Retrospective travel post 2: Budapest, Hungary and the Whitaker Conference

We arrived into Budapest, Hungary under heavy rain, and went straight to the Intercontinental Hotel. It was the first time that I stayed at a 5 star hotel -- and trust me, it is worth all the hype. We had a fabulous view of the Danube, the Buda palace, and the chain bridge.

For the next three days, I stayed in the hotel with the other fellows/scholars and we each gave presentations. Luis got to wander around Budapest and take some pretty spectacular photos. The other people at the conference were a pretty diverse group, working on a mix of projects (although the majority was in Europe, especially concentrated in Switzerland and the UK).

I was able to bring Luis to our "cultural activities" which consisted of the Swiss Romande concert at the Budapest Palace of Arts (the orchestra was actually from Laussane, Switzerland, where three of the fellows/scholars were doing their projects...haha) and a wine tasting dinner cruise on the Danube. As a side note, I was surprised that Hungary had its own vineyards, but I cannot say that I am a fan. Their signature wine is the white dessert wine, which slides down the throat like honey...I can't believe it's drank to accompany equally sweet desserts.

Before coming to Budapest, I never thought about visiting Hungary. It's one of the places that I put in the I-know-it-exists-but-why-would-I-ever-visit-it list. I was definitely pleasantly surprised. There is a varied collection of sites to visit, including lots of art nouveau architecture (one of which was the Parizsi udvar, or the Parisian court, a hidden gem in the busy center of the Budapest shopping district) as well as some impressive religious buildings, such as the Great Synagogue, the biggest synagogue in Europe and the second largest in the world (also where Zionism was born).

Perhaps more importantly, the food is pretty awesome. They are known for paprika and poppy seeds, and they really know how to use them! I was also surprised to discover that Hungary makes marcipan (made of sugar and almond meal), much like the Spanish marzapan. Szamos is a sweets company that makes delicious (and expensive) marcipan candies.

After the conference, we had about two days to ourselves to explore the city. I got to meet up with RP, a Hungarian guy I worked with three years ago, and we had coffee near Hero square.

Budapest is also known as the bath capital of the world, so one of the nights, Luis and I went to the Rudas Bath, a Turkish bath built in the 16th century located on the Gellért hill on the Buda side. It was co-ed night, and we stayed from around 11 pm until sometime past 2 am. It was really relaxing, but the water smelled strongly of sulfur. Some of the pools were scalding hot!!


Night view of the Danube and Buda palace from our hotel room.


Fishermen's bastion on Buda hill. One of my favorite places in Budapest!


National Opera House, where we saw the ballet rendition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.


Kürtőskalács (Hungarian chimney cake) being sold at the Buda palace. It's Hungary's oldest pastry and originally from Transylvania...super yummy!

We were scheduled to leave Budapest on Saturday, but some unexpected events unfolded...(cue suspense music).

Up next...trans-European adventure (and the damn Icelandic volcano)!

Retrospective travel post 1: Vienna, Austria (and to a much lesser extent, Bratislava, Slovakia)

It has been quite some time since I posted...a lot happened in April and May, leading to some pretty unexpected events.

It all started April 8th, when I flew from Santiago, Chile to Vienna, Austria. There were two stops in the USA (where I gorged on fat-laden foods at the airport) and one stop in Barcelona, where I "picked up" Luis before flying into Vienna.

The Whitaker Conference for all the fellows/scholars was scheduled the following week in Budapest, Hungary, and I decided to stop in Vienna and Bratislava along the way just to see some sights. Vienna was fantastic. We stayed in a hotel near the shopping area and Naschmarkt (great fleamarket street with stalls selling HUGE sausages and cartoon-like cheeses...during the evenings the shops host music venues, and we saw a blues show in one of the restaurants). The palaces were amazing (Belvedere, Schönbrunn, and Hofburg), the opera was fantastic (we dressed up and saw L'elisir d'amore at the Staatsoper), and we even got to see the Wien Philharmoniker perform Beethoven's 5th and 6th symphonies (7 euros for standing room tickets!). It was a bit rainy during our 3 days there, but it was great nevertheless. I even got to see Camille, a girl from Paris I worked with 3 years ago who was in Vienna for Erasmus, a European-wide exchange program. Just walking around the city was amazing - the churches were very impressive and the shopping is fantastic (but alas...out of my budget).


The cheese sold at Naschmarkt was over 1 foot in length and width!!


Schönbrunn Palace. Not my favorite palace in Vienna, but still very impressive. It used to be the summer palace for the royal Hapsburg family.


THIS was my favorite palace in Vienna. The Belvedere! I liked it a lot more because it has a much more impressive (and varied) art collection. This photo is the back of Upper Belvedere, taken from the walkway leading to Lower Belvedere. The Upper one houses most of the impressive art collections, including an extensive Klimt collection (The Kiss is HUGE!).



Part of the Hofburg Palace. I think it was the Natural History Museum. The whole palace was very impressive, and covered a HUGE area...it included the Fine Arts Museum, the National Library, the Albertina, State Apartments, Spanish Riding School, and more museums. It was pretty daunting to walk through, and we definitely got lost. It was like a mini-city. I wish I had more time to explore, as we only got to see a small portion of the palace.

Before we knew it, our three days in Vienna were over. I was a bit sad to leave such a great city -- definitely worth it to stay a week or more! We took a bus to Bratislava, Slovakia to spend a half-day there before heading by train to Budapest, Hungary. Bratislava was a bit odd. The bad weather (rain and clouds) contributed to the grey atmosphere and the concrete buildings. The city center was a contrast of new and old, and you can definitely see the remnants of the communist occupation. I thought it was going to be dirt-cheap, but it was not. After spending about 3 or 4 hours in Bratislava, we were glad to be on the train to Budapest.

Next up...Budapest and the Whitaker Conference!