bags down around 5:45 and our taxi's were there before 6:00.  I waited in the apartment for them to show up to check us out and return our deposit, which she did right at 6:00.  I ran down and jumped in the taxi and we were off to the Budapest airport.  We walked in and thought oh crap.  We saw a huge line to check in but luckily that was for a different airline.  It is not as easy to tell which line is for which airline as you have to find the name on an electronic sign above. Not like at home where the airline is plastered on the back wall.  These are all generic and they open up whatever counters they want at the time they are checking people in. Well we got checked in with no problem.  The security line was very minimal and what was nice is you didn't have to take your shoes off, unless you were like Fred and could not go through the scan thing due to his pacemaker. Or you were like Roger who didn't notice no one else was taking their shoes off and did it out of habit.  Well once we were through security we started SHOPPING!!! Ok if you know us at all you know that we collect alcohol.  So there were some specialties that we wanted to take home with us so we bought them at the Duty Free shop which was cheaper than in town since they were also on sale.  So then we headed to our gate but first we had to pass through another security check point and show them our passport, which I liked because they added another stamp to my passport.  We were the first people in our gate area which we thought was weird since there was less than an hour before our flight.  Well then we started looking at how much Hungarian currency we had left.  So again we went shopping since if we returned the money to the bank you do not get a good rate we figured we might as well spend it.

We all flew the same flight on British Airways from Budapest to London Heathrow airport.  We appreciated the fact that they not only gave us a drink they also fed us a salami sandwich.  I was very fortunate as to  have the window seat on the right side of the plane so as they were circling to land I had wonderful views of London.  I only wish I could have found my camera to take some aerial shots but I was too caught up in the moment.   Once we reached London that is where we parted company with Elaine & Fred.  They had a little earlier flight on British to Dallas and we were flying American.  I have to say on international flights they don't let you go hungry,s they even fed us a pizza just before we landed.  Now this is were we had the worst time.  We landed in Dallas and new we had to go through customs which we had our paper work filled out and were ready for.  What we were not ready for was the two hours it would take us to get through the customs line, picking up our bags and waiting in another line to give our documents and drop off our bags. This is when I was glad that American had changed our flight time.  We did sleep on our flight from Dallas to Fresno since it was finally dark.  So when we got home we were awake.  This is the first time I have come home and right away unpacked.  I had everything from my suitcase unpacked and put away, took a shower and was finally able to go to sleep around 2:30 am.  So lets just say it was a very long day but we are grateful that we made it home safe and sound.

July 14, 2013 - Last Day in Budapest

Today is our last day in Budapest so we decided to take a walk to Margaret Island (Margitsziget).  Of course we did a lot of window shopping so Fred would just walk ahead and wait for us.









 The park is a big island in the middle of the Danube.  Roger can't pass up a chance to play with some water.










There are all kinds of paths to walk or ride bikes. They have a  sports complex, swimming pools and a bath.










You get to the park from the middle of the Margaret Bridge.

 I will finish this page when I get home and can get the pictures off of Rogers camera.

July 13, 2013 - Great Market Hall, Heroes' Square &

Today we bought a 24 hr. transportation card and headed to the Great Market Hall.

They had booth after booth of vegetables.











They also had some cute pickled vegetables.

Pastries

We watched as some cafe workers had a whipped cream fight.  They didn't mind stopping for a picture.

They were having a Japanese themed day.  They had drummers.  You could learn to make origami flowers & how to make sushi.

  
They were selling different Japanese items.  Amanda got some chopsticks.

Fred had waited outside for us in the park area next to the market until a bird pooped on him and he moved back to be undercover.

We walked down the pedestrian walkway and Amanda made a new friend.

Of course we had to go in.

We caught the metro and got off at Heroes' Square and we saw this group on a beer bike.

Amanda horsing around.














We saw the Sacramento water polo team.

From there we headed to the city park and the Vajdahunyad Castle.

How does he do that?











 This little chapel in the park we could not go in because they were getting ready for a wedding.

The happy couple.



















Amanda took a quick violin lesson.  I guess she wasn't that good.

 It was a very picturesque area.













Then we walked across the street to the Szechenyl Baths.

We peeked through the window and saw all the people using the outside pool.

Then the hunt was on through the park to find the metro station.  I don't think you could get away with this at home, having all the food just sitting out in the open.  Corn on the cob anyone?

Tonight we went to Gyuribacsi Restaurant for dinner tonight.

 It is a meat lovers  heaven.












And a vegetarians nightmare.

July 12, 2013 - Szentendre

Amanda wasn't feeling well today so she stayed at the apartment while we went to Szentendre.  We caught the metro just down the street.  This metro line is very deep and it makes you feel a little weird as you are going down.









We got off at Batthyany Ter HEV station.  Of course if you go down you must go up.  Elaine & I were in charge of this trip but we had a hard time making the lady understand that we each needed two round trip tickets to Szentendre.  First she gave me two one way tickets and was going to give Elaine two one way tickets to get us back.  But eventually she gave me the wrong ticket and Elaine the right ticket. So I had to buy two one way tickets to get Roger and I back.  I think it is because Elaine got the Senior rate and I didn't that they only needed one ticket for both of them.

The HEV train is not near as nice as the other trains.  It is like an old metro train.











This is a pretty easy commute the only thing was that they made us get off at one stop which we were not expecting and then we finally figured out that we just had to wait for another train to take us the rest of the way.  Of course as we are trying to ask people not one spoke English.

According to the guide book all roads lead to the center, so off we went.

 
This is just a little town that local people go out to on the weekends for lunch to get away from the big city.  It is a fun little town to walk through.  They have lots of little places to eat.









I loved the old stoves.  They converted the one to be more like a bbq.












Roger's favorite vendor was the Kurtoskalacs (also known as a chimney cake).  We had had these when we were in Prague, but I guess they are a Hungarian pastry.










This is the center square.


















The church in the square.

There was a narrow walk way and we walked up it to find a Langos shop.  We had just heard about them but wasn't really sure about where to get one.  Another guy came up behind us that was from Canada and he was bringing his family there and told us that this place sold the best ones in town.

The little roof with the tall chimney is the Langos shop.

They just sell it out of a little window. But there is a shady little area that you can sit and eat it but she had too many customers and there wasn't any place to sit down. So we took ours to go.
















We got the garlic and cheese one.  What it is is a circular fried dough, that right there should tell you it is heaven.  They sell all kinds of different one, you can get it like a pizza or you could get a dessert one with Nutella on it, but the typical one is with sour cream and cheese.

We walked through a lot of little shops, but we didn't end up buying anything.

We saw another bride and groom walking through town.










So I guess now it is time for lunch.  Roger picked where we ate for lunch.  Why did he pick it?















Because he saw the sign that showed the meal of goulash and beer.  We weren't very hungry so we were going to split one order but again the English translation didn't quit work so we got two orders which meant that Roger got two beers.














The  goulash comes in a cute little hanging kettle.










It was very good and very filling.













Elaine & Fred like hot and spicey food so Fred really liked the sauce that they gave us to put in the soup.

Well when we got done with lunch we figured we had seen enough of the town and it was time to head back to the train station.  But not before a stop at the Vitez Kurtos shop to pick up a kurtoskalac.








Of course we had to sample it before we left.














Which meant we had to go back and buy another one.

So Roger and I found the ticket office and bought our tickets to head back to Budapest.

They definitely check tickets on all the trains in Budapest so traveler beware you better buy and keep your ticket with you or you will be buying another one on the train.