Budapest by Bike

So Friends....

I just got back on Monday morning, which was a long day after a long but wonderful weekend. I left Thursday evening which meant missing Florian's geburtstag (birthday) celebration but it sounded like he had quite a party and probably didn't miss me. 

Ben got me from the airport and we found my hostel which was in a great location. We went to his friend, Lászlo's apartment and he wasn't there so we checked out the conveniently located bar right downstairs. My hostel was just across the bridge in the Pest side of the Danube so we were pretty close together (Ben's friend lived in Buda) it made for some great walks and bike rides across the Danube. The man working at the bar didn't speak much English but from his time abroad there, Ben had learned how to order 2 beers and 2 shots of Pálinka, which is a Hungarian fruit brandy. Beer is sör (sh.urr) and wine is bor. There are many different flavors of Pálinka and it is very strong. Not my favorite thing in the world to drink but hey, when in Hungary....

Upon hearing our troubled conversation with the man working at the bar, a woman jumped in to chat with us also in pretty broken English. She was Hungarian but had been living in Florence, Italy for the last 20 years so she sounded more Italian than Hungarian. Anyway, long story short she was very chatty and had a computer with her and was telling me all about her online dating website (after talking about her Italian husband) and showing me her many suitors. It was definitely an interesting way to start the trip....

We went to one of the many "ruin pubs" that make Budapest so cool. They are old buildings that were once something completely random but had been converted into bars so they were decorated very crazy and just had a very cool vibe to them. We hung out there with some of Ben's Hungarian friends from school there which was very cool. They were all so very nice and it was cool to just be led around the city by Hungarians. One of them didn't speak any English but somehow I found out he spoke German so we chatted, more easily since I had been drinking. 

I did learn my first Hungarian words. They cheers with egészségre (egg.esh.egg.ed.re) which literally means for your health. They also say this when you sneeze. I also learned Thank you which is köszönöm (koss.on.om) and hello which is szia (see.uh).

The next morning Ben and I met up and went to the Great Market which was basically a giant indoor farmer's market. We got some fruit and pastries and sat on the river, which is EXTREMELY flooded right now, like most of Germany is. I have never seen so much flooding so that was crazy to me. 

there should be a road to the left of the signs...

where a road should be..

a tram usually runs through that tunnel under the bridge

theres a bus stop and a boat dock....aaaaand a giant tree that got caught as it was floating down the river.

more of where a street should be. 

We made our way to the St. Stephen's Baszilika and got our bikes that we rented for the weekend which was an awesome call. We walked up to the top of the Baszilika where there is a panoramic view of the city. All the stairs were a struggle being hungover but once we made it to the top it was so pretty. 

all the stairs. 

We were at the top of the middle tower. 

After that we got some coffee and made our way down this long beautifully tree lined street, Andrássy which is also where the House of Terror museum is. 

This street dead ends at Hero's Square with City Park behind that. We climbed up the middle statue there and then went and got lunch in City Park, met up with Lászlo and layed by the pond in the sun and enjoyed the nice day. 

Us in Hero's Square with our bikes, of course they had to be in the photo as well.

Checking out the Heros....

The pond at City Park with Hero's Square in the background. 

We all got dinner that night and went out and met up with Fabio's friends from Jersey so it was funny to be in a group of Americans....once again. We went to a really cool place called Morrison's 2 (apparently there are 3 and one of them is in the basement of Ben's school there, Corvinus).

It was giant and as you walked around you discovered more and more rooms, a never ending maze. This was not the only place we went to like that...

The next morning Ben and I met up and got breakfast and went to the Széchenyi baths also in City Park with the Jersey kids. They are the famous baths I have seen so many pictures of. We weren't there for too long before it started to thunder and lightning and rain. It passed pretty soon, but not without leaving a trail of clouds. 

It was very ornate with tons of statues. 

The baths from the outside, such a beautiful building. 

We hung out there for a while then headed out and stopped in the park and got a Hungarian Chimney cake which was delicious. We rode on our bikes around the park and stopped at the beautiful little pond next to a castle in the park. 

