Fighting4Sanity

I am not sure what you call the day you arrive in a location, but the following day is certainly day 1.  So much time is spent on the .5 day getting situated its hard to call it your first day in the new location, more like the first day getting settled.  The following day is really your first day, because regardless of whether you go see your new surroundings (be it city, country, campsite) on day .5, you are still very tired and still in the "travel" mentality.

For this trip day .5 was not any different, though we did have the pleasure of meeing Kristóf when we arrived.  He brough us some lovely "Welcome to Budapest" snacks including something I have long missed Palinka.  The remainder of the day was spent getting settled.  First a trip to the local mall to get Sim Cards for our cells.  Then to the Airbnb to get settled.  Not long after getting settled we were joined by our dear friend Briggitta and her bf  Kristóf for a bottle for wine and reconnecting.  It has been 6 years since we last saw eachother and there was much to catch up on. 

After we journey into the city on our newly minted Public Transit passes for one of my other sorely missed things from Hungary, Langos!!!  For those that have never experienced the wonder that is Langos, let me tell you, its never going to win any culinary awards but man is it delicious, especailly for weary travelers.  It consists of a fried dough with sour cream spread on top and then any number of toppings including garlic and cheeses (the traditional way of eating it) as well as tomato, olives, bacon, and onions.  Basically if you can imagine it, you can put on langos. 

The remainder of our .5 day was spent wandering the city, getting a look at Parliment, and heading home to get some much past due sleep.  It was soo much past due we slept until nearly noon local time.  Which brings us to day 1 such that it is.  

Travelling is a wonderful activity with spikes of anxiety and stress around the needful activities that come along with it.  Its easy to forget how much energy is spent on getting bags checked, getting through security, finding your gate and then boarding your plane.  Only to then follow it up with collecting your bags, dealing with customs, getting transportation and finally arriving at your home away from home.  That cost of that stress and anxiety was expressed with nearly 12 hours of sleep on our first night. For what its worth, the blinds in our Airbnb are simply the best blinds I have ever seen.  Nearly total light blockage, they are truely a wonder to behold. 

Once we finally roused, and made adventured through the public transit system into the city, we had a wonderful breakfast/lunch of coffee and pastries. 

We then made our way to Nagycsarno or the Central Market.  This is bascially a huge, 2 floor indoor market.  There is everything from meats and cheeses, to soaps, and paprika, and sourvineers.  We spent several hour wandering the market.  Some really nice finds, and a great atmosphere.  Due to our aformentioned tiredness we opted to return to our Airbnb early to enjoy some cheeses, meats and veggies we found while at the market.  We ended the day with a trip to VakVarju.  It is an amazing restauraunt, though I highly recommend making a reservation.  Our waiter as a ton of fun and the food was amazing.  I cant recommend it enough. 

One our way back to the metro we picked up some chiney cake.  A wonderful snack you can find all around Hungary.   its basically a baked dough, doused with sugar and cinnamon (or any number of topping).  You can also get them filled with fruit and ice cream.  Sadly my nonfilled chimey cake was burnt, though the others, thankfully werent.