The Parental Visit: Two Weeks of Cake and Prosecco

Immediately after returning from Berlin, I had two weeks of vacation and my parents came to visit. It was nice to be able to show them around -- the beautiful sights of Budapest as well as the everyday places where I live and do my thing. I specifically avoided doing some of the touristy things in Budapest before so that I would have some new things to do when I have visitors.

Unfortunately, the weather was not super cooperative, and the whole time they were here it was cold, and many days it was also rainy -- not what I was hoping for for late March! But we had a grand old time exploring Budapest -- we went to all the important places, and of course, in between each activity were plentiful coffee and cake breaks. The wonderful thing about Budapest is that we went to a different káveház every day (sometimes two in one day) and didn't even make a dent in the total number of coffeehouses here. Budapest's cafe culture is something I really love about living here.

Mmm....cakes.

I took this opportunity to do some exploring outside of Budapest. We started off small, by taking a day trip to the north, to Visegrád. I had been there with Fulbright when I first arrived in country, but it was nice to go back and be able to explore at my own pace. The Danube Bend is a place where (not surprisingly) the Danube bends around a corner, and it affords this beautiful vista from a castle on top of a mountain.

Click to enlarge -- beautiful!

At the bottom of the mountain, there is a Renaissance Restaurant which provides "traditional" (and delicious) renaissance meals, and of course, gimmicky crowns. For some reason, we got lucky and were seated at the royal table, complete with thrones. There I enjoyed a lovely lunch with Their Royal Majesties, although I had to behave myself or I may have found myself beheaded by Royal Decree.

Papa is thinking "If you show this to anyone, you're dead."

In addition to heading north, we separately took a two day road trip southward, toward Tihany Peninsula on Lake Balaton. At Tihany, we stayed in a traditional Hungarian house, complete with thatched roof and miniature Hungarian mop dog (the kind that has dreadlocks). Said dog was so bouncy that I failed to get a non-blurry picture, but she was cute.

Knowing how much my mom likes boats, I asked our host to help us set up a sailing trip. She told us it was all set up, and to meet some guy named Peter on the pier at a designated time. We got there, and some dude pulls up in a car and asks if we are looking for Peter -- he tells us his name is Marten, and apparently Peter's boat is broken, so we should come with him to go sailing. Eyebrows raised, not knowing what to expect, we follow him.

It turned out to be a wonderful sunset sail on the lake, and Marten was really friendly. He brought wine for us to drink and told us all about his life sailing around the world. He even let my dad steer the boat (granted, there was very little wind, and we were moving extremely slowly). It was a beautiful evening!

The sun sets over Balaton.

On the way home from Balaton, we stopped in Veszprém, a very old little city near the lake.

Veszprem's famous view from the castle.

Our exploring wasn't limited to Hungary, either. I am still on my quest to visit 30 countries before my 30th birthday, so I took this opportunity to check another country off the list: Poland. Everyone in my family likes trains, so we took the night train to Krakow. What an experience! I love night trains -- the sound of the train tracks underneath you, the feeling of being rocked to sleep. We booked a first class sleeper cabin, so we had fold-out beds and space for all three of us to sleep. (Notice I said just sleep, not sleep comfortably -- those mattresses are rock hard!). Considering the round trip ticket was around 40 Euros per person, it was a great deal considering you get transportation and two nights of accommodation for that price.

Krakow was a stunning city, like something out of a storybook. The walled inner city could easily be the next filming destination for a Game of Thrones episode. We spent a whole day walking around the inner city and its surroundings, checking out museums, the market hall, the castle and cathedral, and, of course, eating a lot (noticing a pattern here?).

We also spent a day visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau, which was a very sobering experience. A lot of what was said there resonates even now -- alienation of people who look, act, eat, or pray differently certainly still occurs today, both here in Hungary and back home in the United States. Remembering the darkest times of history are important to ensure that nothing like the holocaust ever happens again.

Upon returning to Budapest, my parents' visit was almost over. On their last day in town, we did a dinner cruise of the Danube. We ate, drank, and conversed for three hours while floating past the beautiful landmarks of Budapest. Not a bad way to spend an evening!

It was really nice to have my parents here to visit, and the two weeks flew by. But I didn't have much time to be sad about their departure, because just four days later I embarked on another journey, which will be the subject of my next blog post!

Thanks for visiting!