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I not one for visiting churches or other places of worship. For the most part take the attitude that if you’ve seen one church you’ve seen them all. But seeing as I was walking by the St Stephen’s Basilica I figured I may as well have a quick look inside.

This must be one of the most beautiful churches around. The interior is all marble and the ceiling and works of art are all incredible. I can’t imagine how much the church must have had to steal to be able to afford to build that.

As I’ve already said, I love chicken paprika, a typical Hungarian dish which can be found on pretty much every menu in Budapest. There are plenty of other tempting dishes, spicy goulash being one of them but without the beef for me.

On the sweeter side of things, you have many, many cakes to choose from. I tried a number of them (for research purposes) but didn’t find anything which I really loved. I will keep looking though.

The most fascinating items and the pastries with unpronounceable names which you see the locals indulging in every morning with their coffee. I tried a couple and can’t really say I liked them but they might be more of an acquired taste. A lot of the pastries have poppy seed fillings or walnuts and other strange (for me) ingredients. Interesting. More research is needed here

Hungarian cuisine consists mainly of beef and pork dishes so at most meals I chose either a vegetarian soup or chicken paprika, which I love!

Chicken paprika is usually the leg and thigh part of the chicken (at least in my limited experience), which I don’t really like, but on my last day there I found it with the chicken breast and it was perfect. I love the paprika sauce with cream which is delicious with the potato dumplings it always comes with. In fact, I would probably prefer the chicken paprika without the chicken and just have the sauce and dumplings!

I’m going to find the recipe for this dish when I get home. It shouldn’t be too hard to make but who knows if it will taste the same as how they make it in Hungary, probably not.

I first planned to travel to Budapest in 1999. I was doing a quick European tour with some friends from my French class (I was living in Paris) which included Brussels, Amsterdam, Prague Vienna, and Budapest. At the time, Australians still needed tourist visits for a number of European countries including Czech Republic and Hungary. Having left my travel plans to the last minute, I only had time to get the Czech visa. So I wasn’t able to visit Budapest and it was 10 years before I finally made the journey.

My first impression of Budapest was what a beautiful city it is. Impressive Habsburg era buildings everywhere, beautiful squares, clean streets, and the gorgeous Hungarian Parliament.

I was staying in Pest, at the foot of the Chain Bridge. Everything was in walking distance and you can see most of the sites within a couple of days. We spent 5 days there, which meant we could see everything at a leisurely pace.

One of the reasons for my trip was to see if I wouldn’t mind living in either Budapest, Vienna or Prague. At first I thought I would love to live in Budapest but as the days went on, I decided against it. Sometimes I felt like when the locals look at you they see nothing but dollar signs and they would do anything to get money out of you. Not that I was ever ripped off, not at all, they just seemed desperate for money. Not that we don’t all do things for money, it might just be that others are more subtle about their desperation! I don’t know, I didn’t feel totally comfortable, that’s all. Maybe that would change if I spent more time there.

On to the good things! Budapest is cheap! That’s a nice change from Paris. Eating out has little impact on your wallet which is great because the food is amazing. I don’t think I had a bad meal. Breakfast usually consisted of some unusual Hungarian pastry, lunch was almost always chicken paprika with dumplings, and then afternoon coffee and cake Bliss!

There is a great indoor market at the end of Vati Utca, the main shopping street. We bought our supplies from there which included fresh fruit, sweet and hot paprika, and what I thought was cheese but turned out to be margarine. I tried a few of the different breads but most of them are very heavy bread which I like to call peasant bread. I think I’ll stick to baguettes.

The castle district in Buda is the most touristy part of Budapest. It’s a great place to wander around for a few hours or more and has fantastic views of Pest and especially of the parliament.

Pest is more business like and is a great place to admire the local architecture, visit the incredible St Stephen’s Basilica, Opera House, and Hungarian Parliament, or go shopping on Vati Utca. I loved this part of town.

