Budapest

Christmas was nice and quiet, just the regular 'gourmetten on the first day and eating the leftovers on the second. I know it's very traditional, but I just happen to like it. A few more days of chilling at my parents and off to Budapest on Thursday the 29th. In Leeuwarden I met up with Marieke and Gwendy joined us in Zwolle. All went very well and after we bought oliebollen at Schiphol we found Judith and were ready to drop our bags and head to the plane.

(Gwendy&Judith) We were slightly delayed because of the not so great weather but in Budapest it was a lot better. Jumping in the taxi with our non-English speaking taxi driver (thank goodness we booked him through our landlord so he knew where to go) and checking into our appartment. It was small and it turned out I had to sleep on an air mattress but we were there and ready for a week of fun!(Matthias Church). A crappy nights' sleep later we had breakfast and headed into CBD and bought ourselves some masks for NYE, see picture further below. We crossed the Elisabeth bridge and headed up the Gellért hill to see the Gellért monument, liberation monument and citadel.  (Chain Bridge, Four Seasons Hotel and St Stephens Church). After a savory soup in a posh restaurant at the foot of the hill we headed up the hill to see the Palace and the area around it. We browsed some stalls with touristy crap (and bought nothing, how good is that) and bought some tickets for the Danube Palota classical concert that evening at the local tourist information office.  (Parliament). We crossed the Chain Bridge and checked out St Stephens Church (inside and out) after which we had a lovely Italian meal and traditional Hungarian pancakes with chocolate and grinded nuts as dessert :) The concert was  (Palace at night) amazing! We obviously lowered the average age of the audience considerably. The musicians and conductor had a lot of fun while playing and the atmosphere was great. I can recommend it to anyone visiting Budapest. Afterwards we headed home, had some tea and slept like babies.
The last day of 2011 was spent at the Palace History Museum of Budapest (after we shopped for lots of food at the supermarket around the corner where it was 30+ degrees). Our water heater didn't work so we got in contact with our landlord and had somebody fix that. I was lucky, but Gwendy and Marieke had a very very cold shower in the morning. The museum didn't really interest me much (old furniture etc), but it is part of the cultural experience ;) After a coldish cappucino we checked out the Matthias Church in daylight and enjoyed the views from the Fishermans' Bastion.  We walked back along the Chain Bridge and the Vaci Ut (main shopping street) back to the appartment. We chilled and got dressed for our evening out :)
We did a long walk to find a restaurant that wasn't fully booked and was willing to serve us food (it was 9 o'clock by then). Thank you Bali Restaurant! Of course I had a traditional Hungarian dish of Chicken, Capsicum (Paprika) and butter noedels. Nice :) We skipped dessert and went straight to the Vörösmarty Ter (Square) to count down till the new year. We met up with Esther and her mother (friends of Judith) and ate our oliebollen with white gluhwein. After 12 we popped the obligatory 'bubbles' and drank a bottle together. We checked out some live Hungarian music near the Elisabeth bridge and headed home to the apartment. Judith and I decided to get a good night's sleep (it was around 2 by then), Gwendy and Marieke were diehards and headed back into town to party.
Since it was NYday we slept till late, had a lazy breakfast and headed to the Danube to do a sightseeing tour from the water. All I can say about that: it was cold, foggy and we couldn't understand a word of the commentary. Time to get a big HOT chocolate and muffin at the Coffee Heaven (I love those coffee shops) and just warm up and chat away. Back at the appartment we made macaroni and played cluedo and headed back to bed early.  Refreshed after a good sleep and breakfast Judith, Gwendy and I headed to the Contra Aquinum and the Synagogue (see picture just above), the largest in Europe and second largest in the world after the one in New York. Very impressive and a good tourguide. I was really impressed by the Weeping Willow representing the 600.000 Hungarian Jews exported and killed. Every leaf has a name engraved on it. At 12 we were meeting Marieke at the line for the tickets behind the Parliament building. Unfortunately for us the tickets for that day were sold out about half an hour later, while we were still way back in the line. The weather was great so we decided to walk along the Danube  to look at the Shoe Monument to commemorate those who were killed alongside the river in '44-'45. Again very beautifully done and a good way to think about what happened during WWII along this rivershore. After all that walking we got hungry so we had the traditional Hungarian Somlói Galuska at Gerbeaud, a very famous coffee house in Budapest where many kings, queens and 'stars' have wined and dined. Doesn't it look amazing?? It tasted great too : D  Of course we had to check out the Central Market with it's neatly stacked fruit and veg and all the Hungarian touristy stuff upstairs. After a quick stop at the supermarket to get some more groceries we had a lovely Ratatouille en headed to the Old Men's Pub for an evening out, which ended in the Szimpla, a few streets further. Great evening, many Italians and a Brazillian, lots of free drinks and home around 5.
Our last full day was there and we decided to organise ourself for the day after. We bought metro tickets and walked along the Andrassy Utca (world heritage street) to check out the Opera. We had another cappucino at Coffee Heaven (different one this time) and I met Juri and walked to the St Stephens Church with him and along the Danube back to our street where we had some Palinka and beer. Time for me to meet up with the girls in the Old Men's Pub again for our last meal (joined by other Esther as well). Enjoying some live music and home early (at 10) to pack our bags and have some tea before bed. Wednesday was time to head home again, which went all perfectly. A great holiday! One last view of the Danube, the Chain Bridge, Gellért Hill and the Palace.