After we hung out there for a while we hopped back on our bikes and passed this music/beer festival that was going on all weekend and decided to stop and check it out. The music was pretty good and there was lots of delicious looking foods so that's where we got dinner and a beer. They were making the chimney cakes in the traditional way there which was cool to see. 

They wrap the dough around a stick and turn it over hot coals and it bakes that way. 

We were right down the road from parliament so we stopped and checked out yet another memorial and the parliament building which was very beautiful. 

We had a great bike ride over the chain bridge and of course stopped to take lots of great pictures of the beautiful dusk. I saw some amazing sunsets there and the city at night is my favorite way to see it I think. 

Lion on the chain bridge with the National Gallery in the background.  

The Buda side of the river. The building on the left is the Fisherman's Bastion. 

essential nerdy bike picture. 

That night we went out with the Jersey kids again to a kind of touristy ruin pub called Instant. 

Me, Eric, Ben, Lauren

photobombing stranger, and Tara in the front. 

The next day Ben and I got brunch at a cafe across the street from the main Jewish Synagoge which was very pretty.

 Then we biked to the train station and hopped on a bus into the hills of Buda and went on a chairlift that was very cool. We rose above the city and it was an awesome view. 

It was about 10-15 minutes each way and once we got to the top, there was another hill that we hiked up with a sort of lookout tower which we also went to the top of. There were about 6 layers. One side was the entire city of Budapest and the other side was the hills with trees and small villages, it kind of looked like the Eifel to me which is where I live. 

once again, on top of the world (but not so much snow and in a different country)

Great view with the sun, amazing clouds and the Hungarian flag blowing in the wind. 

After we got back from that adventure we biked over to the House of Terror which is a museum all about the reign of the Arrow Cross Party in Budapest. It was actually the headquarters of this Hungarian Nazi party and once called the "House of Loyalty". It is where they would take the supposed traitors or spies to be interrogated, tortured and executed. The basement still has the cells of the prisoners and the torture rooms and execution room. It was chilling to go down there and think about how recent in history these events really are. The most horrifying part was that the cells and execution room had small blacked out windows that you could actually hear the traffic from Andrássy, reminding the prisoners that freedom was just outside the window, but they would likely never taste is again. That in itself must have been a special kind of horror. 

The awning is like that so when the sun shines through, the word terror appears on the sidewalk outside the building. The Arrow Cross next to the star was the sign of the Arrow Cross Party. 

After that we met up with Lászlo and got some beers and hiked up to the top of the hill their statue of liberty is on to watch the sun set. It was quite a hike but an amazing view once we got to the top. 

It's the hill on the left, this is the view of it from the chain bridge. 

This is her once we were at the top. 

another cool statue as the sun is setting behind. 

The city. 

Lászlo, Ben and I

So beautiful. 

We hiked down and got some traditional Hungarian gulasch soup which was delicious. Then Ben and I returned our bikes at the Baszilika which is very pretty at night. 

 We walked around for a while, and at this point it was pretty late. We went and looked at the flooded river again and ran into a bride and groom. Pretty strange for 1am at a flood.

Right before getting to my hostel we passed a bar that looked like this...

so of course we had to walk in and look around. 

Luckily I had some paper with me so we added to the madness before leaving the city :)

Overall it was just a really wonderful city. So beautiful and I loved it a lot more than I expected to. Ben was a great tour guide and it's always nice to see someone from home. It's always so great for me to be in a city that is so foreign to me. From the language to the currency I was always on my toes and always looking around. The architecture was very pretty and looked a bit like Paris in that sense. I'm so happy I got to make this trip although unexpected when came here. 

There is so much history, not all pretty and they commemorate all of it. The good the bad and the ugly, there is a memorial for it. This was something that was great to see and shows something about Hungary. The past might not always be pretty or reflect great things about where we came from but it needs to be remembered and we should be reminded that terrible things did happen, it makes us who we are. 

The Johnsons do Bavaria

The last leg of the trip....München!