I had really wanted to go to one of the thermal baths but didn’t get around to it. I’ll definitely have to do that next trip. I’d also like to go back and see the statue park which has all the communist era statues. That would be interesting for sure.

Overall, I loved Budapest. I don’t think I want to live there but am definitely looking forward to going back soon.

Wenceslas Square is named after ‘Good King Wenceslas’, even though it turns out he was only a Prince. This square has changed a lot since my last visit in 2000. It’s much more commercial than I remember but that’s not really surprising.

The gorgeous National Museum sits at the top of the hill but I didn’t have time to go in. I read a funny story about this building which said that when the Soviet forces moved into Prague in 1968 they attacked the National Museum thinking it was the Czech parliament because it’s such a grand building. Oops! I don’t know if that’s true though.

Prague’s main square in the old town would have to be one of the most beautiful squares in Europe. I love the varied architecture and the fun atmosphere.

I’m always drawn to Tyn Church which dominates the square. Every building is of interest though with most of them being pure works of art. The astronomical clock is a bit overrated, I think, but plenty of tourists hang around on the hour to check it out.

I’m staying in Mala Strana in Prague which is just at the base of Prague Castle and about a 2 minute walk from Charles Bridge.

The pedestrian only Charles Bridge is famous for its statues of many saints and offers great views of Prague Castle and riverbank buildings.

The only negative is the millions of tourists you have to push past to cross the bridge but that can be avoided by an early morning or late evening visit. I would have taken photos of Prague Castle at night as it looks really beautiful when it’s all lit up, but my camera sucks.

My first day in Prague was spent exploring Prague Castle. The first thing I saw was the changing of the guard. This was quite an event with all the guards marching and music playing. I didn’t have a very good view but it looked impressive.

You can walk around much of the castle for free but to go into the churches and walk down Golden Lane, you need a ticket which costs 250 crowns which is around 10 euros. I think the ticket is worth it mainly to see the cute Golden Lane.

The people selling the tickets really push you to get an audio guide for an extra 300 crowns. The guy wouldn’t let up when I said I didn’t want it and then his manager came over and wanted to know why I didn’t want it! Crazy! I had my guide book with me so really didn’t need it. They were like dodgy used car salesmen who won’t let up.

The other reason to visit Prague Castle is for the view overlooking the city. You can see Charles Bridge and all the other main monuments in the city.

Watch out for scammy taxi drivers near the castle. We paid 170 crowns to get a taxi up to the castle and when we wanted to go back they wanted us to pay 500! Then they said 370 or 300 crowns but we already new it was less than that. They refused to take us with the meter running so we walked back to the hotel instead. This obviously wasn’t a problem for me and F who can walk all day long without any problems but the hundreds of steps down the hill was a bit tough for my parents.

 

About half way between Vienna and Prague is Brno, a fairly large Czech city which was the perfect place to break up the 4 hour drive between the two cities.

Brno

I was surprised to see that Brno is a very pretty city with many of the Habsburg era buildings you see in other cities in the region. There is a castle high up on the hill where you find great views of the city including the imposing cathedral as well many ghetto type apartment buildings in the suburbs.

We stayed for lunch and then spent an hour or so walking around. I think it would be worth exploring a bit more if we had the time.

I’m still working out while I’m away but it is sometimes difficult in a hotel room. Today I did this new bodyweight workout which consists of 4 rounds of 10 exercises doing 15 seconds of high intensity training and 15 seconds of rest. Full details here.

Results:

16th March 2010:

1. Low Jacks – 17, 17, 18, 18
2. Dynamic Push Ups – 7, 6, 6, 5
3. Jump Squats – 7, 9, 8, 7
4. Half Burpees – 9, 9, 9, 8
5. One Leg Side Jump Lunge – 7, 8, 7, 8
6. Elevated Push Ups – 5, 4, 3, 4
7. Step Jumps – 8, 9, 5, 6
8. Dancing Crab – 8, 9, 6, 9
9. Butt Lift and Toe Touch – 5, 5, 4, 5
10. Twist Jump – 36, 36, 36, 36

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