Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Monday

As I said earlier we were able to splurge by visiting establishments that were in the upper stratosphere but thanks to the exchange rate were totally within our reach. Food, service, ambiance all great.

But and here is the but!

A fancy and good restaurant is great. Most of the time they provide memorable experiences. But no matter how we look at it we are paying for all those frills.

We were lucky enough to find small, non descript eating places where the food was great, beautiful sidewalk seating, pleasant service and extremely reasonable pricing.

There was one where we went back about four times. Their menu consisted of items not usually found in fancier restaurants but mostly made in our Mothers' kitchens and that was the kind of food we both craved.

We also found a great Transylvanian (Erdelyi) restaurant far outside the city where we had just fantastic food while sitting on wooden benches and eating at a wooden table. Our problem was that when we wanted to go back a second time it turned out they were closed on Sunday.

There is a Hungarian thing called langos. It is some kind of dough dropped in hot oil and it comes out fried almost looking like a pizza. But it is nothing like pizza. It is a lot better.

I just love this stuff. My Mother used to make it for dinner. I love it with lots of garlic on it because I am convinced that is the best way to eat it. I was lucky enough to have this delicacy four times during our stay. Now this thing one can not get in any kind of restaurant.

One has to know good backstreet places to find good food. And being from there does not hurt. The tourists don't venture out of the central area of the city but since we originated from there we didn't mind going anywhere.

And we certainly did.

Monday, June 29, 2015

Sunday

I can not describe menus and food in detail that we were able to eat but I can try to give little morsels of certain foods we were lucky enough to find.

We both love beef marrow. that stuff comes in the leg bone of cows and prepared by cooking it in beef soup. It is an appetizer and is served on toast and is to be eaten with salt. Extremely tasty.

Solet or Cholent is a very slow cooked Jewish bean dish with various types of meat in it. Being a Jewish dish pork is not part of this dish but some places serve it with pork and it does taste a lot better with it.

Duck cracklins (toportyu) is an appetizer where they serve freshly crackled duck skin pieces. It is very tasty and easily edible. We had that in a very good restaurant and it was just fantastic. My mother used to make it whenever she bought a duck for us to eat.

Fish soup doesn't come close to describing what a good Halaszle is. This dish has various types of fish in it along with vegetables and good spices. We had that in a few places and they were equally good.

I pride myself speaking and understanding English almost perfectly. But When I read the menus in the restaurants we visited and compared the Hungarian description of the food with the English translation there was no comparison. The Hungarian description of each course was mouthwatering while the translations was always a very poor effort in trying to replicate it.

We had chicken paprikash, beef paprikash, wiener schnitzel (that is breaded veal cutlet), stuffed cabbage, chicken soup filled with meat, chicken soup with liver dumplings, matzoh ball soup and many, many more good stuff.

There was never any lack of choices when we went out to eat.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Saturday

I have to apologize to the Hungarian Postal Service. They are really not that bad. They are pretty bad but not that bad. I mailed my postcards on June 2nd in Budapest and they were finally delivered today, the 27th. It only took 25 days to get them across the ocean. Actually instead of complaining I should be glad that they were delivered at all.

Now to more serious matter.

We were in Budapest for twenty days or more accurately nineteen and a half days. In those days we visited 27 eating establishments including pastry shops for various levels of eating. That is not a small accomplishment. There were some places we visited that were known from previous trips but we also visited several establishments the first time.

These 27 places total approximately 43 eating outs. There were some not very satisfactory but the majority were great. Some were so good that we went back more than once.

Amazingly, my friend and I have very similar tastes so it was very easy for us to agree on what we wanted to eat each time and where should we go.

There are really high class restaurants with great food and superb service that are very expensive for the local population but with the current exchange rate we were able to come out ahead and enjoy those restaurants.

Hungarian food is just plain great. Their flavors are just something that one can not find here unless one is lucky enough to have real home cooked meal prepared by a loved one who know all the tricks.

I am such a person and because of that my enjoyment does not have to stop with my return but it keeps on going.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Friday

Today is a big day in my new family. It is the last day of school in New York City and from now on until... Abigail will be home with me. She just got her report card and I am proud to say that she is a pretty smart cookie. Sometimes next month we will go down to Florida and leave her there with her siblings for the remainder of the Summer but we don't have our travel plans fixed just yet.

Now back to the TRIP.

We acted like real tourists except the fact that we spoke the language. We went on a guided tour into the Parlament (it is not an error this not Parliament). That is one gorgeous building where the Hungarian legislature resides. The building is over one hundred years old and the architecture is just fantastic.

We saw a small catholic church carved into the rock in the side of a mountain that was also quite old. We saw the apartment house where my Father was born and where his parents lived. The building was built in 1858 and is not the oldest in the area at all.

We took a ride on the Budapest Eye that is a giant Ferris wheel in the center of Budapest. It is 65 meter which is about 195 feet high and the view from the top was amazing.

We went up to Castle Hill on a funicular and walked around. Castle Hill is where the former royal palace is and also the residence of the President of Hungary. Castle Hill is filled with old buildings some dating back to the 1600s.

In Budapest there are buildings that are almost older the Columbus' discovery of the Americas.