So on the way from Füssen to Munich, Rick Steves recommended we stop at this Monastery about an hour outside Munich. Considering that Rick hadn't led us wrong the whole trip, we did this. This place is called Kloster Andechs and the monks have been brewing beer since the 1200's. We walked into the church and went to the 'cafeteria' which was packed. It was raining and gross outside but the entire place was full! We had a hard time finding a table. We finally found one in a corner outside next to a table of younger people all in dirndl's and lederhosen....welcome to Bavaria.  Katy got the traditional helles bier and I got an apple beer that was delicious. We also got some traditional Bavarian food. 

Dad's haxe and kartoffelsalat are in the back and Katy and I shared a giant bretzel, a weißwurst and some paprikafrischkäse. Suuuuuper lecker! It was a great pit stop to wait out the downpour that happened once we got there. 

We rolled into Munich and found our apartment, met with the owner, Martin and settled in. It was a nice place about 10 minute walk from the closest trains and 1 minute to the tram. 

Katy and I walked to a grocery store to buy some things for breakfasts for the few days we would be staying. 

Katy and Dad were both really wiped out but I really wanted to go see the city, It was Saturday night! So I convinced them and we found the closest train and headed to the city center. Once we got off the train, we immediately heard cheers for FC Bayern and saw tons of fans. We had no idea what was going on but figured maybe there was a game or something. We kept walking and eventually hit Marienplatz where there was a giant rally for FC Bayern because they had just won the Bundesliga Championship. Big deal. There was music, drunk people everywhere and it was basically a giant party at the city hall. Apparently we had just missed the team who came out on the balcony and greeted everyone. 

It was madness. 

We walked on a bit and found a quieter place to sit and have a beer. We also got some dessert :)

 We meandered our way back to the train and back to the apartment. What a way to see Munich for the first time. 

The next day Dad and I set out early to Dachau. We went to the memorial site of the concentration camp which was truly an experience. We got there around 10 and went into the museum first which was housed in the building used for intake and all that, sort of a headquarters. There was so much information there that when we walked out, it was 1:00! It was bone chilling to see the shower rooms, the rooms where the prisoners first came and got their heads shaved and everything. They had comparison pictures of what it looked like then and also testimonies of all the rooms we walked in. It was certainly hard to hear the words of the awful things that happened in the very room we were standing in. We walked around the grounds as it was pouring which gave the site a whole different look. It was hard to imagine having to stand there for 'roll call' while it was raining as hard as it was or snowing or whatever the weather conditions were. It's one thing to learn about the horrors that happened there but it was a completely different experience to see it and imagine what really happened. It made things come to life for me and I was deeply saddened seeing it. 

These words also seem a lot more cruel now that I understand them.

We were supposed to meet Katy at Marienplatz at 2:30 and 45 minutes later after a silent ride back from Dachau, I met her where of course, she was annoyed we were so late, rightly so. It was still raining and  after explaining the situation I asked her "what do you want to do?" Her response- "Well, I need a beer" Of course I didn't reject the idea after the things I had learned that morning so we wandered over to the famous Hofbräuhaus which is very close to Marienplatz. It was of course packed and we wandered around to find a table. 

We each got a liter and some things to snack on. Katy went on a spargelsuppe binge during her stay in Germany so she got some of that. 

We hung out there and chatted about our visits to Dachau, she had been a couple years prior. We also pondered on the horrors our Grandad must have seen since he was there as a soldier about a week after it was liberated. 

A fun fact about the Hofbräuhaus is that the "regulars" get to lock up their bier steins and keep them there. Although it is conceived as a place just for tourists, and it is full of them, it appears there are also regular Bavarian guys that come and enjoy drinking their hofbräu out of THEIR stein. 

There's a little room off to the side where they are locked up and a sink so they can wash it before and after drinking. My kind of bar. 

There was also a table of what seemed like locals sitting near us and they were playing some sort of daring game because they were nothing but laughs and one had to come over and say something to Katy about FC Bayern and knowing nothing about beer. I couldn't get all of it, he was clearly embarrassed and speaking a mile a minute. Fun nonetheless. 

When we left the Hofbräuhaus the sun was out! It was a beeracle!

We walked towards the train and into Marienplatz and the glockenspiel was spieling so we stayed and watched it. Overrated I must say but as far as moving clocks go, its impressive. If for nothing else, for it's size. 

