Budapest Part 2



coffee at the Central Cafe before our trip to the Gellert

For the rest of the weekend in Budapest we took our time enjoying the city and its sights. On Saturday we spent the day at the famous Gellert Spa swimming in the pools and thermal baths, and getting massages. The hotel itself is absolutely beautiful with mosaic ceilings, tiled baths, and many pools with varying temperatures. They offer full spa services and it is very reasonably priced. The only downfall was the service at the Gellert Spa. For being world famous, you would think that the staff could at least speak English... Most of the staff members only speak Hungarian. They were all drinking coffee when we arrived, it took 30 minutes to get our tickets to enter (and that was speaking with the lady at the ticket window)... Her computer wasn't working, then the printer broke, etc, etc. When we finally had our tickets, we didn't know how to enter and we wandered around until someone stopped and offered to help us. The experience was relaxing and wonderful, but they need to train their staff to be more helpful, and they need to teach them English since people from all over the world travel there.

the entrance to the Gellert Spa

We all had a massage that day, and poor Josh came away like he was a tenderized piece of steak. He said that a 300 pound Hungarian man gave him the massage, and literally pounded on him at the end. When I saw him later he was in the hot tub trying to relax his aching muscles. The poor guy!

Restuarant 21

I finally bought a hat- it was cold!

After a nice day at the Gellert (I enjoyed it, but next time would go to a different spa), we went back to the hotel and changed for dinner. Josh and I took Marina and Andrea to a fantastic restaurant called 21 in the old town of Buda. We didn't realize until later that it is one of the best restaurants in all of Budapest. Well, we found out why! The service was excellent, and the food was amazing. We had a great time learning new Italian phrases from Andrea, and laughed our way through dinner.

Afterwards, we walked back to our hotel through the lit up city. We stopped for some pictures on Buda Hill before heading back. The city is beautiful at night!!

On Sunday we spent the day with Andrea's friend Peter and his family. Peter was nice enough to be a tour guide for us- we took the UNESCO World Heritage metro system out to Hero's Square, drank a coffee at a nearby coffee shop and spent some time at the zoo where I felt like a little kid looking at the lions, tigers, bears, giraffes, hippos, alligators, chimps, leopards, flamingos, etc. Zoo's bring out the kid in me:) We also saw Vajdahunyad Castle, which is near the park behind Hero's square. The Castle was built to resemble all of the amazing structures that were a part of the Hungarian empire at its most powerful time. Pieces of the castle include the tower in Sighisoara, Romania (we have a painting of that in our living room from when we visited Romania two years ago!), a church in Rome, as well as an Austrian palace, and other structures. Peter also drove us to see St Stephen's Basilica and the Parliament Building. We ended the night around 8pm and said goodbye to Peter, ate some pizza and crashed for the night. We had an extremely early flight to Milan on Monday morning- our flight took off around 6:30AM, and we arrived back at the Bergamo airport at 8AM.

Found another statue!

Hero's Square

The "Founding Fathers" of Hungary- the 7 tribal leaders



We had a great time in Budapest with lots of laughing with good friends, relaxing at the spa, and sightseeing with new friends. I would like to return to Budapest to see some of the museums and the opera house, as well as the other baths, but I'm not sure we will have the opportunity. Budapest is extremely clean, very cultured and has a great relaxed energy- I would highly recommend visiting this city if you are ever in Eastern Europe.



Vajdahunyad Castle



Sighisoara Tower on the left

St Stephen's Basilica



Parliament Building

Budapest!

Welcome to Budapest! It was an early morning...