Anyway, we walked and walked and walked. And when we got very tired and a pastry shop happened we took time out and rested! But thanks to our strenuous exercise "regimen" we didn't gain much weight.

Budapest has fortunately many, many pastry shops and all have seating capacity. Some outdoors as well as indoors. So finding a suitable oasis was not very difficult.

Here is a little aside from my recollections. In short the Hungarian Postal Service sucks! I am back now a week and a half. I mailed a postcard to my home address two weeks before departing the old country. That makes it now three and a half weeks and it is nowhere. Maybe it is the norm for those people but it certainly not the norm for me.

Friday, June 26, 2015

Thursday

We rented a car at the Budapest Airport upon our arrival and used that to go all over the city. It was a small Skoda with manual transmission and a/c. I must tell you that I drove and I enjoyed every minute of the driving. I love to drive cars with manual transmission. Inn reality that is what real driving is all about.

Two hands and two feet working in unison making the car go smoothly now that's driving.

People were telling me that driving in Budapest is difficult because of the Hungarian drivers and the huge traffic. That was absolutely not true. I found the Hungarian drivers more courteous than the drivers here in the good old US of A and the terrible traffic in Budapest was not even near to what we have to put up with in New York on a daily bases.

One more thing. We had the opportunity to drive south to visit family. This was a very pleasant day trip. But I must mention that the quality of that main highway was better by far than anything I saw around here.

First it was spotlessly clean, second the road surface was smooth with no potholes or cracks or even joints. The car was gliding on it with practically no effort. This was what made the driving so pleasant.

The other thing is that these small cars use very little gas. We were driving around for days and the fuel gage didn't move at all. I used to have an eight cylinder Jeep where the fuel gage moved between the gas station and my garage at home. And the two were pretty close proximity to each other.

The fact that we had a car didn't mean that we used it all the times. My friend and I walked enormous distances in the city. That was to be able to see more and also to work up an appetite for the next necessary meal.

In our sight seeing programs we set aside a day when we used public transportation. Budapest has a fairly extensive Metro system. It is extensive for that city and we decided to try as many lines and as many stops as possible. In short, we had a great time traveling from one extreme end of the city to another in practically minutes.

Their metros are clean and on time and also very fast. The passengers behave civilized not like in New York. So, for us it was a very good day.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Wednesday

Today is Wednesday and it is one week that I am home from my whirlwind trip back to the old country. Since I was there as a tourist I can not really criticize the way life goes on over there but I did talk to several people and heard various opinions about the rules and regulations that prevail in that country.

Naturally some don't like it some are not really bothered by it. But where is Utopia? There is no country or regime in this world where there are no dissatisfied people. Even here where everybody thinks money grows on trees and life is like a bowl of honey there are critics.

So, I didn't pay much attention to the complainers who always complained no matter what regime was on the top, but enjoyed my being there.

My friend and I visited the Jewish cemetery where my parents, grandparents and his family were buried, several times. Every time I visit Hungary it appalls me the condition the Jewish cemetery in Budapest is in. If one doesn't hire private contractors to take care of the graves of their loved ones weeds will grow over everything. The Amazon jungle is nothing compared to what condition this cemetery is in.

I am totally convinced that the Hungarian Jewish Organization (MAZSIHISZ) that is tasked with the care steals the money and that is why nothing ever happens. My friend and I hired a few people and they performed beautiful work on the graves of our families.

Just a few words about the MAZSIHISZ. This organization is so money hungry that it is pathetic. Granted, there are not too many Jews living in Budapest but still!

While every beautiful church in the city is free to visit, and there are many gorgeous churches in Budapest, the great synagogue at Dohany Street charges an admission. To get a simple document from the organization like my birth certificate, they charge a fee. The get a remembrance note about family members lost during the Holocaust, they charge a fee.

To say it honestly it just didn't grab me the right way. I know they need contributions but in my book this not not the right way.

But these so called upsetting events did not mar my being there and having a great time.

More next time.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Today

Today is June 23, 2015 and I am back from a fairly long hiatus. I was away in Europe for three weeks with a very dear friend with whom we have a common past. We grew up together, went to school together and left the country together. The fact that he is also some kind of a cousin will not be held against him because I cherish his friendship a lot more than our relationship.

Anyway we left New York on May 25 and arrived in Stockholm on the morning of the 26th. Spent two days there then on to Budapest where we stayed from May 28 through June 16.

To say that we had a wonderful time is an understatement. We enjoyed every minute of it. My only problem was being away from my loved ones for such a long time.

Three weeks is very long to be away from people one loves and I did promise that this will never happen again. I missed her and she missed me. The fact that we spoke on the phone every night made the absence a little easier but not by much.

But when I returned I received a welcome reception right there at the airport that every man should receive who stays away from his family for an extended period of time.

Aside from this the trip was great. The first leg, Stockholm was very interesting. It is a nice, clean city where everybody speak English. There was a lot to see and we made it sure that we did see as much as was possible.

Then we went on to Budapest, the city of our youth and a place full of nostalgic memories. The weather throughout our stay was as balmy as it could be. Shorts every day along with short sleeve shirts.

Even though we rented a car for our stay we did walk enormous distances. That walk prevented us from putting on too much extra weight even though we ate a lot.

Next time I will go a little deeper into our trip. This was just to show that I am back and will try to write as much as I can.