Katy and I in front of the glockenspiel.

The next day was kind of a long one. There was more rain so we decided to take the car back in the morning and make our way to the Deutsches Museum. It's a bit outdated but interesting to learn about how all kinds of things are made, a.k.a. my dad loved it and Katy and I were real bored. However, it was a great thing to do on a rainy day. We wandered around and most of the signage was in just German so that meant a lot of looking and not a lot of reading, which was fine with me. At this point in the trip I'd had my share of museums for a while. 

We were staying near the Paulaner Brewery and Katy and I walked over there for dinner that night. It was fancier than we thought but the food and beer were delicious. We sampled a couple Bavarian things and everything was delicious. 

German meatballs (I always forget the name), wursts mit sauerkraut, and the best käsespatzle I've ever had.

After we left there we decided to do a little bar hopping and ended up in a cocktail bar with the craziest cocktail list ever, about 15 pages! The bartender chatted with us and it was cool to watch him make drinks. We went to about 3 more places on our walk home and got in around 1. That was our big night out. Nothing crazy but it was really fun to explore with Katy. 

We went to the BMWWelt the next day and looked at some awesome cars and then walked over to the Olympia park. I would have liked to wander around a bit more but it was cold and we were all tired. 

That night Katy and I ventured around near the Hauptbahnhof and found a nice Italian place. We sat outside for some delicious pasta, which I had been craving, and some beers. We decided that we wanted to try all the main brands of beer in Bavaria. We had Hofbräu, Paulaner, Franziskaner, Hacker Pschorr, Löwenbräu, Augustiner, and Andechs. I don't think I'm forgetting any.... We're both fans of weißbier but we tried to taste everything we could. One of the beer capitals of the world, why not. Dad later joined us and we had to move inside because it was so cold. The inside was so fancy with chandeliers and fancy tables but it was basically a nice pizza place. Dad later ordered a pizza that we both thought he would have trouble eating but it turns out, he's a pizza champion of sorts. 

Our last day there was the best day. We FINALLY had sun and so we did a bike tour recommended by Rick Steves and it was awesome. The tour guide was great and very cool and we got to see a lot that we would have missed otherwise. 

We started in Marienplatz 

We saw the statue of Bavaria and dad for to be a part of the reenactment...he's the Lion. 

We saw a very cool old church across from the palace of the Bavarian royal family. All carved marble or something. So beautiful. 

Of course, the Isar.

The English Gardens. 

We stopped at the Chinese Tower biergarten for lunch which was enjoyable. We got to eat some yummy wurst and get a liter of beer. We all sat together so it was nice to get to know some of the people on the tour with us. We sat with 2 Australian couples that were traveling around together. They were headed off to Croatia the next day. 

The surfers on the Isar. 

We saw a lot more but I don't remember all the details about everything so I'm not going to post about them but lots of history and culture. The tour took about 4 hours and it was so nice to see the city from a bike. 

Our last stop was a nice part of the Isar in the garden.

After the tour we walked around and did some souvenir shopping. We went to the Viktualienmarkt, an open market in the middle of Munich with a cool biergarten. We walked into the English gardens a bit more which was really nice and Katy and I got a beer and we all sat on the river and enjoyed the sun and the water. 

A side note: here is an example of how different Bavaria is from the rest of Germany. 

here is a maibaum in Ahrweiler

aaaaaand in bavaria

....weirdos. 

We stopped by the Hacker Pschorr haus for a beer and to rest our feet and enjoy the sun. 

We finished the day by randomly stopping at this burger place, beLicious, near Rosenheimerplatz to get dinner. Mostly because Katy had to pee and it ended up being an awesome decision. The chef was American and the waiter was really cool and chatted with us for a while. I also had a big crush on him. We sat there and hung out for quite a while and it was a really great place to end the last night in Munich. 

It was a really nice trip as a family and although there were times where we may have wanted to kill each other, we had a great time together. It is a memory I will always cherish and of course it was wonderful to be with family after 9 months of unfamiliar faces. We made the best of the rain and basked in the sun when we had it. 

Of course, I couldn't leave Bavaria without my very own dirndl....

Prost aus München, meine Freundin.