Looking back at all of our pictures from Budapest I realized that I'm going to need a few blog posts to show you all the pictures! Josh and I went to Budapest, Hungary two weekends ago with our friends Marina and Andrea. This was our first time there, but it was their second time. I found Budapest to have a similar look and feel to Prague, but with a few differences. Both cities have amazing history, architecture, and plenty of things to keep you busy between the old towns and the newer parts of the cities. The energy of the two cities are very different though- Prague has a fast paced, busy feel to the city (which I like). Budapest has more of a relaxed and chilled energy, similar to Amsterdam (I like this too). This could possibly be from the fact that Budapest is famous for its spas and it's amazing coffee shops (and yes... they are real coffee shops, not like the ones in Amsterdam). The coffee culture in Budapest is one that I can definitely embrace! You go to these amazingly beautiful coffee shops in old buildings that look like palaces, eat AMAZING sweets/deserts, and drink excellent coffee. The shops are a place where you can relax and spend the afternoon contemplating life. This is the complete opposite of Milan where you spend literally 2 minutes in a coffee shop standing at the bar. You shoot your coffee, pay your 80 cents, and go on with your busy day.

The market had lots of sausage (apparently Hungary is famous
for it's sausage and this stuff is the "original")

Inside the market- it was awesome! I wish we had something
like this in Milan

Outside of the Cave Church

I have a weird obsession with mocking statues... don't ask

Coffee break at the famous Gerbaud Coffee House

It was super windy and cold that first day and I didn't have a hat...
The old lady had to come out- I was freezing!

On our first day we saw many things!! We walked around town and saw the market in an old train station (or what seemed like an old train station), the Cave Chapel, the Gellert hotel (which we visited the next day), and then we kept walking towards the parliament building, up the opposite site of the river to the Buda Castle which is now a museum but previously was the Hapsburg royal palace, the Fisherman's Bastion, and the old town of Buda. By the end of the day I was absolutely exhausted and we had to take a cab back to the hotel because my feet couldn't handle anymore! But it was a great first day.

The Parliament Building

Looking at Pest from Buda Castle

A really cool fountain outside of Buda
Castle- it was a scene of a hunt

the main entrance to Buda Castle

Andrea found a new car when we were there ;)

The Fisherman's Bastion

Old Town, Buda

A few things about Budapest:
-It is the capital of Hungary
-Budapest was under the Ottoman rule for nearly 150 years before it became...
-The second capital of the Austria-Hungary Empire
-There are technically two parts to the city- Buda on the west side of the Danube, and Pest on the east side of the Danube
-The spas have a Turkish bath influence due to the cities history with the Turks
-The city is impeccably clean!

Chicken Enchiladas- Italian Style

So, a while back I promised the enchilada recipe from our Mexican food night with our Italian friends (AKA: Guitar Hero party!). They are pretty easy to make, but can be a little sloppy during the assembly stage. Be sure to have a towel nearby! But the end result is delicious. Ok, here it is!

Chicken Enchiladas I
From: Allrecipes.com

Prep Time: 30 minutes, Cook Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 8

Ingredients:
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 onion, chopped
1/2 pint sour cream
1 cup shredded cheddar (I used asiago)
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/3 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
8 (10 inch) flour tortillas
1 (12 oz) jar taco sauce
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (again, I used asiago)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a medium, non-stick skillet over medium heat, cook chicken until no longer pink and juices run clear. Drain the excess fat. Cube the chicken and return it to the skillet. Add the onion, sour cream, cheddar cheese, parsley, oregano and ground black pepper. Heat until cheese melts. Stir in salt, tomato sauce, water, chili powder, green pepper and garlic. (Note: I simmered the mixture on the heat until the liquids thickened, maybe 10 minutes)

3. Roll even amounts of the mixture in the tortillas. Arrange in a 9x13 inch baking dish (NOTE: I also used the liquid from the chicken mixture to line the bottom of the pan to keep the tortillas from sticking. If you like crispy tortillas, I would not recommend lining the pan with sauce, but maybe use a non-stick spray). Cover the enchiladas with taco sauce and 3/4 cup cheese (I also used more of the chicken mixture's sauce on top off the enchiladas in addition to the taco sauce). Bake uncovered in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!


PS. This can be made a few hours in advance then refrigerated until you are ready to bake- which is perfect for entertaining!

