Record Temperature 热浪席卷欧洲

June 27, 2022

The heat wave swept across Europe, and the temperature in Budapest today was already the highest in the last forty days we had been in Europe. Although the temperature was still much lower than in Phoenix, it was really a bit unbearable when we walked under the direct sun.

On a guided tour, we visited the Hungarian Parliament Building early in the morning. The Parliament Building was a symmetrical façade and a central dome in the Gothic Revival style. The inside was golden and magnificent, one of the most luxurious buildings we had seen on this trip. The picture taking was allowed except for the Holy Crown displayed in the central hall. During the People's Republic of Hungary period, a red star perched on the top of the dome, but it was removed in 1990 after the fall of communism. The broken star was on display in the museum.

Then we went to the Central Market for the second time and had Goulashes, a traditional Hungarian dish, which tasted very good. We had tried different Goulash soups in various countries in the past few weeks, but we preferred this goulash today. We were leaving tomorrow but hadn't tried the Hungarian snack – Chimney Cake, yet, and while chimney cakes were all over the town, a top vegan chimney cake store was on the Buda side, just across the river. We took the bus to the Buda side again and had the chimney cake to check off a box on our to-do list.

We returned to our flat to take a break and then took the subway to the Buda side again for dinner. We found a restaurant with seabass on the menu and ordered the whole fried seabass. The photo looked better than the actual taste. After dinner, we went to Fisherman's Bastion, free of charge after dark. From the terrace, the view of the Parliament building at night was magnificent, and we could see bats flying over the building.

欧洲游第三十八天：热浪席卷欧洲，布达佩斯今天的温度也已经是我们来欧洲近四十天最高的一天。虽然气温仍远低于凤凰城的，但在烈日暴晒下走真的有点受不了。一早就参观匈牙利议会大厦，里面是金碧辉煌，宏伟壮观，是我们这次旅行中见到的最漂亮的建筑物之一。然后又再次来到中央市场，在那里尝试匈牙利的传统美食-炖牛肉(Goulashes)，味道还真不错。之前的几周在各个国家都有尝过不同的牛肉汤（Goulash Soup), 还是更喜欢今天这个炖牛肉。明天要离开这里了，可是匈牙利小吃-烟囱蛋糕(Chimney Cake)还没尝过，虽然烟囱蛋糕满街都是，可排名前列的全素蛋糕是远在河对面。我们又坐了公交车去了对岸，也算了个心愿。晚上准备上鱼人堡看夜景，先回住所休息一会儿后，又坐地铁再次来到对岸。先找了一家有炸鱼的饭店，点了个炸全鲈鱼，照片上看着馋人，结果味道一般。饭后来到鱼人堡，眺望对岸，夜幕下的议会大厦非常漂亮，真是名不虚传。

Danube River Cruise 多瑙河游

June 26, 2022

Today's main activity was doing Danube River Cruise. There are two types of river cruises, river cabin cruises and river sightseeing cruises. The river cabin cruises typically provide overnight stay cabins and involve a multi-day itinerary. The simple sightseeing cruises take passengers from point A to point B during the day. It sometimes offers simple tour guides and usually has a small café for food and drink. The river tours cost a fraction of the river cruises with cabins. We already did one river sightseeing cruise in Vienna on the Danube River and enjoyed it. We planned to do a few more on this Europe trip. We had wanted to do a multi-day river cruise with overnight cabins in Europe for a while. Now we started questioning whether river cabin cruises were worth the money.

The heat wave swept many European countries in the past few days, and the Budapest area was also under a high-temperature alert. We often felt exhausted after walking a few minutes in the city. Under this kind of weather, cruising on the river offered a more comfortable way to enjoy than walking in the city.

After having breakfast at a café near our rented flat, we boarded a river sightseeing boat sailing from Budapest to Szentendre, a small town just outside of Budapest, against the river flow. Szentendre was a tourist town full of churches, galleries, museums, and cafes. The one-way ticket for a two-hour boat tour costs only 10 Euros per person. The river view from Budapest to Szentendre was terrific, especially passing the striking waterfront of Budapest's UNESCO World Heritage, such as the Szechenyi Chain Bridge, the Liberty Bridge, Buda Castle Hill, the Hungarian Parliament Building, and Margaret Island.

After arriving in the town, we visited a few tourist attractions first. Passing by a Langos stand along a narrow alley, three of us shared a garlic Langos which was very tasty and cost only 1.5 euros. Lángos is a famous Hungarian street food snack. It's a deep-fried flatbread made of dough from water or milk, flour, yeast, and salt. It is usually topped with sour cream and grated cheese or garlic. We always like deep-fried bread, and this one was no exception.

