Whetting the appetite

I’ve never really had much of a desire to travel to Eastern Europe…until now.

My best girlfriends and I have a few running jokes about how absurd ours lives are over here: It’s tough being a rock star. My life is so hard. It’s just exhausting when you have to travel this much. Etc, etc, etc. We say things like this because, in reality, we know just how lucky we are to have such an awesome opportunity. As evident of all my spring craziness, I’ve had a substantial amount of reasons to be aware of the beauty of living in Europe… and this past weekend was no exception.

Last Friday afternoon, SK and I were lying in the grass in Retiro Park, soaking up the sun and catching our breaths after our run. We giggled periodically at the fact that only a few hours later we would be flying to Budapest to meet up with Yadira, Kate, and Shenning who had been there since Wednesday night. Little did I know then that on my three-hour Wizzair flight I would sit next to Hungry’s highest ranking female tennis player Ágnes Szávay, who was returning to her country after playing in the Madrid Open. (Ágnes who? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81gnes_Sz%C3%A1vay) I offered her some chocolate (she declined), and she returned the gesture with her roasted nuts (I declined). We smiled and laughed at the crazy Hungarian man sitting in front of her, whose loud comments and spastic movements provided a distraction and diversion for half the plane. But that was the extent of our interaction.

Despite only having a day and a half in Budapest, I think SK and I got a good look at all the major sights and monuments of the city. We took our own walking tour Saturday morning before we met the other girls for lunch. In almost 4 hours, we saw a lot: the Opera House, Matthias Church, the Hungarian Parliament, the Danube River, the Chain Bridge, the Fishermen’s Bastion, Buda Castle/The Royal Palace, and the Dohány Street Synagogue. For more info, history, and visuals, you can check out http://cityguide.budapestrooms.com/sights/.

On the right: A view of Parliament from across the Danube River

Below: SK & I on the Chain Bridge (the oldest in Budapest)

Above: Looking at Pest from Buda

Below: The girls at Menza, a great restaurant where I ate Hungarian beef stew

Saturday afternoon, all of us walked to City Park and spent a few glorious hours at Széchenyi Bath, Budapest’s largest thermal bath. Our experience in the underground labyrinth of changing rooms, where complete nudity is no biggie, was regrettably memorable. And even though people outside at the baths were not completely nude, some bathing suits left little for the imagination. Despite those distractions, the baths were a welcomed relief to my aching muscles after the morning’s hike around town. The beautiful neo-baroque architecture set an atmosphere of indulged luxury, and the only thing that was missing from this picture of paradise was my personal masseuse.


Budapest is known for its nightlife, but I must say, I had no desire to take part in that scene the one night I could have done so. Since I was completely whipped from the day’s events (which included swimming laps), I didn’t have enough energy to truly enjoy the two cool bars we went to on Saturday night. Had I not been ridiculously exhausted, I would have wanted to listen to the funky live jazz show at Bar 1 a little longer and I would have wanted to sit in every old bathtub-sofa or antique car seat at Bar 2. But all I could think about was sleep. Boy, am I getting old! (Joke.)


SK & I toured the Dohány Street Synagogue Sunday morning (as shown above). I realized there that this was the first city or country that I have ever visited where the Jewish community would have been directly and vastly impacted by the Second World War and that this was the first time I’ve ever walked the same streets as those persecuted Jews. Fortunately for the Budapest Jews, many lives were saved through the help of neutral country ambassadors. However, others were not as lucky and memorials—such as these shoes left along the banks of the Danube—silently remind visitors of the tragedies.


Through my brief experience in Budapest, I can see how Eastern Europe is sweetly distinct from anything I’ve ever known. Now the taste of that sweetness has created a new appetite for discovering more about that part of the world. I think I’ll have to make another visit soon.