Day 4: Budapest

Luckily I set the alarm because it awakened me out of a sound sleep at 9 o’clock. Breakfast closes at 10 and I wanted to make sure not to miss it!! Who doesn’t need lactose-free cheese, Hungarian pork ham, seven different kinds of sausages, eight different kinds of salamis, etc etc etc?

Laura and Stu moseyed down at 9:45. They weren’t worried!

We checked out of our lovely hotel, Stu called our Bolt and off we went for our next adventure. Luckily we had the number of the cruise ship and called them directly to find out at which mooring they were located. We got stuck in a long line of traffic with a very impatient Hungarian driver. He taught us how to say s**t in Hungarian but don’t ask me what it is. Hungarian is nothing like the Romance languages, it’s impossible to guess the meaning of anything.

We left our luggage at the boat, although we weren’t allowed to check in until 4 o’clock. That was fine because the Central Market was a block away and that was on our list of things to do in Budapest.

The market is huge! We started walking around on the ground floor where most of the stalls were selling Hungarian produce, meat and specialty foods. There are sausages of every size, lots of cans of different kind of pate and caviar. Also butchers and fruit stalls so this market is still for locals, the tourists haven’t taken it over completely. But then you climb to the second floor which is a gallery overlooking the main space. The gallery was completely lined with tourist tat. I saw more embroidered tablecloths than you can possibly want. Imagine getting one home and having to iron it! There were lots of tourists looking over the offerings, including Rubik’s cubes of every size (Mr. Rubik was Hungarian), and every imaginable and non-imaginable bit of junk.

The really interesting thing to see were the food stalls. There were long lines of hungry people waiting for the buffet or for individual specialties. It was so hot and most people were eating goulash soup, sausage platters, fried cutlets, stuffed cabbage and more sausages. The plates were filled.

Stu got on his phone and we chose another Greek restaurant for our lunch since the traditional restaurants that were well rated were all about hot food and we just wanted salads.

We walked over to Cafe Dionysius. The design looked like a stage set for Mamma Mia but they had exactly what we wanted. We got a complimentary plate of homemade bread and smoked mackerel salad. Not bad! Salads all around which included haloumi and feta. Delicious but not as nice as Mazi.

We wandered over to a pedestrian street lined with tourist shops, but most importantly the home of the Chimney Cake Shop, where Stu wanted to try a chimney cake. This is a cylindrical shaped cake filled with ice cream and chocolate sauce. Three spoons please.

By this time we were ready to walk back to the boat and board. Check in was easy, and a lovely young woman led me to my room (cabin)? Laura and Stu are across the hall. The room is just beautiful. Recessed lighting, wood trim, walk in closet, and spotless bathroom that I would absolutely love to have in my home. Very modern and all shipshape. And much larger than I would have imagined on a boat. The boat is only a year old and is absolutely lovely.

The window takes up the whole wall. Instead of having a little terrace, the window is split in half horizontally and opens completely.

We met for an orientation lecture at 6, dinner at 7. We have a table just for us by the window. Peter, our waiter, was great. He’s from Romania and he said he would make sure to take care of us. Laura asked, of course, if there were any candidates on board to be her new daddy.

Dinner. Wow! Choice of salmon three ways or salad, then essence of tomato soup with ravioli or chicken and mushrooms with puff pastry. Main course was sea bream with garlic sauce or chateaubriand followed by chocolate pot de creme or a cheese plate.

The after dinner entertainment was a Hungarian folk show, violins, singers and dancers. Hokey but fun. We then went up to the top deck and watched the brilliantly lit city go by as we had a nighttime cruise. It was beautiful.