For lunch, two of us went to a Greek restaurant while our daughter decided to try a Vegan café alone. We had grilled squids and Greek salad, and both were delicious. Earlier, while we wandered around in the old town square, we saw this beautiful ice cream store, Levendula Kézműves Fagylaltozó, decorated nicely with lavender and purple colors. We never had lavender flavor ice cream and liked to figure out how it tasted. After lunch, we went to the store and ordered a small cup of lavender ice cream. Although there was a couple of purple color ice cream in the booth, the girl behind the counter gave us a scoop of lavender ice cream, which was white, and even put it into a white cup despite many purple cups there. The ice cream didn't taste like lavender or smell like lavender. At this point, we still didn't know what she had given us. We were expecting our ice cream would be a purple color in the purple cup. It was a big disappointment, but we laughed it off.

It was hot today. The portable water mists in the town helped us cool a little bit. We didn't return to Budapest on the boat. Instead, we took the 130-year-old intercity train back to the town. There was no air conditioning in the carriage, and all windows were open. The train ride was noisy and uncomfortable as the train shook from side to side while running. It was said that these carriages had been used for more than 40 years on average. It was quite a different experience for us.

Our daughter went to a vegan shop in the city center alone. Budapest had quite a few vegan options, and she enjoyed them very much. We returned to the flat and had tomato mushroom egg soup again. After dinner, the three of us went to the riverside again and sat at the same café we were in yesterday. As watching the sun go down, we drank coffee and chatted. It was a happy family time.

欧洲游第三十七天：今天的节目是多瑙河游。在住宿附近的一家咖啡馆吃了早餐后就从布达佩斯坐游船逆水而上，大约一个半小时后来城外的旅游小镇。这几天热浪席卷欧洲多国，布达佩斯地区也是高温居下，没走几步就满头大汗。坐在船上舒服多了。到了小镇后，就把几个景点先扫了一遍。路过一家油饼小摊，三人分享了一个蒜蓉油饼，非常好吃，只花了1.5欧元。然后在河边餐厅坐下吃了个午餐休息一下之后就坐着有130年历史的城间火车回城。车厢里没有空调，所有窗都打开，车一开车厢左右摇晃叽叽嘎嘎全是噪音。据说这些车厢平均使用年已超过四十几年了。对我们来说也是一种不一样的体验。今晚我们俩又是番茄蘑菇蛋汤，女儿一人去了一家全素店。布达佩斯还是有蛮多的素食选择。晚餐后又去河边打卡，喝咖啡看太阳落山。

Buda Castle & Thermal Bath, 布达城堡和泡温泉

June 25, 2022

We went to a supermarket this morning to buy vegan snacks and small pastries. Things in Budapest were relatively cheap, and eight pieces of small pastries cost only two euros. After breakfast, the three of us took the bus to Buda Castle. We did not take the funicular to the castle and instead went up on foot. Many buildings and the famous Széchenyi Chain Bridge in the city were being renovated, and the castle was no exception. Fortunately, the majority of the castle was still open to the public. After walking up, an outdoor cafe was perfect for a quick break with coffee and freshly made lemonade. We were fortunate to see the guard change ceremony at the castle just in time.

Out of the castle, we went to Fisherman's Bastion, built in the late 19th century. It is one of the top Budapest attractions, without a doubt. The upper towers of the bastion have a small entrance fee to get in. But the panoramic views of Budapest from lookout towers were unmatchable. This fortress had never served as an actual fortification but is now the fantastic backdrop of millions of beautiful photos by tourists worldwide.

The Pest side of the Budapest

We had our lunch near the Fisherman's Bastion and then went to the Parliament building on the other side of the river. Unfortunately, the tour tickets for the inside building were sold out for the day, and then we bought the tickets for Monday. We strolled around the area to see some tourist attractions, such as Shoes on the Danube Bank, IN MEMORIAM 1956 October 25, and a few other memorial statues around the parliament buildings.

On the way to the flat, we visited the famous St. Stephen's Basilica, which happened to have a wedding, and there were far more tourists like us than the actual wedding guests attending the wedding. A few churches, like St. Stephen's Basilica, charge a fee to see the church, including the tower. We bought the all-in-one tickets. Since the altar area was blocked for the moment due to the wedding, we decided to first climb up to the lookout point in the tower. The 360-degree view from the church towers made climbing the hundreds of stairs steps worth the effort. We thought we could see the altar in the church after the wedding. To our surprise, after coming down from the tower, there was another wedding. We still couldn't see the altar up close even though we had paid for it. Outside the church was an ice cream shop having many followers on social media, Gelarto Rosa, and the line was long. Regardless of the long wait, the beautiful ice cream did comfort us a little, at least.

