Day 9, Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Itinerary: Prague to Bratislava to Budapest

Time awake: 7:50

Odometer (in kilometers/miles) at start: 11342

Weather: Sunny and warm, and cool at night.

Steps: 13805

Asleep:

Map Link(s):

Video Link(s): The scene at Erzsébet Square

We arose and had the second best breakfast ever, not the second best, but the second time having the best. Then we packed our bags and made our way down those winding staircases at the Casa Marcella and checked out of our lovely hotel, and soon too out of fairy tale and GPS challenged Prague, and before long Czechia as well.

I backed the car out of our narrow parking spot in front of the hotel, and then Sharon took the wheel and drove through the narrow streets of Old Town Prague and then onto the wider but no less busy streets of greater Prague until we reached highway D1. We headed southeast. A little before 11:30 AM, we exited D1 to visit Český Šternberk castle and the surrounding area. We didn’t tour the gothic 13th century castle but rather briefly hiked around the grounds and the seemingly empty town below its perch. It was cool, and what struck me most was how we saw no one else in the little town. Touring the castle itself would surely have been interesting, but the time and money involved, along with the restrictions imposed on visits to historical places, convinced us to forgo doing so here as with many other such places.

Back on the road we continued through the Czech Republic, stopping once to get gas and use the facilities at a McDonald’s restaurant. Soon after we entered Slovakia. (Incidentally, I’d purchased a Slovakian highway vignette online the night before and would soon buy one for Hungary online while driving through Slovakia, so that was easily attended to.) About 45 minutes after entering the country, we exited Highway 2 to tour its capital, Bratislava. Our desired destination was some inviting bar/restaurant along the river. But we didn’t spot any places fitting that bill, so we pulled into the parking lot of the Park Inn by Radisson. It looked to be free, but that was hard to believe and hard to confirm. Oh well, we could worry about that later, at least we’d found a place to park.

From there we headed out on foot for a little tour of Bratislava. We started at the adjacent Hviezdoslavovo námestie, which is a long, lush, shaded square in the Old Town section of the city. The area was filled with midday strollers and lined on one side with appealing stores and restaurants, but I had my heart set on a place along the Danube. So we headed through town to the river. We walked a mile or so east along the river, where we spotted a few docked ships that may have offered food and drink to the public, but we couldn’t be sure. So we ended up going back to Hviezdoslavovo námestie, where we stopped for a couple of beers at 17’s BAR. The beers were excellent, the laid back city scene all anyone could ask for, and perhaps the best of all the palaver among the patrons of the bar. Soon after we returned to our car, and the good vibrations went south. On our exit, there was in fact a gate. So I fed the card reader my credit card, but nothing happened, other than cars began to pile up behind us. I was able to back up and re-park, and Sharon found an attendant, who despite the language barrier showed us how to get the heck out the parking lot. That entailed feeding the credit card to a machine inside the hotel, receiving a ticket, and inserting the ticket in the meter at the gate. It worked. Hooray!

We left Bratislava via Highway E75 (aka M15) a little before 5:00 PM and soon passed from Slovenia into Hungary. And right off the road went to hell in a hand basket. I thought we’d entered a Third World country. Within a few miles, however, the road was as good as any we’d been on. It turned out we’d only been on a patch under construction. And we’d jumped to unwarranted conclusions.

I’d taken the wheel exiting Bratislava, and was still there when we entered Budapest toward the tail end of rush hour. Driving was a hectic but nothing unmanageable. That is until the last leg, which was just crazy. The GPS looped us way out of our way and then through a street-level parking garage to get where we needed to go. Fortunately, we found an underground garage less than a block from our hotel, and so we pulled in, parked, and forgot about our car for the next 40 hours or so. We made our way back to where we figured to find the Hotel Buddha Bar Budapest, and it was there, but it took some doing to find our way into the place.

Once that was accomplished, we checked in and were escorted up to our room by a young fellow with the hotel staff. He was very nice and helpful, but I didn’t have any money with which to tip him. I told him I’d attend to that later. Our room looked like it did in the pictures, only more so, and that was like a den of iniquity, or perhaps iniquity isn’t the word, but rather decadence. Red, deep sin red, dominated from ceiling to carpet. There were a strong oriental motif about it. And it had all the amenities, a huge bed, and good view overlooking the side street lined with restaurant several stories below. We loved it, and at $0 a night, what wasn’t there to like. Actually, the room was the most expensive I booked at $498 for the two nights (making it about $5 more per night than the Radisson Blu in Berlin), but for whatever reason, we were never charged.

We were quite hungry (in Hungary, ha ha), so we lounged in our den of decadence for only a few minutes before going out in search of a place to dine. We considered the restaurants in front of the hotel, all of which seemed intriguing, some expense, some not so much. But we kept wandering and ended up a few blocks away at a vibrant outdoor restaurant called Cyrano Restaurant in Budapest. We took one of the few empty tables and for the next hour from about 8:35 PM to 9:35 PM, watched Budapest from this ideal perch and dined on Indian carrot soup, Australian lamb, and a couple of Hungarian beers. The scene was dazzling, the food sumptuous, and the service not so good. To be more specific, the service was slow, except when they wanted to extract a double tip, then it was shifty. Oh well, it was a heck of a meal.

After dinner we moved on, not at all sure where we were headed, and ran smack into the Budapest Eye. Located in Erzsébet Square and opened in March 2017, the Budapest Eye is the largest Ferris wheel in Europe. It’s a hellava sight to behold, and we figured it would be a hellava thing to ride. So we bought a couple of tickets and stood in line and waited our turn. It did not disappoint. The view from atop the Eye was as stunning as any I’ve ever beheld—below was the black water of the Danube and all around lit up in a radiant gold glow were magnificent castles, palaces, churches, and bridges. What an enchanting city. After exiting the ride, we wandered about Erzsébet Square. This is what I had to say about it in our Christmas letter, “After riding the Budapest Eye, we chanced upon Erzsébet Square—a lush urban expanse bathed in multi-color lights and filled with locals in their late teens and early 20s. The kids mingled, imbibed, and lived the moment. They were in their world and seemingly having the time of their lives. Magic was in the air, and we were amidst it, yet outside it. If only we could have been hip young Hungarians, if only for an hour or two . . . But of course, you don’t get to do that (unless you have better stuff than we did).”

Our next stop was at the famed and luxurious Four Seasons hotel, where we briefly pretended to be VIP guests. Then we headed across the Széchenyi Chain Bridge and immersed ourselves in that golden glow we’d seen from the Budapest Eye. We considered stopping at one of the cafés along the Danube, but it was getting late and we were getting tired, so we headed back to our hotel. Once back, Sharon recalls we took a bath, although our tub was on the small side. Afterward, she soon fell asleep while I drank a beer or two before doing the same.