A Few of My Favorite Things...

Here's a shot of our final hours in the city. I definitely felt a connection to this place, and leaving was strangely sad for me that morning - our friends and my family had left the city either days or hours before, and were were left to settle up the apartment, mail our postcards, and say our final goodbyes to the neighborhood. So, we inevitably returned to a street we'd walked down nearly every day that week - the corridor of the St. Stephen's Basilica - pictured here - just blocks from our rental apartment. We sat in a street cafe, nibbled on a couple of must-have gyros and scrawled a few memories on postcards for our families. The perfect ending to a completely wonderful adventure. I hope I come back here again someday.

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The rain-soaked banks of the Danube, from the Elizabeth Bridge - crossing back over to the Pest side. As we stood on the bridge, enormous bolts of lightning were shooting down all around us. I tried, in vain to get a picture of the lightning - something I've only ever managed to do once before. But it was dramatic and memorable, nonetheless.

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After six days of non-stop gorgeous weather, we had our first burst of rain... and it came with a vengeance! Jason and I were trekking through the lower part of Buda in search of a beigli (Hungarian pastry specialty) bakery called Makos Guba when the dramatic skies started setting in overhead and water very suddenly came pouring from the sky. We ducked into this convenient cafe to wait out the storm, and we sat under an umbrella with a couple of other patrons and the wait staff who were enjoying their afternoon break. But the rain got so heavy that the tablecloths were soon soaked despite the umbrellas, and this waiter quickly undressed the tables and raced inside.

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Budapest veteran Helen, a friend of my good friend Jocelyn, helped us out with some great recommendations before departing for Hungary. Among her recommendations of amazing laid-back night spots was a push to try some of the great street food Budapest has to offer, including the "mind-blowing" gyros, and palinkak (Hungarian crepes). We tried both of these, and it inspired us to try another common specialty - these chocolate pudding-filled waffles, found at a confectionary called Jeg Buffe. This served as my entire lunch one day and was wholly satisfying.

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Our best views of the Hungarian countryside came from the window of the train during our brief stint out to Eger, a wine-producing town about a hundred miles or so from the city. Eger is most famous for a seige in 1552 where the town's Hungarian population of 2,000 held off an attach by 80,000 invading Turks. We tried to get into the castle, but were too late - and fortunately so, because had we gotten into the castle we would have likely missed the last train out (which we sprinted for after realizing we were lost on the way back)!

Unfortunately for us (or maybe for Eger's tourism profits), we only got to explore a small percentage of what it had to offer... we must have accidentally gotten on the slow train because we made so many stops it took almost three hours all in all to get to the town and the same time to get back!  

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One common theme of our trip was sampling the local "swill" of Hungary. With the 85 degree heat, we stuck mostly to cold Drehers or Borsodis or local lemonades. But we couldn't leave without purchasing a vial of Unicum, an herbal drink native to Hungary that is somewhat akin to Jägermeister. It's highly concentrated, and somewhat bitter, but promoted to assist with the digestion. Jason brought a few back for family - I think the cute little globe-shaped bottles are probably the coolest thing about this gift!

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Luckily, we didn't have any vegetarians with us in Hungary. There's not a lot on the menu for folks who don't eat fish stew or heavy salted meats, but I did notice one common specialty available for the herbivores, called rántott sajt (fried cheese). When this plate was put in front of my brother, I thought it was some kind of pancake, but it was instead a slab of cooked cheese. If this tells you anything about our vacation, it should be that we'll spend the next three weeks working off the food we ate there!

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I was inspired to take this picture because it's a view of Buda from Buda, different from the standard "view of Pest" snapshots you can take from the lookouts of the National Gallery. Also, my favorite type of rooftop is the red tiled rooftop. You often see them in California, copies of Spanish and Italian villas, but this view afforded a glimpse of many a red and orange roof against the complementary blue of the river. Straight ahead, you can see the fluffy green tree-tops of Margaret Island, which is sandwiched between the two shores of Budapest (Buda and Pest) and right beside the Margaret Bridge. Lots of small old churches dot this hilly neighborhood, and there appears to be a whole different style of life on this side of the river; more sedate and placid than the bustling Pest with it's bars, "kerts" (courtyard pub gardens), and shopping (Vaci Street, most famously).

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And so we came to the oldest bakery in Budapest, after a long day of hiking up and around the streets of Buda, the side of the river famous for the royal palace, the castle district, and, of course, its beautiful view of "Pest." The cafe, Ruszwurm, has a colorful history - once the sole provider of baked goods to the queen and later famed for its Linzer cookie after its proprieter was inspired to try the recipe by his cellmate Linzer after the War of Independence in the mid-1800s. The cookie was delicious, as were the coffees we stopped for on yet another 85 degree day. A welcome treat at the top of the hill. The doile in the backdrop gives you some sense of the ornate decoration of the tea-room styled cafe.

