Note to readers: I realize that these posts are not going up in order, but I’m publishing the posts as I complete my journal entries. My itinerary has been Warsaw to Krakow to Budapest.
After some cheap Hungarian wine to close out the night on Monday, none of us were up for an early start on Tuesday. Our plan was to take a day trip to Szentendre (St. Andrew), a town up the Danube (towards Bratislava and Vienna).
Hotel breakfast was followed by a quick subway hop across the river to Buda, where the subway station was a transfer point for the HEV commuter train. Continuing our streak of good fortune with transit timing, we reached the ticket station at 11:16am, with an 11:18 train to Szentendre waiting on the platform. 35 minutes of leisurely train travel later, we were in Szentendre.
It is a pretty little town, a nice change of pace from bustling Budapest. There are a fair number of galleries and jewelry shops, as the area has historically had a strong artists’ presence. There are also the inevitable tourist kitsch shops to cater to the tour groups that showed up mid-afternoon. Until the masses showed up, it felt like we had the town to ourselves.
I stopped to have a Lantos, a piece of fried dough with a choice of toppings. Cheese or sour cream are the most common; I went with cheese.
While walking along a street that runs next to the Danube bank, we came upon a little cafe with a free WC (water closet), very important for Mino and his infant’s bladder. While taking our turns in the WC, Mino noticed that the cafe served Unicum, a famous Hungarian liquour produced by the Zwack company. My guidebook described it as like Jagermeister, but harsher. Mino’s said it was like the stuff you drink to force yourself to vomit (syrup of ipecac). Glowing reviews! When in Rome…so Mino and I each took a shot of it. Apparently they realize how foul it tastes, as the bottle and the shot glasses are kept ice cold to minimize how much of it you actually taste. Meghan was kind enough to take a video of our efforts.
In the Unicum heyday (which paralleled Budapest’s), in the late 19th century, Zwack advertised the drink using some great ads that Rick Steves described as “Guiness-like.” I’d agree; see the photo below for a taste. This was hanging on a wall of a building in Szentendre.
After our Zwack attack, we continued to walk through town. At the highest point, there is a very old church set in a plaza with a pleasant view of the city’s rooftops.
Our Szentendre visit then included a relaxing sit at a cafe tucked away on a side street. While the local youths chatted and smoked inside, we sat outside and enjoyed the sunny weather (from the cover of the umbrella, of course). I ordered an iced coffee and received an iced coffee that also included a scoop of ice cream–bonus!
With 45 minutes to go before our boat ride back to Budapest, we decided to sample some Hungarian wine, hopefully better than the 400 Forint Ferenc that we had the prior night. Mino picked out a rose, which might have been decent, except that it was served at room temperature (this, despite the admonition on the bottle to served chilled at 10 degrees Celsius). Some ice in our glasses–a first for me–and the drinkability increased.
Once on the boat, we were all surprised by the relatively dimunitive size of the Danube–not as large as expected given its stature in my mind. The boat ride was pleasant and after an hour we were back at Pest for a walk to our hotel.
We were all tuckered out after several long days, so we made dinner in our hotel room, read and planned for the next few days before calling it a night.