Day 10: The Buda Side and Mazel Tov (Monday, November 21)

Rachel had school on Monday so Jim, Julia, and I set out to explore the Buda side (Castle Hill) with stops at Babka deli for breakfast and on Margaret Island to start. Julia had been running on Margaret Island several mornings and I had walked it some as well, but Jim hadn't been yet. We thought it might be fun (and quicker) to rent bikes to explore. When we got to where we thought there would be bike shop, there was just a city bike stand and we couldn't get the app to work for us. There was a guy nearby renting bikes, but just those big four-people contraptions that Julia was not at all interested in. I was so set on Jim seeing Margaret Island that we made him walk in a bit and look around. I have this picture that proves he saw it.

Jim figured out how we could take public transportation up to the Castle and we were pretty proud of our bus savvy. When we got off, however, we started following Google Maps advice and ended up walking through a really long tunnel. While we were walking, I had been sharing my deep knowledge of Budapest's past and how it used be three cities: Buda, Pest, and some unpronounceable to me like Obudababa. When we got to the end of the tunnel, Julia and Jim pointed out that in fact, it was just Buda, Pest, and simply Buda with an O in front of it -- Obuda (which we think means north Buda).

When we exited the tunnel we realized it had taken us back down to the bottom of the hill in front of the Buda side of the Chain Bridge.So, we still had to walk up the hill to get to the Castle. We followed Rick Steve’s tour around the castle grounds (which we had done before) and ended up at Matthias Church.

Matthias Church

We bought tickets to go inside (which we’d skipped before). It was quite beautiful and very different from St. Stephen's Basilica.

Oldest carving in Hungary?

Outside Matthias Church, we walked around Fisherman’s Bastion (but didn’t pay to go up) and got some lovely views of Parliament from across the water.

We needed lunch at this point and tried to go to the oldest cafe in Budapest as Rick Steve recommended, but they only served tea and cakes, which while tempting, was not enough. Instead we ended up walking further past the ruins of The Church of Mary Magdalene to a restaurant called 21 - Magyar Vendéglő. We ordered chicken paprika two ways and some goulash. It was by far the best Hungarian food we've had.

Our intention had been to go to the Jewish temple that afternoon, but we realized that the temples would close at 4 and we didn't have time to get there. We decided instead to run up to Hero’s Square on the metro, which would give us time the next day to leave the baths quickly and go to the temple with Rachel. We forgot though that the other problem was the sun sets around 4:30 pm. Thankfully, we got to see one of my favorite monuments of all time, the Memorial to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, while we still had light. I think it is such a powerful depiction of people coming together in rebellion. And, I have since learned that the angle of the 56 degrees. So well thought out! Since we were last there, they have built a new museum of ethnography which we didn't go in, but we did walk up the outside of it.

Then we made our way back to Heros' Square to check out the statues. The timing worked perfectly because though we were running out of sunlight as we read about the heroes throughout the history of Hungary, they are lit up at night, so we didn't need to rush.

We still had time before Rachel would return from school, so we made Julia an appointment at my Thai massage place, Jim worked, and I went in search of chili powder, still planning to make Rachel a stacked enchilada before we left town. I had found the tortillas a few days before and early today I found a can of black beans.  I just needed to make homemade enchilada sauce and I'd be all set, but to do that I needed chili powder. I was close to giving up and had figured out there would be a way to do it with paprika and cumin, but thought I should try one more store: a vegan little specialty shop.  And, there it was, chili powder extra spicy.

 When Rachel got home, we headed for our dinner reservation at at Mazel Tov — a place highly recommended by Uncle Mike and many guidebooks. Rachel had been there several times but was happy for another delicious meal of shakshuka and mezzo.

We found a sports bar nearby to catch the second half of the USA v Wales World Cup Game.

I am losing track of the number of chimney cakes we consumed, but I think we ended this night with one right across from our 4/6 stop before heading home.