Sunday, October 16, 2011

Getting Sick in Budapest... Boooo!!!

We have made our way from Prague to Vienna and now Budapest. And I woke up with a scratchy throat today that won't go away! Didn't help that we went out all day today in the cold and the wind chill ripped right through my clothes. It's so annoying, I really really hope it will get better soon because it's the worst to be sick while on vacation. Plus we still got 3 more countries and lots more to explore so this is a really inopportune time to be under the weather.

Anyway... I will go to bed early tonight and try to get a good night sleep so I will keep this relatively short. First of, I don't know what's going on but no matter where I go, the wifi connection won't let me post photos on the blog via my phone! I've tried literally 50 times in many different places to no avail. Sigh... I hate photoless blogs. But my short stay in Vienna has been full of amazing sites I wish I could post pictures of! It's a gorgeous city and a different type of beauty from Prague. Everything seems cleaner and more classical. I suppose it makes sense that Vienna is the capital of classical music and art. We really only had one night, one full day and half a day there. So we didn't get to do all that we wanted. I really wanted to go to the Museum of Fine Art but couldn't. And I wanted to go to a concert or an opera there too but we didn't have nice enough clothes for that. We did see all the amazing sites like the Hapsburg summer palace (Schonbrunn) which I really really loved. And just walking around the city and stopping by cafes was lots of fun. Vienna has the best public transportation system bar none. Super easy to navigate and very tourist/ English speaker friendly. It sure is an expensive city though. I believe most of my coffees cost 10 USD. Lol. Well they were mostly spiked with alcohol but still. I guess you pay for the experience. We went to 2 rather famous cafes. One is called Cafe Central where all the Viennese intellectuals used to hang out, but Hitler did too though which was a little weird but it's all a part of history I suppose. It was the most beautiful cafe though, and really nice atmosphere with a live pianist and really good food too that you pay a lot for and only get a couple bites of. But I loved it nonetheless. We also went to Demels which is the oldest cafe in Vienna. It was packed with tourists and locals alike but I had an amazing hot chocolate with Baileys! We were planning to then go to Hotel Sacher for the famous Sacher Torte but I seriously couldn't eat anymore! All these things we didn't have time to do just gives more reasons to go back there in the future!

The last night we were there we had an awful dinner experience though. We went to Placchura (sp?) which is supposed to have the best taflespitz in the city, which is like boiled beef served in a large pot. Supposedly Franz Joseph's favorite food. We knew it would be busy as it's a famous restaurant and it was Friday night. But we got there at almost 9 hoping to squeeze in. They were so straight forward with the "sorry we are completely booked" line though, we were pretty much kicked out as soon as we walked in. Lol. Ok, fine. So then we decided to go to a more pub type restaurant we saw on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. But same thing happened! The girl there had such an attitude and it was a pub! We couldn't understand why we could not have the option to sit at the bar and wait for a table. When we asked her that she said there was "no chance". Really?? Is this how it is in Vienna?! Most restaurants I've been at least give you a chance to wait without a reservation or tell you nicely to come back later with one. Maybe when you have been on Bourdain you get really cocky. That kind of ruined our night and by the time we walked back it was too late to go anywhere else so we had ham sandwiches at a bar. Sad. That was our last night in Vienna...

We actually took a bus called OrangeWays from Vienna to Budapest yesterday. It was a really nice bus with free movie and a waitress serving coffee and snacks. And it was only like 10 euro per person. 1 euro extra. for luggage. Pretty sweet! We got to Budapest in like 2.5 hours.

Upon first impression at night, Budapest was kinda grim and sad looking. But we had an amazing dinner last night and today we got to see the city better. It has a lot more Turkish influence than I thought! Makes it completely different from both Prague and Vienna. There are lots of thermal baths here that I can't wait to try out! And lots of good food and wine too. For much cheaper than Vienna and Prague! Just hope I don't get sick so I can enjoy it all...

Ok this was supposed to be a short post. But I kept rambling. Hehe. I will write more about Budapest later so I can actually go to sleep now and try to nip this cold in the butt!

Location:Munkácsy Mihály St,Budapest,Hungary

2 comments:

  1. Hope you are feeling better soon. I enjoy reading your posts about your trip, these are places I have never been to and chances are high that I will never go there, so it is great to read your thoughts!

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  2. Really nice trip, i never be in Vienna but so many people have told me that is beautiful. I was in Budapest for 3 weeks and i had a lot of party those weeks i didn't sleep either and I can tell that my friends didn't too.

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