My morning began with walking to the Grand Market to try some langos, a traditional Romanian dish that is essentially a fried piece of bread with sour cream and cheese on it. I went with a hostel buddy I met who ironically went to UW for a semester and lived in Seattle for a bit before doing a variety of other things and ending up in San Francisco to pursue a graduate degree at Berkeley. It really is a small world!
After exploring the market (I was able to resist a scarf, but not a cute ‘Budapest’ tote with a picture of the skyline), I headed to meet up with my walking tour friends, Nicole and Jake for an afternoon tea at a tea place we had seen the day before. I might have tried one of the teas that had liqueur in it. Mine had some coconut rum…I don’t think there was much since you couldn’t really taste it, but the drink had an amazing flavor! I seriously could spend every afternoon at this place. The tea was amazing and I loved all the decorations on the wall.
Most cities in Europe have Christmas markets as the holidays approach and Budapest is no exception. They do not have the entire thing set up yet, but it was interesting to walk around the booths that were set up in the wooden houses. Hot wine (mulled with spices such as ginger) is a staple at the outdoor Christmas markets, so it was very delicious to try. We even stopped to listen to some wonderful Hungarian music. One day, I will be just like this woman in a fabulous embroidered vest!
Later in the night, I headed to Deak Ter Square (the main area of town) where a pub tour I signed up for began. We started at a local Hungarian haunt (where the two Italians, the American ex-pat and I definitely stood out), a modern bar (which reminded me a lot of most of the places in Seattle), a ruin bar (Szimpla…a ruin bar I had been to previously) and then a bar and club (of course with really awesome wallpaper…that seems to be the hip thing in Budapest). The four of us and our guide were not super crazy, but we had a lot of fun seeing all the different types of venues Budapest has to offer for their nightlife. We also might have conquered some palinka and unicum. I mean, I feel like it’s just not right if you don’t try all the local traditions when you are in a country. :)
