Salzburg finished strong, I saw the two Mozart Houses in the morning then had lunch again at the Balkan Grill with dessert at Eisgrotte again. Then I went on that tour the ice cave which was actually amazing. Wasn't allowed to take photos so I offer you their website: http://www.eisriesenwelt.at/ ...all in all it was pretty stinking nice to cool off from these ridiculously hot mountains!
(creepy Mozart baby)I had dinner again at my Indian restaurant, I know I'm being boring here, but hey, sometimes you've got to rest from being adventurous!
Budapest...so the Buda and the Pest (plus that other city that they crammed in there), great! My first Eastern European city to see, and I really appreciated having a break from the west. First impressions...I like! After a short ride on the oldest metro system in Europe I made it to one of my favorite hostels thus far on this trip, Home Made Hostel, and settled in...being that it was late in the afternoon and I was tired from traveling, I only made it around the corner to the Opera House to check things out, and grabbed some tasty (AND CHEAP) orange chicken from the Chinese buffet!
Second day...I woke up early...and went the wrong way...but it got me to Hero's Square, which I needed to see anyway. More than the other buildings around, there was this one really old one, right behind the square that had this beautiful moss covered roof, and it was just beautiful with all the old detail work on it. One of the advantages of my Great European Adventure is that I'm getting ideas for cool decorating and color combinations in my future apartment slash house (if I ever get there). Right behind the square around the Vajdahunyad Castle and the Syechenyi Baths, they had this fun little--I don't know what to call it--set up...street vendors, and tasty food, etc...where I stopped to have this super awesome fried thing with cheese and sour cream (ridiculously unhealthy, but hey, I'm on vacation, calories don't count). From St. Stephen's Basilica, to the 2nd largest Synagogue in the world (second to NYC), and Chain Bridge, I'd say I had a pretty successful day.
To make the day even better, I decided to take one of my first tours in Europe! It was with Absolute Walking Tours, their Gastro slash Wine tasting tour. Now, in preparation of tasting these amazing Hungarian specialties I was going to taste, I hadn't eaten but that wonderful fried goodness earlier by Hero's square...and being that the wine tasting was actually drinking five glasses of wine and having a shot of some ridiculously high proof Hungarian liquor, Lauren's was extremely happy for the rest of the tour ;o). But it was a fun time. What I've learned from Hungary and Germany...is that it's OK to make dips completely out of lard...meaning dips to dip pretzles and bread in...because I've been served that wonderful concoction in both countries...a little bit of lard, a little bit of pepper and maybe some onions and you've got a real party pleaser!
The last day in Budapest was just as fun as the first. I walked up to Buda Hill and the palace and all that...Fisherman's Bastion and Mathias Church, all pretty pretty pretty...down to Parliament, ate some sushi and after all that...got on the overnight train to Prague (which ended up being delayed for TWO hours...that my friends, is why I love Germany...transportation, is AMAZING!).
