.... couldn't resist the chance for a food pun people!
Two and a half days, an entire city. I didn’t think it’d be possible but this weekend in Budapest I successfully found culture, politics, history, food, religion, friends and more. After my backpacking trip in Europe this summer, I became a pro at squeezing a city into a three or four day event. But, it’s been a few months since I’ve done this and I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Budapest (or BudapeSHt as they say it).
Two and a half days, an entire city. I didn’t think it’d be possible but this weekend in Budapest I successfully found culture, politics, history, food, religion, friends and more. After my backpacking trip in Europe this summer, I became a pro at squeezing a city into a three or four day event. But, it’s been a few months since I’ve done this and I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Budapest (or BudapeSHt as they say it).
Budapest actually used to be two separate cities—one city on each side of the Danube River, which flows between them. Shocker, the two cities were Buda and Pest, and they joined in 1873 in order to serve as the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In case you haven’t read the news in 100 years, the empire dissolved at the end of World War I in 1918 and the city became and remains the capital of Hungary. Their language is nearly impossible to decipher and there are 44 letters in the Hungarian alphabet, so I would suggest picking up a different language before this one. Not to mention that saying hello is pronounced “see ya” and goodbye kisses is pronounced “hello pussy.” I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried friends. Talk about backwards and inappropriate...
I’ve only ever been to one other Eastern European city, which was Prague, so my expectations were very high. Temperatures, on the other hand, were not. Enjoying the 70° and sunny lifestyle, even with my down winter coat, hat, scarf, and gloves I was shivering from the moment I stepped off the plane. I met up with two friends at the airport and we ventured together to the heart of the city, dropped our things off in the Maverick Hostel. We were able to catch an afternoon free walking tour of the city, and I’m pretty sure my toes were five-minutes away from frostbite. It even snowed!! However, as much as I didn’t miss the cold, I definitely missed the Christmas-season and my biological clock needed this trip to realize that it is already DECEMBER!
I’ve only ever been to one other Eastern European city, which was Prague, so my expectations were very high. Temperatures, on the other hand, were not. Enjoying the 70° and sunny lifestyle, even with my down winter coat, hat, scarf, and gloves I was shivering from the moment I stepped off the plane. I met up with two friends at the airport and we ventured together to the heart of the city, dropped our things off in the Maverick Hostel. We were able to catch an afternoon free walking tour of the city, and I’m pretty sure my toes were five-minutes away from frostbite. It even snowed!! However, as much as I didn’t miss the cold, I definitely missed the Christmas-season and my biological clock needed this trip to realize that it is already DECEMBER!
Our walking tour started off one of the city’s main squares on the Pest side of town. Lucky for us, Christmas Markets were popping up that day—across from the Church streets filled with people perusing leather goods, candles, Christmas goodies, and indulging in classic Hungarian food and hot alcoholic beverages. If it weren’t for the mulled wine, I don’t know if I would have made it on the three-hour walking tour. We literally walked from Pest across the bridge to Buda, up to the Buda Castle, the Fisherman’s Bastion and the Matthias Church. By the time we finished the tour, it was dark outside and across the river we could see the Parliament building in Pest glowing. The next day we took a tour of the Parliament and learned that after Bucharest and Westminster it is the third largest Parliament in the world. Fun fact about Budapest—no building can be taller than the 96 meter St. Stephen’s Basilica, so the parliament building is also exactly 96 meters high at its tallest point.
I can’t for the life of me pronounce any of the food I consumed throughout the weekend but I can say that I found “Traditional Hungarian Jewish Cake” or Flodni. A heavy dessert, there are layers of plum jam, walnut, apple, and poppy seed stacked between layers of sweet cake. It’s so weird traveling from Israel and being an American Jew and coming to Budapest where “Jewish food” is a type of cuisine. Just like I would go out for Chinese or Ethiopian food, in Budapest restaurants are labeled “Jewish” even though they are far from kosher. Friday night my friends and I went to Chabad for dinner and on Saturday we went to the “Jewish-style” Spinoza Café near the old Jewish quarter, which is coincidentally also the “Soho” of Budapest and right around the corner from the most famous Ruin Bar Szimpla. On Sunday before going to the Széchenyi thermal bath house, we took a tour of the Jewish quarter where I learned that Theodor Herzl, one of the first and most famous Zionists, is from Budapest.