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Like other European cities, Budapest features many of the great, winding streets with pastel walls and rooftops that all seem to melt together in a logical way and make the world look like a beautiful labyrinth. Many of the walls in Pest are more ragged and in disrepair than some of the cities I've seen in Eastern Europe, but the overall effect of this neglect is that it really suits these old buildings, lending character and tradition to the impression. It's amazing to me to see full streets and neighborhoods within the depths of a city without a familiar commercial brand or neon sign in sight!

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Clotted cream may make for clotted arteries, but there's nothing quite like it with tea! It comes served with very plain scones and strawberry jam, but the cream is definitely the star of this feature. Its rich, buttery texture melts against your tongue, tastes soft like whipped cream but also sweet like butter. It's probably my mother's favorite part of coming back to England as a tourist. By my second day, it was growing on me (literally) as well...

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There's nothing quite like a draft beer in England! With varieties like Doom Bar, Rucking Mole, Butcombe, and London Pride (among others), every pint is an adventure.

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I had a dream I was back in England last night. So, as an homage to the U.K., here are a few shots of some of my favorite things (in England): country cottages, draft beer, seaside towns, and clotted cream. The country is filled with them!

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Last time I came to the U.K. I wasn't there long enough to find a country pub with a ploughman's on the menu. So at the first opportunity, in the town of Lyme Regis, I got the lunch I'd been longing for. A Ploughman's is usually just a French roll with a hunk of cheese and a pickle relish and this one even had onion and salad on the side. A hearty meal for one of our first in England, but highly satisfying!

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Wandering down a beach in Sidmouth, Devon, we came upon some undamaged, fully intact sea shells, a perfect palm size. I collected a handful of them (all I could manage), not knowing for what purpose, and stored them in the sleeve of my raincoat as we ran from awning to awning in the unexpected rain! They came in handy as tiny serving plates for the sushi we brought to a family potluck that night; and best yet, even in this most expensive of countries, they were completely free!

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While we were vaguely disappointed that the Devon village of Beer was not named for its involvement in the production of a good lager, we were happy to find that a little further north, just outside of a town called Wells, the village of Cheddar was indeed a dairy-farming town, true to its name. Lots of good cheeses were available in the area, and not surprisingly, cheese is infused in all number of other foods here, like these Stilton sausages! My dad made this great fry-up (with a side dish of eggs, sunny side up) the morning we left to come home.

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The roses overhead throughout the country lanes of Cheltenham where we stayed made the whole neighborhood smell delicious. From the moment I stepped out of the car, my senses were grabbed by the soft, unperfumed, but ubiqitous frangrances all around. My mom loved this one in particular and said she wanted to grow one of these over her doorway. If only our weather would cooperate!

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Our brief adventure in England could be described as a continuous, delightful haze of pork sausages, best bitter pints, lolling about in the sunshine, and countryside games. We played lawn croquet, ping pong, Hearts, and even snooker! I definitely got in touch with my inner child last week.

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OK, back to Europe for a minute. Here's a set of train tracks in Munich, highly filtered of course. We passed over these tracks by bridge many times on the trip, and while very industrial, they were actually a beautiful sight at different times of day.  I think this shot was taken on one of the 4 am visits.

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 ...or the water closet. Almost as romantic.

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Amazingly, these were called "American Style" hot dogs in Prague's Old Town Square, but they were made with an authentic spicy kielbasa sausage and relish.

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Here's a shot of downstairs at the Radost FX after midnight...quite a different scene!

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Here's a color-adjusted image of a car I saw parked near the Muzeum stop in Prague. The headlights were particularly cool, I thought.

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This was the front window of a one-size-fits-all bar/restaurant/club we found in Prague. It came highly recommended by a friend and a tour book, but we didn't even realize that until we'd already been there twice! The interior was filled with plaster statues placed as though they were being swallowed into the walls and plush sage-colored benches in the cozy cafe. At night, the restaurant turned nightclub!

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What a relief to find coffee in Munich at a real coffee shop instead of an international airport terminal Starbucks! This coffee was even better than it looks and was served at the Roma Cafe in Munich - one of the coolest little coffee shops of our expedition.

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Check out these beautiful tomatoes from the open market in Munich. We only bought beer and olives, but I salivated over the sight of all the fresh fruits and veggies. With all the salty meats and alcohol, I was craving some veggies like this.

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A pod of the London Eye, right before we got on. The trip cost quite a lot, but our favorite saying in England was that we were "dropping pounds but gaining weight." On the "flight," as they call it, we experienced both extreme sunshine and pouring rain during the half-hour rotation, but the view was still spectacular - perhaps more so for being in characteristic English weather. 

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An entire store devoted to felt! Imagine that. This is their shop window in Munich.

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To begin the pictures from Europe, here is a shot of how they arranged the duvets and pillows at both our Munich and our Prague hotels. It's better than napkin folding!

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