Budapest

If you asked me to describe the city in two words, I would say: Freezing cold.

This is what I looked like pretty much the whole weekend, all bundled up!

I would advise anyone interested to head there during the summer. But when the opportunity came and I found a cheap flight for December, I didn’t want to give it up. The architecture alone is gorgeous. The city is an interesting range of old and new, with remnants of the Communist era, but also plenty of modernity.

In fact it’s actually two cities in one: Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube River.

Aside from all the oohing and aahing and sightseeing, also on the agenda was a trip to the Roman baths. It was so nice getting some spa treatment after all that shivering! But let’s just say Hungarian women have no hang-ups of being absolutely stark naked and letting it all show, regardless of sagging flesh. And that’s just about as descriptive as I am going to get.

Our last evening in the city we went to a performance of the Hungarian ballet. The show playing that night was Shakespeare’s "The Taming of the Shrew." It was beautiful. I feel bad admitting this, but I’m glad I saw the movie “Ten Things I Hate about You,” otherwise I would have been confused about what was going on.

Food-wise, Hungary is famous for its paprika, so for lunch I got a roasted stuffed pepper dish:

Okay so maybe it doesn’t look so appetizing but it tasted good!

There was also a bookstore chain there called Alexandra and I was so excited I took approximately five thousand pictures of it! Here’s just one.