Budapest Part 2 - Castle and Butterfly

Although it's been a number of weeks since our Budapest jaunt, we're going to suspend the disbelief and pretend that it just happened.

View of Buda. Our apartment was in the building the farthest to the left.

We woke up Saturday to a crisp, clear, beautiful morning just begging to be enjoyed.

Entrance to our apartment. They should have had a café in the courtyard.

Micah serenading Budapest with Gershwin renditions, I presume.

First order of business, find a place for breakfast. We wandered around the Jewish quarter in search of a quaint corner for a coffee and some form of sustenance. We stumbled on this little gem called Blue Bird cafe (or something like that). With six mini grinders, a visual representation of their coffee business model, and delicious looking pastries we were completely satisfied.

What you don't see is that in the basement they had a coffee lab and a huge parrot cage. What's up with that?

The six separate grinders (made in Israel) in one apparatus.

After a delightful breakfast we thought to ourselves, how do we want to go about exploring this place? Public transportation? How depressing. So we did what we know, and found a bike rental shop. Best way to explore a new city. Breathe the fresh air, maybe some exhaust, and see all the corners and facades that the subwayers miss.

First order of business was to visit the massive indoor market that closed midday. The place was packed with knick knacks, doo-dads, oozits, whatsits, and food. There was also some Japanese exhibition with a lady in a kimono singing, which was a bit strange. We purchased a wooden chess set with "Budapest" engraved on the side. The wording may have looked like it was chiseled by an elementary student or perhaps someone with arthritis, but hey it's still cool.

Paprika, without which the Hungarians couldn't eat anything.

After the bustle of the market we road aimlessly through the streets, stopping at outdoor flea markets where we found hot wine and a leather messenger bag from the 70s for only $6. To remember where and when we got it I etched "Budapest 2013" on the back with a fingernail. It also looks like it was drawn by an elementary school student or arthritic seamstress.

Heroes' Square. Evidently permanently peopled with Hungarian heroes that no one else knows about. But according to our walking tour guide Hungary has a lot of famous and accomplished people.

Heroes' Square lies at the entrance to the City Park Városliget in which can be found Vajdahunyad Castle. Built for the millennial celebration of Hungary, the castle was designed to feature the over 20 (or maybe it was 12) distinct architectural styles of Hungarian history. The variegated facade produced daydreams of dragons and jousts. But seeing as how it was built at the end of the 1800s I don't think it saw anything so interesting as that.

Castle, Castle, Castle. I love Castles.

The little attached chapel was a disappointment, but the courtyard looked serene.

Ah, fall colors

After tooling around the Városliget on our bikes we wandered back to the main area of Pest and stopped for, this is embarrassing, Starbucks with a view of St. Stephens. Now I know what you are thinking, and before you judge me just hear me out. Spain does not have holiday drinks. It is a sad sad fall without a pumpkin spice latte. So yes, I had to get a pumpkin spice before it was too late!

Happy with my choices. Judge all you want.

After a caffeine cup we went into St. Stephens and were not disappointed by the beautiful colored marble interior. Micah claims it was his favorite church in Europe (Sagrada Familia excluded).

I feel so discriminated against.

Exterior of St. Stephens

As we were heading to the opera later in the evening, we thought we'd do the night right and eat at Versailles (well, the interior looks like Louis XIV once decorated it). Evidently the New York Cafe was one of the famous haunts of artists and writers during the Belle Époque. And it is Epic.

Exterior of New York cafe

Did I not say Versailles?

Leg of goose with Hungarian beans. The beans were particularly delicious.

I'm spying on Micah. I guess I'm not a very good spy.

After a delicious dinner of asparagus soup (inspired), pork trotter, and leg of goose we returned our bikes and headed over to the Opera. We got to the House a couple minutes before 7. Thinking the show started at 7:30 (for some odd reason) we played around on the banister before an usher asked us what the heck we were doing and why we weren't going to our seats as the curtain opened at 7. Woops!

No I did not have wine with dinner...

Operas in Budapest are definitely the way to go. We enjoyed this view of Madame Butterfly for only $15 a head! We also picked the right show. Evidently the woman playing Madam Butterfly is the most famous Hungarian Opera singer. She was excellent. We should have bought the program as it would have given us a summary of the show - we didn't think to read about it beforehand. Luckily we sat in the same box as a nice Hungarian lady who explained the gist of the show.

I just happened to get surprised right next to this statue.

Beautiful interior

So happy to be watching an Opera in Hungary sung in Italian about an American Navy Captain with Geisha in Japan.

If you can't tell, this is Madame Butterfly holding up a knife.

After watching an excellent performance (which I didn't understand a word of) we did some more walking up around the Parliament over the Margarit Bridge and back to our apartment to finish another awesome day in Budapest.

St. Matthias church with Fisherman bastion on our nighttime wanderings.