The panoramic view from the lookout tower at St. Stephen’s Basillica

Soaking in a thermal bath was a must-do thing when visiting Budapest. Yesterday, we went to Gettert Thermal Bath House to check it out but didn't get in. Today we decided to go to Széchenyi Baths, the largest thermal bath complex in Europe and Budapest's most popular baths. The outdoor section was stunning and huge, as well as the yellow neo-renaissance buildings. We did not have much experience with a thermal bath in Budapest. We went inside the building to check out. It had 11 indoor thermal pools at various temperatures from 28°C-40°C and with different mineral concentrations. We soaked in some of the pools for a few minutes each. Then we went to the outdoor pools and even got into a whirlpool. The tickets were not cheap, but the experience was good. We wished we could spend more time there. The lucky one among us went to Iceland last summer, and she liked Iceland's thermal Bath better.

After soaking in the thermal Bath, we went to a restaurant recommended by our rental host, and the food was delicious.

欧洲游第三十六天：吃全素的女儿到后，今天一早就去超市买了一大堆全素的食品和我们吃的小面包。布达佩斯的东西很便宜，八个小面包只花了二个欧元。早餐后，我们三人坐了公交车去Buda Castle (布达城堡) ,很多建筑都在装修，城堡也不例外。出了城堡，来到Fisherman’s Bastion (鱼人堡)。去了议会大厦，但向导讲解游票巳售完毕，只买到了周一的。在往住所的路上，来到著名的圣伊什特万圣殿(St. Stephen's Basilica)，碰巧遇上婚礼，像我们这样看热闹的游客远多于参加婚礼的嘉宾😀。气喘吁吁爬到教堂上面，360度的景观也算让我们没白费力气。兜了一圈下到教堂，结果又换了另一场婚礼，还是没办法近距离看圣坛，有点遗憾。好在教堂外就是网红冰淇淋店，排长队买了漂亮的冰淇淋安慰一下自己😅。泡温泉是来布达佩斯必做的事，先回到住处拿游泳衣和浴巾，去了欧洲最大的温泉池，里里外外有好几个温度和含矿物质不同的温泉池，人也不少。去过冰岛的人说比冰岛的温泉差多了😛。泡完温泉后去了一家房东推荐的餐厅，味道不错。

Guess who is here? 女儿的到来

June 24, 2022

We got up early in the morning and went to a small café across the street. Although we stayed in a bustling tourist area, and there were a lot of choices for food and drinks during the day and at night, the breakfast choice in the early morning was minimal. Only a hand full of breakfast cafes opened in the morning. The café was small, but the waiter took us to the lovely courtyard in the back. We had Bacon, eggs, and coffee, and it was a good breakfast.   

After coming to Europe, we were curious to find out any historic markers left by the communist period in Eastern Europe. We have visited three former Eastern European countries on this trip so far, and apart from the infrastructure being far behind Western Europe, there was almost nothing left to remind that period of history. But in Budapest, Hungary, they built a small park outside of the city called Memento Park, where they collected some of the statues that had been made under Soviet control.

We took the bus to Memento Park. Budapest had a reasonably extensive and efficient public transport system, including many buses, trams, and metro trains. But taking a bus in Budapest was a bit more complicated than in other countries on this trip. The tickets could be purchased from a ticket machine near some bus stops or downloaded from an app on the phone. A set of ten bus tickets was cheaper than individual ones. The price costs less than one euro for a ride. Each bus fare can only be used for one ride, with no transfer, regardless of distance. The ticket needs to be validated on the bus. There were different ways to validate a ticket depending on the bus you were on, and it could be putting a time stamp on the ticket or punching a hole. As first-timer, we did not know all these, and the machine didn't always work for us. Fortunately, the friendly locals quickly came to the rescue. To get to Memento Park, we had to do a bus transfer. We had a little trouble finding the right stop for the transfer and ended up on the bus in the opposite direction. The bus driver did not speak English, but he was so nice to stop the bus and even got off the bus to show us the one we should take.

Finally, we arrived at Memento Park. There were not many tourists visiting the park. It had three parts: the Statue Park, the Barrack Cinema, and the Photo Exhibition. The Status Park was small, featuring some Communist-era statues, sculptures, and plates. The park was not well maintained and was overgrown with weeds. The Photo Exhibition gave a brief overview of Hungarian socialist history, and the Cinema showed glimpses of the country's dark past with the government spying on its citizens. All of these reminded us of the dictatorship and its fall. In today's Hungary, people live a free life. Budapest was full of tourists as if they had long forgotten the new COVID virus.