Quick update- Residency

Guess what?? After how many months (and over a year)... I finally received my letter of residency in Milan!! I can now officially get a "carta di identita" if I want to :) Not sure I will though because I use my MN Drivers License or my passport for ID. It would be kind of fun to have an Italian ID though... The jury is still out. Unfortunately, Josh is still waiting for his letter because he applied in January (I applied back in November). The nice part about residency is that of course we get health care, but we can also park in resident parking spots which opens up a lot of possibilities!! Usually we get stuck parking on the tram tracks because there is no parking near our house. This turned into a bad situation last week... Josh had a hard time jumping the actual track with our rental car and we lost a hub cap... then the next day Josh went out to the car after work to find a flat tire. With the new resident parking options, hopefully we won't have to resort to the tracks anymore!!

Ok that's all for now. Ciao from Milano!

Road trip! Pirates in Parma?

The Ducale Palace in Modena- now used as a
military school

Modena, a small city that Josh was dying to get to a couple weeks ago, turned out to be a complete bust. It was an industrial city that had a decent city center, but the main attraction (the Duomo in the city center) is under indefinite construction and is completely surrounded by scaffolding and barriers. You can't even see it. In addition to this, all of the shops were closed on a Saturday afternoon, and there weren't many people out and about. We were wondering if we missed something. Well, it was the weekend of Carnival so maybe everyone was sleeping off the night before? After walking around for a bit we decided to head to Parma, but not before purchasing what we went to Modena for! We wanted to pick up some good Balsamic Vinegar which Modena is famous for. We stopped by this little shop and the gentleman that helped us was very nice. He allowed us to taste it and see the different options available. It was fun because it was good practice with our Italian :) After getting the good stuff, we made our way to Parma.

A strange statue to the left of the entrance to the palace,
it seemed like a gladiator on steriods

The clock tower overlooking
 the cafe in the main square

We arrived in Parma around 5PM and the sun was starting to go behind the buildings. It was a completely different city full of life! There were many people out walking around and enjoying the nice spring weather and it seemed like the entire city was on the streets of the city center. Maybe that's where all of the people from Modena were too? The people watching was fun and we even had time to look into their main church which had amazing paintings all over! We decided to stop for some refreshments at a cafe overlooking the main square and people watch. As we were sitting there we noticed a bus on the street with the number 666. It had been sitting there for about 20 minutes. I thought it was maybe broken down, Josh just thought it was strange and wanted to know what it was for. A few minutes later, a big group of drunken people came running towards the bus and hopped on. Many of them had long hair (not sure if it was natural or wigs) and pirate hats. Some of them were even wearing eye patches. They were pretty funny! It seemed like a rock band ordered a city bus for a pub crawl. As the bus pulled out for their next destination, the group was hanging out the windows and screaming funny things at the people on the street. I guess that's what a party bus is like here in Italy!

The Pirate Bus- the number was 666...

Before dinner we walked around a bit and saw an older woman walking three Shih tzus that had their "bangs" in pony tails. It was funny because she had one leash for each of them and was holding them all in her right hand. Looking at the leashes, they were all entwined and wrapped around each other. The dogs didn't have much of a leash to work with! The funny thing is that we saw her on Via Montenapoleone in Milan the next day- walking the same dogs! We also bought some of the famous Parmigiano Reggiano, what Parma is famous for. The city is also known for it's Parma ham- wow! That was some of the best ham I've ever had!! We bought some cheese since it was cheaper in Parma than in Milan, then we had dinner and drove home to Milan.



everyone was out that night, even the dogs!

time for a break!



outside the main church- those statues are lions, they were so
old that the details of their faces were worn off

That's about it for Parma and Modena. These cities are in the gastronomical heart of Italy and the food is absolutely amazing!! This is where most Italian chefs come to study, so the region is well known for its unbelievably good food. And it didn't disappoint! Lunch in Modena was outstanding, and dinner in Parma was just as good! If you ever make it to Italy stop by these two cities just to taste the amazing food!! And also to buy some balsamic vinegar and good cheese. You may even see a Pirate :)