Budapest, Part 2

My brother left Hungary a long time ago. First he was living in the USA, mostly in California. Then a couple of years ago he moved back to Europe and has been living in the UK. So this spring when he finally landed a part time job in Budapest I was really happy, because this meant I would get to see him more.

So finally a couple of weeks ago, we finally arranged to meet each other in Budapest on a saturday. I was anxious to see where he was living etc.

Blackberry #1 had a school trip to Budapest for the same day, so I took him to the train station and took the same train to Budapest as the class 🙂 BB#2 stayed home with his Dad, so I was kid free for most of the day 🙂

My brother lives in the Castle district in Buda.

He lives 2 blocks from this beauty:

This is Matthias Church, a Roman Catholic church, also known as Church of Our Lady, it was founded by King Béla IV. after the Mongolian invaders left Hungary in 1242. Not much remained of the original building due to numerous expansions, wars and reconstructions.

We had lunch in the Manna Lounge, also located in the castle district:

 Appetizer:

Pumpkin-rhubarb Mille-feuille

 Main dish:

White wine steamed salmon with spinach strudel and Chardonnay cream sauce

Dessert:

Pineapple tatar with bourbon vanilla and raspberry mousse

After lunch we started our stroll:

The Habsburg Gate.

The Royal Palace.

The Matthias Fountain.

The view from the Castle 🙂 The river Danube, Pest and The Parlament.

We continued our stroll and crossed the Danube on the Chain bridge and found this strange statue at the other end of the bridge.

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences. I have spent many hours here listening to interesting lectures, and was once even invited for champagne with the head of the Academy, when I received a tender for young scientists.

St. Stephen’s Basilica is named in honour of Stephen, the first King of Hungary. Today, it is the third largest church in Hungary.

Before going back to the train station we had coffee. Starbucks: Pumpkin spice latte, pumpkin pie and apple pie 🙂

Have you been to Budapest before?

Summer Vacation Part 1

Destination: Lake Balaton or the Hungarian Sea

Time: First week of July

Travelling: BB#1 and BB#2, Husband, My Brother, his little girl alias my niece, My Parents and myself.

 Lake Balaton is a freshwater lake in HUNGARY. It is the largest lake in Central Europe and one of Hungary’s foremost tourist destinations. 

The mountainous region of the northern shore is known both for its historic character and as a major wine region, while the flat southern shore is known for its resort towns

We usually visit the southern shore but this time our destination was Balatonalmadi, located on the northern shore.

In Hungary lots of companies own accomodations by the lake, and workers can book rooms at these accomodations for a cheaper price. We booked 3 rooms at the accomodation for the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The accomodation consists of about 20 rooms, a lovely garden, a restaurant and another private beach located right on the lake, which can only be accessed by the people staying there. We got breakfast and lunch at the restaurant. The whole thing had a very friendly atmosphere and there were not many more guests there. Ofcourse it is not a 5 star hotel, for example there is no air conditioning and the furniture is pretty outdated but everything else was ok.The food was really good and plenty and most of the time even the kids ate it 🙂 For dinner we choose a different restaurant each night, so that was also fun.

Most days we just relaxed on the private beach, which was a really big green garden with sunbeds, chairs, ping pong table, playground and each room had its private locker that was big enough to go into it and change your clothes. The private beach was about a 3 minute walk from the accomodation so really close.

The accomodation:

 

The private beach:

 

 

(Building a fort from sun beds and towels 🙂

A beach selfie 🙂 I am never good at selfies 🙂

One of the many desserts at the Academy restaurant. IT has apples in it. Yummy.

More to come in the next post.