Budapest Day 5 (Part II) -- Orientation Dinner

***UPDATE***

1.  I wore my Cardinal Jersey to school at the start of the playoffs and had four kids yell, "Oh, angry birds!" Silly Hungarians. 

2. I came back to the teacher's lounge after my first class yesterday and had two packages waiting for me on my desk.  Thanks mom and dad!  Lots of stuff, most importantly -- peanut butter and random halloween candies (because they don't celebrate Halloween here -- we have found Twix and Kit-Kat but they smell funny...or maybe it's just cause we put them next to the sausage in the fridge). 

After dinner last night, I had a Butterfinger for dessert and Meliss had a piece of peanut butter bread. Delightful!

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After St. Stephen's Basilica, we hopped back on the tour bus -- the Yellow Line this time -- and toured the rest of the heart of the city.  Riding around, we really just talked about St. Stephen's.  

I grew up Catholic and so, while it was truly incredible, it was just a grander version of most Catholic churches -- much, much grander in this case.  It's been a LONG time since I've been in the Old Cathedral in St. Louis and I wonder how that would compare to this. Either way, I, at least, had some reference point for what I was seeing -- more statues of saints, more stained glass, bigger dome, lots of shiny gold and silver, etc...

Granted, I had never been in the presence of a thousand year old hand, but the rest was at least familiar -- just greatly enhanced.

For Meliss (raised Southern Baptist), it was a different experience altogether. Viewing it as just a tourist attraction -- beautiful.  Viewing it as a place of worship -- intimidating.  She definitely got a Wayne's World "I'm not worthy" feeling from it.  I imagine medieval townsfolk felt the same way about their cathedrals.  

But, it didn't burn down when we walked in so I guess that's a good sign.

We mentioned earlier that the tour buses have open-top rides as well as half and fully closed buses. It's random as to which bus type shows up when trying to get on one.  Unluckily, we got stuck on a closed bus after St. Stephen's (non-air conditioned) and so hopped off at the next stop. The next bus was a halfer (covered on top, but open sides) so we hopped on and rode around for the rest of the afternoon. 

That being said, picture taking was again minimal but we had been to most of the places on this route already.  

We really just wanted to ride around, listen to the recorded tour guide, and relax. Also, this bus was supposed to take us up to the Citadella again -- that's where the Damned Serving Tray Lady was and that's what we wanted to see!

So, we rode and relaxed. Since the yellow line focused more on the hilly Buda side there were lots of hills and such. We came across the Fishermen's Bastion again...

Then the bus continued climbing and finally came to a full stop at the top of whatever hill we were on (we were still talking about St. Stephen's, so we didn't know).  Turned out to be a picture taking spot overlooking Budapest -- again. 

                                           

We bought cold drinks that were actually cold (which was a nice change) and hopped back on the bus to head to the next stop.  We started getting the camera ready because we thought the Serving Tray Lady would be coming up soon.  

As the bus left the picture area, it took a hairpin like turn and we saw a bunch of people standing around taking pictures (this was less than a football field away from where we were standing in the pics directly above) but because of the bus covering we couldn't really see what they were gawking at.  

As we finished the turn and started down the hill, we looked behind us to see what it was and --- YEP! Sure enough, it was the Serving Tray Lady in all her glory.  Then, the bus turned another corner and out of sight she went.  

That was that.  

We missed her walking up the hill at the beginning of the week and we missed her on a bus at the end of the week.  Second to the Parliament, this lady is the most prominent feature in the whole of Budapest and we couldn't manage to find it?!

Basically, in that video above, if we had panned to the right for another few seconds we would've been  staring right at her.  

ARRGGHHH!

We're going back to Budapest for New Years' Eve and that will be our first stop.  

So anyway, we headed down -- saw this mansion.  It was or is somebody's house but we were still pissy about missing the statue so I wasn't listening. Nice house, though.

I'm sure there is a pretty neat story behind this place -- but we don't know cause we weren't listening.