And although relatively Jewish-friendly nowadays, Hungary was third after Poland and Ukraine in the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust with 600,000 or 10% of those killed. There are three main synagogues and a strong Jewish quarter thriving today. I think this is the only city out of the 15+ in Europe that I traveled to where the Jewish quarter still has a significant Jewish population living there today. In fact, at the MASA Leadership Summit I attended the in the week leading to my departure, two of the people in my focus group were from Budapest! The world is too small, because at Szimpla (the Ruin Bar- an abandoned home converted into a pub) there were three guys sitting next to me…when I detected an Israeli accent and asked where they were from, they said they were from Petach Tikva!!!!! I lost it and couldn’t believe the chances, but apparently it wasn’t as amusing for them because they said that Israelis are literally everywhere…
I can’t for the life of me pronounce any of the food I consumed throughout the weekend but I can say that I found “Traditional Hungarian Jewish Cake” or Flodni. A heavy dessert, there are layers of plum jam, walnut, apple, and poppy seed stacked between layers of sweet cake. It’s so weird traveling from Israel and being an American Jew and coming to Budapest where “Jewish food” is a type of cuisine. Just like I would go out for Chinese or Ethiopian food, in Budapest restaurants are labeled “Jewish” even though they are far from kosher. Friday night my friends and I went to Chabad for dinner and on Saturday we went to the “Jewish-style” Spinoza Café near the old Jewish quarter, which is coincidentally also the “Soho” of Budapest and right around the corner from the most famous Ruin Bar Szimpla. On Sunday before going to the Széchenyi thermal bath house, we took a tour of the Jewish quarter where I learned that Theodor Herzl, one of the first and most famous Zionists, is from Budapest.
And although relatively Jewish-friendly nowadays, Hungary was third after Poland and Ukraine in the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust with 600,000 or 10% of those killed. There are three main synagogues and a strong Jewish quarter thriving today. I think this is the only city out of the 15+ in Europe that I traveled to where the Jewish quarter still has a significant Jewish population living there today. In fact, at the MASA Leadership Summit I attended the in the week leading to my departure, two of the people in my focus group were from Budapest! The world is too small, because at Szimpla (the Ruin Bar- an abandoned home converted into a pub) there were three guys sitting next to me…when I detected an Israeli accent and asked where they were from, they said they were from Petach Tikva!!!!! I lost it and couldn’t believe the chances, but apparently it wasn’t as amusing for them because they said that Israelis are literally everywhere…
Other highlights of my trip centered on trying different types of Hungarian food, including a doughy, pizza-type food smothered with garlic sauce, sour crème, onion, and cheese—which you are apparently supposed to roll up but tastes like heaven either way. Kürtőskalács, or chimney cakes, are essentially sweet dough rolled in sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter over charcoal until it caramelizes and turns a golden brown and can stand up on its own. Rolled again in a topping of your choice (cinnamon, chocolate, vanilla, walnut, gingerbread, etc.,) it looks like a chimney and you can tear it apart easily to share with friends. YUM. Oh, and any time you walk by one of the stands the smell will warm you up instantly and it’s nearly impossible to resist buying one. I was also lucky enough to find one of three kosher restaurants in Budapest’s downtown center, where I was able to try the country’s famous chicken paprikish (think paprika) and Hungarian dumplings. Paprika is huge in Budapest, and every Christmas market stand and souvenir shop sells sweet and spicy paprika packages. The smells in Budapest were definitely overwhelming in the best way possible and there wasn’t a shortage of new foods to try. Not to mention it was all SO cheap! One US dollar equates to roughly 300 Hungarian Forint, so a cup of mulled wine comes out to approximately $1 and a chimney cake comes to about $3. And don’t even get me started on alcohol- mulled wine and beers at even the most touristy bars come out to about $1. And, not to mention Budapest boasts their Pálinka fruit brandy which was invented in the Middle Ages and is on average 50%-75% ABV!!!
Although we were pressed for time, I don't think there was any better way to spend the weekend. We braved the cold and walked everywhere (I'm talking average of 25,000 steps a day on the FitBit), tried new foods, met new friends (we made our own little mini-bar crawl to a second Ruin Pub with a small crew), learned about the city and country's government and Jewish history, and even had time for shopping, plenty of Coffee, and relaxation in the city's Thermal Bathhouse. I don't know if it's the city itself, the time of year, or the people you travel with that make the city, but Budapest was definitely one for the books!
Although we were pressed for time, I don't think there was any better way to spend the weekend. We braved the cold and walked everywhere (I'm talking average of 25,000 steps a day on the FitBit), tried new foods, met new friends (we made our own little mini-bar crawl to a second Ruin Pub with a small crew), learned about the city and country's government and Jewish history, and even had time for shopping, plenty of Coffee, and relaxation in the city's Thermal Bathhouse. I don't know if it's the city itself, the time of year, or the people you travel with that make the city, but Budapest was definitely one for the books!