That'll be 650 for the coffee please.

Talk about outrageous prices!! Or at least that's the message my eyes were sending to my brain the entire time I was in Hungary. 1 Canadian dollar = 194 Hungarian forints. Thus, the seemingly ridiculous prices. Although, I rather enjoyed holding a bank note with the number 10 000 on it...

So began part 3 of my spring travels - Easter weekend in Hungary with my fabulous friend Szandra (you pronounce it as if the z was invisible). And here she is, looking brilliant in the garden by her apartment:

We spent the next 2 days strolling about and taking in just about every major tourist attraction and beautiful building in the city. Budapest is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever had the privilege to visit. The city scape is incredible. We started our tour at St. Stephen's Basilica.

I'm a yellow-belt Vanna White

The basilica definitely makes it on to my list of pretty churches I've seen in Europe - and I even met a lady from Canada there!

Next, we wandered to the main shopping district where there happened to be an Easter Market. We joined in the celebrations for a little bit - there were musicians playing Hungarian folk music, lots of little stalls selling knick knacks and a few places where you could buy chimney cake (Kürtöskalács)

As you can see - it's a sweet dough, rolled around a stick-like sort of thingy and then roasted over a charcoal fire. Very tasty and I was quite excited about eating it!

I was shocked, however, when I realized I got the whole foot long roll - I thought they'd cut them into smaller pieces! But my sweet tooth sure wasn't complaining.

For lunch that day, I tried real Hungarian goulash - which, for the record, is nothing like what the rest of the world thinks goulash is. It's actually soup, and really good soup at that!

We wanted to go look at the Central Market Hall, but we were 15 minutes too late and the building had closed for the day. I did get a view of the outside of it, which, like a lot of Europe, was very pretty.

Even though I didn't get to see the Central Market, Szandra and I were at another market that morning to pick up some fresh produce for the weekend. We also ate Langos for breakfast - and while I normally try to steer away from freshly deep-fried batter before 2pm, I made and exception for this delectable Hungarian snack.

hanging out with Sissy (Empress of Austria)

Later on, we took a walk on Maragret Island - which is situated in the middle of the Danube (the river that runs through the middle of Budapest) - to take in a men's waterpolo game.

woo!

On my second day as a tourist in Budapest, Szandra took me over to Buda. Budapest is actually composed of two words: Buda (= mountains) and Pest (flat). This very accurately describes the city since on the Pest side of the Danube it's flat, and on the Buda side it's hilly.

While on the far side of the river we checked out:

Matthias Church

Sandy & Szandi

the view of Parliament from across the Danube

how's that for incredible?!

And the National Gallery

see, it's actually quite small

That evening we went out to experience the city skyline after sunset. Chain Bridge at night is breathtaking. We just stood there, because you couldn't tear your eyes away.

Chain Bridge & St. Stephen's Basilica

cityscape

Both of those pictures are compliments of Wikipedia - I tried and tried and tried and tried and tried to get a shot of the city by night, but we were just too far away for me to get a clear shot. So, I found some shots so you could get a taste of what my eyes feasted on.

The next morning was a rainy day. So we made our trip to Hero's Square a short one.

Short isn't bad when it's raining - especially when you're taking off for the pool when you're done! And this is what the pool hall looked like in Budapest:

Széchenyi Bathhouse

... *crickets chirping*

Little different that what we build back home, eh?

In any case, we spent the morning relaxing in the pools, hot tubs, thermal springs and steam rooms.

a shot of the pools

That afternoon we headed over to Debrecen to visit Szandra's family. Before we hopped on the train, we stopped in the mall for a quick bite to eat. Which lead to a fun little surprise!

For here you see a Hungarian and a Canadian standing together in front of "'Niagara Falls' - Canada's Millennial gift to the Hungarian People" (it's a fountain in the mall). Talk about an unexpected maple leaf... not gonna lie, I looked for a Timmy's nearby!

2 thumbs up for Canada!

The time with Szandra's family was super! We wandered around the city a little and I got to try some traditional cooking (thereby adding turkey neck to my list of strange things I've eaten - it was one of those "Eat it first and then I'll tell you what it is" moments).

AND! This made my day - I got to try Tokaji (spelt Tokay in English)!! I've wanted to try it since I discovered that the deliciously described drink I read about in The Golden Compass actually existed. And it was just as delicious as expected.

And so my mini-series comes to an end - after a looooooong trip home (I was on the road from 11am til 11pm)!

Thanks for joining in - keep watching because something new and exciting can't be far away!

Toodles,

Sandy