St. Patty's and Budapest and Nas

For St. Patrick's Day this year we celebrated over on the nearby Leidseplein - bar hopping from one Irish pub to another. We drank Guinness, danced and celebrated the night away with dear friends - a really fun night!

On the weekend of March 26th and 27th, we decided to make a quick trip to see the capital and largest city of Hungary - Budapest. With a population of over 1.7 million, Budapest is a large city, but surprisingly, and fortunately for us, very easy to get around on foot.  The city is split down the center by the famous Danube River. The west side is the hilly Buda and the east side is the flat Pest.  There is actually a third city, called Obuda, which sits on the north side of Buda. We arrived late Friday for our first evening in Budapest, staying in a hotel on the Pest side. To kick things off we took a nice stroll around the streets, scoping out the grounds we would cover the next day.

Early the next morning, we popped over to Starbucks for some much needed coffee, a luxury we don't have in Amsterdam, besides the train station and airport.  Starbuck's is always a nice taste of home!

Powered by Starbucks, we made our first stop at Terror Haza - Andrassy Ut 60 - House of Terror. Now a multimedia museum, this building was originally used by the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party - the Hungarian Nazis - in 1944.  Then between 1945 and 1956, the notorious communist terror organizations, the AVO and its successor, the AVH, took up residence. For years this place was notorious for imprisonment, torture and execution. The museum is a constant reminder of the dreadful acts of terrorist dictatorships.

The communist political police moved in the headquarters of the Arrow Cross in January of 1945.  They changed the its name from "House of Loyalty" to "House of Horrors" as a warning.

There are several levels to the building, each serving a different purpose (detention cells, wet cells, fox-hole, treatment rooms, guard rooms, condenmed cells and place of execution).  Interrogations took place in the upstairs area.  The suspects were prevented from sleeping for several nights, held without food and water.  They employed every possible method of physical and psychological pressure on their suspects.  Some tactics were facing the wall with their nosed rammed against it, or with arms stretched out horizontally for 10 to 12 hours, beatings were everday occurances, and being tortured with electric currents, burning and pliers.  Those who survived being tortured were placed in prison cells in the basement.  The prisoners were not given blankets, fresh clothing, and only buckets for when they were allowed to go to the bathroom. We walked around the rooms, and sensed the events that took place before.

After the House of Terror, we headed over to the Hungarian State Opera House and St. Basilica's Church.

The Opera house had a beautiful entryway, gorgeous decor and lights, a truly beautiful place to see the opera!

We explored the biggest church in Budapest St. Istvan's Basilica.

A friend recommended that we go to Belvarosi Lugas Vendeglo, across the street from the church, for lunch. A very popular place and you can taste why!  Kirk tried out some fried froi gras, while I selected a yummy goloush stew.

We then made our way through Fashion street, Liberty Square, and the Terror Square.

We walked what felt like days and fueled ourselves with Kurtoskalacs - a really yummy twisted bread with cinnamon flavor/covering. A popular dessert/snack, they have a ton of options for the shell including chocolate, coconut, hazelnut, etc!

From there we walked the pedestrian walkway to Heroes Square, through to Little Paris and the Big Market Hall (which was unfortunately closed).  Last stop of the night, Szechenyi Furdo Bath House.  Budapest has 123 natural springs and two dozens thermal baths.  All are operated by the government. Szechenyi Furdo is perhaps the most famous, and was easily my favorite activity of the trip. After a long day, and miles of walking the streets of Pest, we soaked our aching muscles in 100 degree water, amongst other locals and tourists. The Bath House gives you a variety of lap pools, saunas, jets, and whirlpools. We opted to lean up on the wall, in what was basically a massive hot tub, by a strong jet and people watched for a good hour. The night was beautiful, stars were out and it was hard to leave.

To finish our long day we made reservations at the Blue Tomato Pub - opened a bottle of Hungarian red wine and wolfed down some breaded spinach cheese chicken.

Sunday was dedicated to the Parliament and the Buda side. The Parliament building was massive and unique. From there, we were able to walk along the banks of the Danube river and saw the Holocaust Monument.

I would have to say this monument moved me the most. About 50 pairs of bronze shoes are placed along the side of the Danube River, commemorating the Jews who were killed by the Nazi's. This is where Jews were placed, tied together, shot and plunged into the freezing Danube River.

We eventually made our way over the Szchenyi Lanchid Bridge - the Chain bridge to the Buda side.

We saw the Buda Castle Quarter, the Hungarian National Gallery, Tural Statue, Matthias Fountain and Church, and the Fisherman's Bastion.

After our short day in Buda, we made our way back to Pest for one final meal at Soul Cafe.  Kirk ate chicken wrapped in bacon with huge dumplings, and we had cocktails and local beers!!!

Budapest, Hungary is definitely a city that felt extremely comfortable, liveable and a place we would love to return to. We enjoyed walking the streets, eating the food, seeing the sights, chatting with locals and experiencing the rich history.


On a slight tangent, Kirk recently switched floors at his office and has a new view!!!  He also attended Wieden+Kennedy's (where he works) Founder's Day where they spent the day on a huge sailboat, had a lovely dinner at Cafe De Pont, gambled and listened to a live band!

Our past few weekends were spent in Amsterdam. Another wonderful quality of Amsterdam is the constant bar/cafe culture. We've lucked out with some amazing weather lately so the streets have become more lively and every seat inside the cafes have been brought outside. You never waste sunshine here.  Last weekend we joined some friends for a bbq right on the canal/sidewalk. Scott made his famous burgers and we downed beers and sipped wine through the evening, finishing with a walk to get some scoops of ice cream!  The next day we strolled through the Hermitage museum and stopped for a nice lunch on our way home.

Last weekend we biked with our friends out to De Bos, which is the forest and park just outside Amsterdam.  We stopped along the way at a cafe for drinks, appetizers and a game of Quiddler.  We finished our ride thru the beautiful forest, the sun constantly shining!

The next day we made another long bike ride along the Amstel river out to Ouderkerk. Once we arrived we found a nice bench on the water, ate our sandwiches and soaked up the 70 degree weather.  We biked back and made another stop on the canal, found another bench and cracked open some tall boy Heinekens. Heaven!

On April 12th our dear friend from home gave us tickets to see a Nas and Damian Marley concert at Paradiso. This was our first time to the venue, which was originally a church before they turned into a concert hall. A few reasons why this show was awesome:

-Paradiso is just a 2 minute walk from our place
-Maybe waited 5 minutes in line before getting in the venue
-Got in free with back-stage passes
-Found a nice spot to stand, dance and listen to Nas and Damian
-No lines for beers and free water with ice (I think the bartender was American)
-No lines for the bathroom
-Mellow and nice crowd
-Went backstage after the show and had an intimate meet-and-greet with Nas in his dressing room

We had an absolute blast with the Bowman's and so happy we were able to meet Nas!!!  Damian Marley and Nas sang tracks from their new album and certainly did not ignore their classics including Bob Marley's (Damian's dad) "Could You Be Loved".

Thanks David!!!