By All good things must come to an end! The cruise is winding down. I am getting tired of eating the breakfast buffet (note – I never get tired of someone cleaning my room and making my bed). The initial cruise itinerary only included 1 day in Budapest. Because the Danube was running low, the captain hauled up the river, which allowed for two full days in Budapest before disembarking. I had already signed up for the post cruise extension, which meant I had 4 full days in Budapest. Wow! I still managed to not do everything that I wanted to do.
We arrived into the port around 11am/12 noon. Our first afternoon in Budapest started with a panoramic bus tour. It was average. Not bad…it’s just that the guide in Croatia was so ridiculously dynamic that this poor guide didn’t stand a chance. Two other problems hindered her: 1) the bus was late to pick us up and 2) at the pickup at the second stop she miscounted and thought she had lost one of us. I’m sure this flustered her. Life goes on. I do recommend the panoramic tour as it does give you a taste of the city (Buda and Pest). The highlight of this panoramic tour was a visit to the Budapest synagogue.
I learned a LOT about Budapest (completely destroyed during WW2) and got a pretty good lay of the land. The entire city seemed to be under construction. Cranes were everywhere. Kind of reminded me of Atlanta! Easy day that ended with a band, Jukebox Rock!, jamming out. I swear he said something about LaGrange…so I just did some snooping and found him on LinkedIn. He’s a graduate of University of San Antonio. I would love to find out his story and how he landed in Budapest as a cover band playing cruise ships!
The next morning, our bonus day in Budapest, we had a delightful walking tour that involved use of public transportation! This tour guide was/is hilarious and engaging. It was a walking and eating tour…my kind of tour. We had a delicious stop at the strudel house where we got to sample some strudel. Their samples were massive. It was such fun to have a cappuccino and eat strudel al fresco. But the tour wasn’t over yet! We meandered through the Pest side of Budapest, ending at the giant market – a sensation overload (in a good way) – the sights, the smells, the tastes. Fabulous! Weird bit of trivia – did you know the Hungarian language and the Finnish language are ‘sisters’? Nutty!
Based on the guide’s recommendation I purchased a ticket to the English speaking tour of the opera house. The opera house is lovely and the guide was fine, but the real treat was a performance of 4 arias at the end of the tour. Amazing!
Our farewell dinner was tonight. I believe everyone had a good time and I made some friends. Maybe I’ll see them again. Maybe I won’t.
There were 5 of us staying on for the post cruise extension. There were 23 people staying on the boat to continue the cruise on to Amsterdam. The rest were disembarking. I am SO happy I stayed on for the extension.
So what did we do? The same guide from the walking tour yesterday was our guide as we toured the Buda side of Budapest, starting with the Rock Hospital museum. This museum was a hospital built into the rocks that was active during WW2. I believe it was meant to house up to 60 patients…but at one point during the war had over 600. Following WW2, it was redesigned to be a bunker should there be a nuclear attack on Budapest. The tour ends with images from Hiroshima and Nagasaki and a not so gentle reminder of the human cost of nuclear bombs.
My touring partners needed a rest break, so the tour guide and I wandered around Buda together, discovering secret gardens. It was fun to have a private tour for about an hour. I felt like I was traveling with my BFF. We regrouped and were dropped off at the Hotel Kempinski, where we met Romulus (the spouse of Mirella, our cruise director). He was helpful, kind and funny… It is such a delight to meet the spouse of someone because you can see them in a different light.
We all wandered in search of food. I bumped into Julie and John at Cafe Kor. I ordered ‘Grilled cheese and salad’ on the menu…and soon learned that it wasn’t a grilled cheese sandwich, but literally grilled cheese. It was still a very good meal and I got to know Julie and John from Missouri.
When I was kvetching about not having any souvenirs, Cruise friend Charlie suggested Herend china, which happened to have an outlet near the hotel. I did a little shopping. Service wasn’t the best but I found an adorable seal that made me happy. I wandered the main street, ending up back at the market but not inspired to buy anything. I was tired (and I think the musty smell at the Rock museum may have negatively impacted me).
It was this day that I felt the most conspicuous as a solo traveler. I came very close to ordering room service. But I didn’t because I didn’t travel all this way to see the inside of my hotel room. The hotel has a very lovely bistro. I enjoyed a rose and some traditional Hungarian food and relaxed.
One more day in Budapest. I initially thought I would take in a Thermal bath…but I needed to get souvenirs and check a few more items off my list. So I saved the baths for my next visit. Today I wandered the city on my own. I bought some tea towels and paprika and some really nice Stuhmer chocolate. I meandered across the Széchenyi Chain Bridge. Weighing on my mind was my dreadfully early departure time. The driver was coming at 3 am on Saturday morning to whisk me off to the airport. I ate a late lunch at Akadamia Italia, enjoying their pizza of the day – a bizarre pesto, ham and burrata cheese concoction with no sauce that was surprisingly good but filling.
I packed up all by junk and went to bed at 7pm…which wasn’t as hard as it sounds because I was exhausted from this trip.
Now…my coda from this trip- the dreadful return home. First off the 3 am drive wasn’t bad. The hotel staff were nice and packed a breakfast for us. The driver was great. The Budapest airport was great. The flight to Amsterdam was uneventful. BUT…BUT….BUT…
I had 2 hours at Schiphol and probably 1 hour and 55 minutes were spent in the passport control line. It was the most horrible experience I’ve had in awhile. I got the notification they were boarding my flight and I was still 3 lines back in the queue. I had to do a sprint to get to the gate. I’m not in shape to spring, sorry to say. Long story short, everything was fine. I’ll save the rest of my thoughts for my therapist!
Long long long flight. Lame food on the flight. Lars was the best flight attendant – looking out for me. He lives here in Roswell, so I’m hopeful that I’ll bump into him so I can say thank you.
Delta lost my bag but miraculously found it and delivered it on Sunday.
And my sister, aka The Good Twin, picked me up at the airport with her daughter and my doggy.
I took a shower and was in bed at 6:30pm/7pm at the latest.
On to the next adventure!
