First visitor

I finally had my first visitor from back home. Victoria came to visit me in Budapest as a part of her first Euro Trip. Her brother was studying in Geneva for the summer and decided to stop by Bp first before going to meet up with him. She arrived on July 17th and stayed until Sunday the 20th. We started by taking her to a nearby restaurant. It has a nice outside garden and the food is excellent. I warned Victoria of the moody weather here then she understood why. As we were eating, the sound of thunder came out of nowhere and then rain came pouring down. It came to the point where the streets flooded and on the way back we had to hop over several small puddles. Not the very best impression, but we enjoyed good food.
The next day we decided to take Victoria around the Buda side of the city. I played tour guide while Gabi was at work. We started out at Gellert Hotel then trekked up the hill to the Citadel. The view from atop the Citadel is awesome. You have a 360 view of both the Buda and Pest side. Also on top is the Hungarian version of the Statue of Liberty.

view of the Danube and Pest

Statue of Liberty

We met Gabi up there for some coffee and then headed towards Buda Castle. Within the Castle District, there's many things to see in addition to the Castle itself. Although there are several museums there, we just walked around the main courtyard and enjoyed Hungarian funnel cake. We also took her to Matthias Church and took pictures.

Gabi and I outside of Matthias Church

Later that evening we went to a kocsma (coach-ma) for Gabi's friends bday. Kocsma's are Hungary's version of the local pub or dive bar. Cheap drinks and often filled with locals. We drank a lot.....i mean I drank a lot. Lots of beer, shots of jager and some goulash.
The next day we decided to have a rest day. After the heavy drinking the night before we decided to take Victoria to a Hungarian Bath. We went to Rudas (rude-ash). Rudas is one of the older baths in Bp. It has 5 different pools with varying temperatures starting at 28 C (~82.4F) upto 42 C (~108F). In the center is an octagonal pool and above it is a dome w/ different stained glass circles. The temp was only a nice 36C. There was a sign on the 42C pool that said you shouldn't stay more than 5 mins inside. That sh*t was hot!! You can feel the heat in your bones. I swear my insides were cooking.

Victoria at Rudas

Later that evening we wanted to take Victoria to the Pest side of the city. We started by taking the tram to Margitsziget (Margaret Island). We went to an outdoor bar called Holdudvar for a drink and to people watch. Victoria tried Palinka for the first time. Palinka is a Hungarian spirit made from fruit and can be very strong. I'm not sure what kind she tried but she seemed to like it.
After Margit, we walked to the Parliament and then to Old Man's Pub. Victoria wanted to see where I met Gabi. I warned Victoria that Hungarian men are very aggressive. She realized it as soon as she got out of the bathroom there. She said she felt the eyes staring at her immediately as she opened the door. One "old man" in particular went so far as to ask Gabi about Victoria. We didn't stay long b/c we were all tired still from the night before so we left after an hour or two. But we had to have one more meal. Kinda like having carne asada after drinking, we stopped off to get gyros. That completed the night.
The next day was Victoria's last day. There were only a couple things we wanted to show Victoria before she left. One being Vaci utca, the other being Heroes Square. Vaci utca is a famous street (i believe i wrote about it on one of the previous blogs). During the daytime, it's good for shopping. At night, it's a different story. ;) Anyways, after going to Heroes Square we decided to go home and get ready. Gabi's mom had sent us some homemade Goulash and we ate that right before we left for the airport. The perfect send off.

Victoria and Gabi at the airport

Victoria and I at the airport