It is early Saturday morning. Carrie is sleeping peacefully in our room and I am taking advantage of a free computer -- and free coffee in the lobby!
I am on my second book -- I LOVE MobiPockets! It has been a godsend to be able to read my book on my phone. It has a self-contained light so I don't bother Carrie while I am reading and she is sleeping. I have already read 2 chapters, reviewed but not read my work email and it is only 6:30 in the morning!
Yesterday was mostly about shopping and Carmen. We headed off to Vaci Utca even though Uncle Rick told us not to! I had read about a FolkArt Center in my Frommers book and we figured we would go there and then to the Central Coffee house for lunch.
When we got off the Metro, we found a pharmacy. When we went in, everything was behind class -- event the Neutragena lotions! I was looking for Tylenol. I had not packed enough! They did not have Tylenol or any Tylenol type medicine but they did have ibuprofen. They have 600mg pills (about 3 times stronger than we have in the states). So, of course, we bought those! But not a lot of them. I don't want to repeat my "busted at the border" experience from the 90's when I had too many 222's coming out of Canada!
We went to the address of the folkart center only to see a sign that it had moved. We never did find it. However, we stopped at a shop of "Handmade" items. I guess you could say the embrodery was "handmade" as long as you think someone was holding the cloth while the machine did the embrodery!
Carrie was able to get the "handmade" gift for your friend and something with a baseball on it! It actually was a small 5 piece nesting doll of the NY Yankees but she bought it anyway since she had given herself permission to buy anything with a baseball on it that she found in Budapest! It has been a bit hard on her to be gone so close to the end of the season. While she has been checking scores, we have not yet commandeered one of the lobby computers to watch a game. Of course they would be taking place in the middle of the night!
I also got a "handmade" runner. We both got secret boxes and Carrie got a secret book. The secret boxes are boxes that you have to know how to open them first to get the key and then find the key hole. If you get one of the bigger boxes, there is even a secret compartment behind the mirror!
We had some time to kill before meeting Carmen so we looked for a place to have a beverage. I had seen a CoffeeHeaven when we got off the metro so we headed back there since we had to catch the metro to the tram to Carmen's dorm.
Well, if CoffeeHeaven is not owned by Starbucks they sure copied the model! Comfortable chairs -- and lots of them! The food and soft drink case, place your order for a coffee drink and pick it up at the end of the counter. It was great, we sat and rested (a major theme of our travels) and cooled off in the air conditioning. I had an iced latte which really is more like a frappacinno at Starbucks. We didn't have any pastries since we thought we were going to be having lunch with Carmen.
The downside of not figuring out cell phones is that once we leave our hotel and Carmen leaves her dorm, we have no way of reaching each other. So we did not know that Carmen's plans had changed. Our plan was to meet her at the stop by her school at 1:30. We did that but she only had one hour before she had to meet the other kids for Munich.
We then caught the tram over to Buda to meet Carmen. We had an ice cream cone and headed up to her dorm. Her dorm is up on a hill so we jumped in one of the taxis on the side of the street. Even though we were warned not to get in unmarked taxis or hail them off the street. We have been pretty lucky. Not only did he take us up to her dorm for a reasonable price. We were able to communicate to him to have him pick up back up at 2:30! He was there when we came down from her room.
We had a nice visit, got the few items she wants us to bring back for her and we got to see her room -- and her most prized possession, the fridge! Since we had just had ice cream for lunch, she ate a bit before she had to leave for the bus to Munich. All of the food came from the fridge!
She was not taking anything but her messenger bag to Munich so she was trying to decide if she should take her blow up pillow to sleep on. Following Rick Steves, I suggested she take a sweater that she could roll up and use as a pillow.
Since we had a taxi...
We had him take us to the Central Coffee house. It was one written up in both of our books. The inside is beautiful and the pastries were great. We both had soup -- I had what sounded like split pea soup and Carrie had clear chicken broth with celery -- meat dumplings. We were not sure what we were going get. Mine came with toast so I was excited. When I can add pictures you will see the 2 pieces of toast I got were the size of a quarter! The celery-meat dumplings appeared to be meat (we think it was ground chicken) with seasoning.
We also had a croissant with our soup (when we saw how small the bowls of soup were and my small toast.) Of course we had dessert! I had a chocolate mousse and Carrie had the central (which turned out to be very similar to my mousse). Both had sponge cake and the bottom, chocolate mousse on top all encased in dark chocolate. The only difference we could assertain what that Carrie also had a layer of a nut paste (we think), mine had a round top with a slice of coconut on top and her's more like a square circle with a piece of chocolate and currents or pommogranite seeds on top.
We window shopped our way back to the Metro. We encountered a University Library on our way back. I went inside but I could not get into where the books are without being a student. I took pictures of the archways over the doors. They had the names of different philosophers. I am not sure if that meant the books would relate to that philosopher or not.
Our plan was to buy a sandwich for dinner. However, even though Rick Steves says there are small sandwich shops all over, we have not seen them. We have gone into several small shops and have found the makings for sandwiches but none with them already made up.
So...Pizza Hut 333 33 33! That is the phone number. Even I could remember that one! So we have cheese pizza and ceaser salad (with 3 BIG pieces of toast!) for dinner. We did our last load of laundry (in the sink) just enough to get us home.
We have actually worn holes in some of our socks. Given that we walk at the pace of a snail and do about half of what others normally do on this type of vacation, we have not been happy about that! But that just means more room for Budapest trinkets in our suitcases! I suspect at least one of my t-shirts will not make it back either. I am glad they were on sale for $5!
Today we are taking a tour on a bus that goes in the water similar to the Duck we have. It is a two hour tour but we will be able to see some of the buildings we have not seen yet. After that, the plan is to see the rest of Market Hall and have one more Langos before we leave. The Great Market Hall is closed on Sunday so if we want to go back, today is it!
Well, that is about all I have for now.
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