After visiting the park, we stopped by the Buda side of Budapest and walked up to Gellert Hill. Unfortunately, Citadella was closed for renovation, but we had a fantastic panoramic view of the Pest and the Danube River at the top of the hill. We didn't stay there for too long as we needed to return to the city center to meet our daughter.

Our daughter flew from New York to Budapest to join us today. We knew she would take an airport shuttle to the city center, not too far from our rented place, and the bus stop for the shuttle. We went to the bus stop a few minutes earlier and had our iPhones ready to tape a happy family reunion. But the empty bus came without any passengers. "Oh, no. The passengers were dropped off somewhere else", we murmured to ourselves. We immediately used Find My on the phone to locate her on the other side of the street. She also planned to videotape us for the reunion but was very disappointed that we were not there when she got off the bus. Ultimately, we were delighted to see each other again on another continent.

We went to a vegan restaurant for dinner, and the food tasted delicious. Afterward, we went to a café on the river for coffee and enjoyed another beautiful night view of Budapest.

欧洲游第三十五天：一早起来就去外面转转，在民舍对面的小店吃了个早餐。然后就坐公交车去城外的纪念公园。在布达佩斯坐公交车比其他国家要复杂一些，一张票只能坐一次车，换车要用新票，上车后还要打时间，但价格还是便宜，一个欧元不到坐一次车。来欧洲后，很好奇想在东欧看看在共产党时期留下的痕迹。已经去了三个前东欧国家，除了相比之下基础设施要比西欧差一些，其它几乎已经再也看不见反映那一段历史的痕迹了。不过在匈牙利的布达佩斯，他们建立了一个小小的公园，把以前苏联控制下所塑造的一些塑像收集起来放在那里。里面杂草丛生，稀稀拉拉没几个游客。如今的匈牙利，人们过着自由自在的生活，布达佩斯满街的游客，好像早已把新冠病毒抛之脑后。

女儿今天从纽约飞到布达佩斯与我们会合，晚上去了一家素食餐厅，味道还不错。之后去河上的餐厅喝咖啡☕️+看夜景。

Budapest, Hungary 布达佩斯, 匈牙利

June 23, 2022

Our time in Austria came to an end, and we were heading to our next destination today. Our original plan was to make a side trip to Goyer for a couple of hours on the way to Budapest. But the summer was getting hotter these days all over Europe as the heat wave swept over, so we decided to go straight to Budapest and give us a break.

After a two-hour train ride, we arrived in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. From the train station, we called a Bolt, an Uber-like service in Hungary, to get us to our rental place. The rented residence was in the downtown area on the Pest side and in a good location, very nicely decorated and comfortable. It had two big bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen. The apartment had a washer and dryer, which was needed. The owner of the house met us at the apartment and was very helpful in showing us what to see in the city and local food spots. After settling in, we walked to the Central Market. The place was huge, selling vegetables, fruits, and meat and having many snack bars and small shops selling tourist souvenirs. We walked around a little and bought tomatoes, cherries, eggs, and mushrooms. Back at the apartment, it was time for the homemade tomato mushroom egg soup again. The last time we made soup was almost two weeks ago, back in Ljubljana.

After dinner, we walked along the Danube River to see the city's night view. The Buda Castle and Fisherman's Bastion on the other side of the river under the night sky were amazing and beautiful. Although the Buda side of Budapest was the more historic part of the city, it was the Pest side where you truly felt the pulse of city life. The streets were always full of people, and the nightlife lasted way after midnight. There was a bustling atmosphere wherever we turned. Budapest was crowded with more tourists than Vienna, and the river was full of cruise ships.

欧洲游第三十四天：原本准备在去匈牙利的Budapest (布达佩斯)的路上顺路在一小镇上停留几个小时，后来觉得这几天炎阳炙人，有点走累了，就直奔布达佩斯，借此机会也好好休整一下。二个多小时后来到了布达佩斯，匈牙利的首都。叫了类似于Uber的Bolt, 几分种后就达到我们租的民舍。这次位于城中的民舍是二房一厅，很舒畅，而且位置也很好。民舍的主人很热心，向我们介绍了城市的景点和当地美食点。在安顿好之后就去不太远的中央市场，那里不仅有卖蔬菜，水果和肉之类的，同时有许多小吃店，还有更多的是卖旅游纪念品的小商铺。我们转了一圈，买了些西红柿，樱桃和蘑菇，晚上又是番茄蘑菇蛋汤了😀。晚饭后去河边散步看夜景，布达佩斯的游客可不比维也纳少，河里全是游船🚢。