Day 1 in Budapest

We had been trying to find a way to see our friends Marc and Malin from Stockholm again. We last saw them 18 months ago when they came for Thanksgiving in Amsterdam. With our spring and summer already booked up with travel plans, we decided to invite them to join us in Budapest and were thrilled when they decided to come! I didn't really do any research into what to see/do in Budapest because I was just excited to see our friends! We didn't have that much time together, but we are able to pack a lot in when wake up is 6am! 

Ready to explore the city! 

Cool interior courtyard at our AirBnB

Marc and Malin had arrived the day before and got the lay of the land. So they led us down to the river to start our touring. Budapest is really two cities, Buda and Pest, divided by the Danube river. We stayed in Pest and only saw Buda from the water. It was a much bigger city than we imagined and the hills over there were too intimidating with the stroller for this visit! 

Trams, Danube River and the Buda Castle

Vigado concert hall

We continue to motivate Jude to explore by telling him we are in search of a playground (which is almost always true). This was not amongst the best we have seen, but kids don't seem to care!

We walked up to St. Stephen's Basilica and Jude told me he wanted to go in! I was pumped. Not knowing if there was an admission charge, I grabbed Pete's wallet and headed in with Jude. We took in the opulence and Jude was really having fun checking things out when I realized I no longer was holding Pete's wallet! Jude and I did a frantic backtracking to see if I had dropped it somewhere, but we couldn't find it. I tried to ask some officials if anyone had turned a wallet in, but no one seemed able or willing to help us. Jude was getting concerned and said he was sorry even though it was not his fault, bless him. I took Jude outside to where everyone was sitting and broke the bad news to the group before going back in to look some more. Pete handled it pretty well (I think because he thought I was kidding at first). So in I go, find another official, again who couldn't help, but wait, here comes another official who gestures for me to follow him. We go back into the hollows of the church to an office area and bam, there are some more officials who are holding Pete's wallet! They had moved some cards around in an attempt to determine the owner, but everything was in tack. I said an extra prayer and shared the good news with the group. Phew!

Hanging outside the church before hearing what I did :(

Since my trip planning was lacking, I was really relieved that Marc had done some research on places to eat and found a traditional kosher Hungarian restaurant that was highly rated. We had our fill of goulashes, paprika chickens and pickled veggies. You served yourself sparkling or still water at the table. The service was really sweet and it was a great introduction to Hungary! 

When I research a new place to go, my google searches look something like this: "Budapest with kids," "Budapest playground," "Kid-friendly dining in Budapest." Our friends search was, "What souvenirs to buy in Budapest." They learned that you can get well priced goose down pillows! So they visited a basement level shop and placed their order. We got to go with them to pick them up the following day. We were tempted, but didn't want the extra baggage. Marc and Malin also led us through one of the local markets they had seen the day before. We were too full from lunch to sample the Langos specialty, but were able to try it the following day.

We were thirsty from all that walking around! 

We found another, more charming neighborhood playground to burn off some energy before dinner.

A local boy was cutting Jude off on the climbing structure and Jude was rather distraught asking me to tell him that Jude was first. "I'm sorry, sweetie, I don't speak Hungarian!"

Pete checked out the local antique shop with Maeve :) 

Dinner and bath for the kiddos and then some fun for the adults. Pete arranged a babysitter through another international school in Budapest. Ideally, we thought we'd have both kids asleep before she came, but she wanted to come early to meet the kids in case they woke up. Jude took to her immediately and was in bed with her reading stories before I had the chance to worry about it! 

We went to a modern Hungarian restaurant. Hungary is in the EU, but is still on the own currency, the forint. That is a lot of zeros (~300 forints= $1).

Bone marrow, Hungarian pancakes and pickled salad

After dinner we walked a few blocks to a ruin bar. Essentially former buildings in ruins, which have been turned into night life spots with lots of bars inside. It had a really cool vibe and I fully enjoyed my mojito under the night sky.