When we heard that some of our Minnesota friends were going to be touring in the Czech Republic in October we thought it would be great to see them and would also give us an excuse to visit some more countries that we had not seen yet.

We started this tour by flying to Budapest, Hungary. This used to be two cities – Buda and Pest on either side of the Danube River. They were not united until 1873. Budapest was co-capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire which ended with the first world war. It is now the capital of Hungary and stands out among the relatively drab capital cities of the other former Soviet bloc countries.

One of the reasons the Romans first colonized the area was the many thermal springs. The first thing we did after arriving in Budapest was visit the Széchenyi Baths. I had read that the Széchenyi Baths, one of the largest thermal baths in all of Europe had floating chess boards! Unfortunately, we didn’t see any when we were there but it was an interesting place anyway. It was in a grand old building dating from 1913. There were so many different pools, some inside and some outside  and at different temperatures it was hard to keep track of them all!

The next morning we visited the big produce market in Budapest. Everybody seemed to be selling paprika and upstairs was almost entirely embroidered table linens. After the market we went to the Hungarian National Museum where we learned a lot about the history of Hungary.

After a bit of lunch we made our way up Citadella hill for some fantastic views of the city and the Danube River.

We ended our day by going back to the city center and visiting some of the “ruins” pubs. These are in old tenement and factory buildings that were doomed for destruction but have been saved and filled with an eclectic assortment of furniture. The have a very retro feel and  are very popular among the locals as well as tourists.

 

 

 

We discovered a new treat – chimney cake. To make it they roll out sweet bread dough into ropes and wrap the dough around wood cylinders. They roast that over charcoal. Then they slide the bread off and serve it hot, buttered and with different toppings. We had walnuts on ours. It is good and very easy to eat! We saw these all over in Czechia also.

The next day we caught a train to Brno, Czechia via Bratislava, Slovakia.