That was pretty much it for the bus tour, we hopped off at a stop close to the hostel so we could go get ready for a meet 'n greet with the CETP folks and then dinner on the Danube.

Before dinner, we went to get a drink at a bar down the street from the hostel. We had seen this place everyday on our way to and fro downtown Budapest.  We never went in because we weren't really sure it was open, but it was close and so we decided to try it.  It was open and it was air-conditioned!

We met the owner, Bernardo, and ended up returning here a few of the next couple nights because we didn't really have a ton of time for anything else.  Bernardo's mom is Hungarian and his dad is Greek, but he lived in Brazil, New Orleans, and Chicago.  His English was terrific and he introduced us to Fröccs, which is a wine spritzer. 

Anyway, we headed back to the hostel and met up with the CETP group.  We received our free, all access, mass transit card for the rest of the week and the whole group headed off for the tram.  

We ate at Duna Corso Restaurant on the Pest side of the Danube (this was near where we watched fireworks a few days past).  It was a really nice place -- "quite posh" as Bernardo told us -- and the food was great.

                            

I ordered the beefsteak plate hoping beyond hope that it was a steak-steak like at home.  It wasn't. It was like pot roast.  Meliss ordered chicken paprikesh which is one of a few Hungarian National dishes, along with stuffed cabbage and goulash.  

The plate as it was delivered (above)
and
after Meliss "fixed it" (below)

Both dinners were good -- but we (Meliss) were so worried about how spicy the food was going to be -- we were a little surprised at how generally bland it all was. 

However, both dinners came with a side of foie gras. I was excited to try it because it is always on Top Chef and they always are raving about it. Meliss had decided that she was going to try everything once (because my sister is paying her a quarter for each new food she tries) and so she was in as well. Here is my attempt to document her first bite of goose liver.

Your sister is paying me a quarter, right?

I was laughing and the camera shook..no way she would like this!

Hmmm...

Hahahahahahahhahaha!

What? She liked it? Damn.  She still gave me half though -- what a trooper!

You know how the fat in a really good steak soaks up all the seasoning and can be the best part of the meal?  That's what this tastes like -- salty and seasoned and it just melts in your mouth. So, so good.

After dinner we decided it was time to try another Hungarian specialty -- Palinka, their national drink.  They seem to view Palinka like the dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding views Windex -- whatever your ailment, a shot of Palinka will cure it.  

Our research led us to believe it was kind of like a schnapps drink. So, we ordered two Palinkas and the waiter got very excited...he said, "Oh good, I will bring a plum for the gentlemen (that's me) and a raspberry for the lady (that's Meliss)."  

So, we felt pretty good about the whole situation -- I mean, I'm not a big fan of the plum but if a shot is gonna be fruity and sweet, then I'm good with that.  

He brought the drinks and as he set them down he said, "these...these are not for (made a sipping motion)...these are for (made a drink the whole thing at once motion)." Ok, good enough.  

Egeszegedre to both of us and down the hatch.  

Um, yeah, our research was wrong.  Or we were. Or whatever. This was moonshine.  Melissa's eyes started watering and I think I could've blown a fireball off the candle in front of us.  Oh, and the waiter just laughed and laughed.  Awesome. 

It was worth trying...and we've tried it a few more times since...but it's just not good. I guess the men take a shot in the morning before working the fields and then a shot before dinner to help with digestion, but really? I don't think so.  

After dinner, we walked along a new street to the tram and I am glad we did -- I am also glad we hadn't seen these previously in the week!

We didn't go in - maybe over New Years -- I mean, just to see what Euro Casino's are like...we'll treat it as research for my mom.

And that's that -- 5 days in Budapest.  The next morning we woke up at 8 AM and had class (on and off) til 6 PM -- and that continued for the next 4 days. We talked the rest of the week, and still do, about how glad we were we came early or we would've been really frustrated being in a new country and stuck in class all day.  In either case, vacation was over and now we were gonna try to figure out what we were gonna do for the rest of the year!

UP NEXT -- Orientation week and randomness.