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Budapest - The Pest Side

On Monday morning we got up early to walk to the train station to head off to the airport and bid farewell to Norway. We were excited to go to our next city, but even more excited to meet up with CJ and Jen. We arrived shortly before their plane came in and after some confusion as to who was where, we found each other and were taken to our adorable AirBnB by a car service arranged by our host.

Budapest was originally two distinct cities on opposite sides of the river - Buda and Pest. Today they are united as Budapest. The home was on the Pest side of the river and was easily within walking distance of everything we wanted to see - we didn’t need any public transportation while in Budapest. We spent all of our first two days on the Pest side of the city.

Upon our arrival we wanted to explore the neighborhood and see what we could find within a few block of our home. We were not disappointed when we turned a corner and saw the Jewish Synagogue. This amazing building is the largest synagogue in Europe and second largest in the world (the largest is in Jerusalem). We looked at the beautiful Holocaust Memorial - a weeping willow tree with leaves inscribed with the names of victims of the Holocaust. The synagogue suffered massive damage during World War II but a reconstruction project started in the 1990’s and was completed in 1998 fully restored this synagogue to its pre-war glory.

While walking home we also ran into a really cool Pop Up Park. This was really neat. An organization called Hello Wood is an international educational design platform that works on creating collaborative projects in urban centers. In 2017 they decided to build this park with wave like benches and to add solar panels into the structure to make fourteen charging stations people can use for free. Sunshades were added over several structures to provide shade for people using the park. The lack of shade was a major reason that people didn’t use the park in the summer prior to the installation. The girls had some fun climbing on the benches of all different sizes and styles but we were soon hungry and so we all headed home to make plans for the next day.

We started our next day with a Yellow Zebra Bike Tour. The girls requested that we do a bike tour because they like to ride the bikes. I wanted to do the bike tour because I knew we’d hit the big sites and also get some insight into Hungarian history. Yellow Zebra was fantastic and I’d highly recommend them to anyone visiting Budapest. They designed a private tour for our family that minimized the time on the streets. They only had one tag-a-long bike for Talia so Tea had to ride in the streets of Budapest. We were very nervous about this but that girl just continues to amaze me. She was, of course, a total rock star and had no problem as huge buses and trucks soared past her. The tour hit so many of the big sites and I got my taste of history so it was just perfect.

We first passed by the House of Terror. This museum is dedicated to the history of the fascist and communist regimes that controlled Hungary from World War II through 1989. The house was originally used as the offices of the SS after the Nazis took over and then was used as the headquarters during the Russian regime.

We continued on the road toward Hero’s Square. Here we learned a brief bit about the founding of Hungary and the girls could play a little while we got our history fix. In the center of the square is a statue with the seven Magyer chieftains that united to first form the country. They are led by Arpad, considered the founder of the Hungarian nation. For years the country was Pagan but when Stephen came into power the country turned to Christianity. A legend says that Stephen wanted to join the Catholic Church and went to the Pope to ask for their inclusion. The night before Stephen's arrival, the Pope had a dream that the angel Gabriel appeared and told him that someone was going to come to the Vatican and ask for something and that he should agree. The next day Steven showed up and was accepted into the Church. He was also given a crown by the Vatican, which is why the statue of the angel Gabriel tops the center monument and in his hands he hold the crown and the cross. Surrounding the center monument are statues of important leaders throughout Hungarian history, starting with St. Stephen. That is an extremely brief summary of thousands of years of Hungarian history and there is so much more to learn!

We rode on to Vajdahunyad Castle - a misnomer of sorts. No one ever lived in this castle. In fact, it was built in 1896 as an exhibition to celebrate the 1000 years of Hungarian history. The exterior of the castle was designed by one architect to represent the different styles of architecture found in Hungary over time: Baroque, Renaissance, Gothic and Romanesque. Originally the structure was built of cardboard and wood but the people liked it so much it was re-built of stone in the early 1900s. Now it houses the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture. The park was beautiful and it was Talia’s favorite park because we let her ride on Tea’s bike on her own and she was very happy to have her own independence for a few minutes. From the Castle we went to see one of the things that Budapest is most know for - the bath houses. We rode past and snuck a peak into the Szechenyi Thermal Bath Houses. The girls really wanted to go in and go swimming but alas that was not possible. We then rode for about fifteen minutes in the opposite direction towards the Danube River.

Our next stop was St. Stephen’s Cathedral. St. Stephen is the patron saint of Budapest, since he’s the one that brought the country into the Roman Catholic Church through his meeting with the Pope and the Cathedral is obviously large and impressive. We didn’t get to go in while biking, but we did get to snap a few pictures. We then continued towards the river and stopped in front of the Parliament Building. This was another beautiful building and of course the girls were most impressed and entertained by the fountain. As per usual, the girls got soaked, loved running along the water and completely ignored the massive government building just a few hundred feet away! We got to see across the Danube to the Buda side - the older, and more expensive, part of Budapest. From our vantage point we could see Buda Castle, the President’s House and several of the bridges that span the Danube River. We were pretty exhausted at this point but then found out our bike tour included a stop for a traditional Hungarian dessert. We were all happy to have a seat at a nearby restaurant and try Somloi Galuska. This trifle included a small piece of plain, walnut and chocolate cake, raisins, walnuts, and cream and then topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Every bowl was left empty so we obviously all enjoyed it. From there our tour was pretty much done so we just had to ride back to the Opera House to return our bikes. This tour was a lot of fun and perfect for our whole family and the girls have said the bike tour was the highlight of their trip so far. They got to see a lot, didn’t have to walk as much and both like biking.

Though we were tired we still had more to see. However, our first priority was lunch. Besides Hungarian food, the next most popular food in Budapest and much loved by Hungarians is Italian food so we had some delicious pizza and fresh made pasta at a nearby Italian restaurant. We then headed back to the Cathedral to see the inside. Jen, CJ, Tea and I made the long and windy climb up 302 stairs to see the view from the dome and it was definitely a magnificent view. We took some great pictures and opted for the elevator for the trip down!

The girls took a break in a park while CJ, Jen and I tried to check out a market. It didn’t end up being the market we were searching for, but it was still cool to just walk through the stalls of food and fresh produce. By the time we returned to the park the girls were filthy and their shoes were full of sand so we figured it was time to move on. We wanted to walk past Parliament again and find the Shoes on the Danube memorial. We made it back to the river and found the somber memorial to the men and women who died during World War II when they were told to remove their shoes and were then either shot or pushed into the water. We saw a group of Jewish women at the memorial singing what I assume was a prayer or blessing for those lost during this tragic event. We continued to walk along the Danube and finally made it home by 7 at night. It was an exhausting day but we really saw a lot!! And this was only one half of the city!! Tomorrow it’s on to the Buda side!

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