My Birthday in Budapest

Walking Across the Chain Bridge

Chenea and I ventured to Eastern Europe for the week... Budapest, Hungary! We did run into a few obstacles along the way, but we had fun.

We decided it would be a good idea to drive since it was cheaper than flying.... which worked out fine until we got into the city.  "Jill," our handy GPS, kept telling us to cross a bridge that was not cross-able by car. But eventually we figured it out and made it to the hostel, where the hostel attendant helped us park the car in the ever-so-narrow street! But we could not get the parking machine to work so we thought it would be okay if we left the car for a little while until we moved it.... oops. We ended up getting not just 1, but 2 tickets, which we, of course, couldn't read. So we ended up paying a little more for parking than we intended!

Budapest is actually divided by the Danube River into 2 parts, Buda on one side and Pest on the other.  We stayed in Pest where most of the excitement is!  We walked A LOT and saw pretty much everything our favorite tour guide, Rick Steves, recommended.  Churches, Parliament, shopping, and eating of course!

The Holocaust Memorial

For my birthday, we went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant! Quite a treat since Mexican food doesn't really exist in Garmisch. The best part may have been the fresh squeezed lemonade... best I've ever tasted! We liked it soo much that we even went back a second time.

We also went to the Hungarian Baths...what an experience. We took Rick's recommendation and chose the one that is more local, and less touristy. Maybe not the best choice because nothing was in English and no one spoke English.We eventually figured it out and enjoyed some time outside in the large heated pools.  Never would I have thought I'd be swimming outside in March.

We spend the evening at the Opera... Budapest has one of the best opera houses, aside from Vienna. I'm still trying to figure out the story, though, since it was in Italian. But it was very beautiful and my first opera experience. It did have 2 intermissions which was very confusing... we almost left at the second one but then realized it wasn't over yet!

The first 2 days were cold but sunny, but the 3rd day was snowy! We went over to Buda for the day and visited Castle Hill, but by the end we were so wet and cold we headed for the mall. After a little shopping, we also saw Alice in Wonderland, also a treat since the closest movie theater to us is in Munich!

Castle Hill in the Snow

Now it is back to work in Garmisch for a few days until Haley and I take a little getaway to somewhere warm next week!