Saturday, October 13, 2007

Getting started in Budapest



On our first full day in Budapest, we started to just explore and get a feel for the layout of the city. The Danube runss through the center of the city. Buda (the hilly city, the older city) is on one side, and Pest (the flatter, the more commercial area) is on the other.


We took the trolley into Buda to ride the cog railway up into the hills. We got some glimpses of houses through the trees, but not a great vista that we had hoped for. The Children's Railway runs further uphill from near the end of the cog railway. This unusual railway was started under Communism, to train youngsters to grow up to run the railway system. Now, the kids go to a regular school, but also run the railroad as a tourist attraction. They are about 10-14 years old, and do everything except the actually running of the trains. Ann and Al went on to wait to ride the Children's Railway - John and I headed back down on the cog railway.


We eventually wound up a the City Market. What a fantastic place - two huge floors of booths selling produce, meat, bread and pastries, tourist items, prepared foods to eat at stand-up tables, wine, clothing, table linens. We didn't begin to cover it all. We decided to eat at one of the stalls, and found "langos". It basically a fried Hungarian flat bread (like Navajo fry-bread!), and you can get it with almost any kind of toppings. We had a traditional topping - butter and garlic. Yum!!! Travelling is just as much about trying local foods as it is about seeing the sights.


Today's pictures are of a man sleeping in the sun at the cog railway station, and of some produce at the City Market.

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