Krees goes Dutch Kiwi!

Budapest Update #2

It's getting hot in Budapest - 85F in the shade - so we spent all of yesterday at the Palatinus swimming complex on Margaret Island. What a great place! Eleven pools, three of them with thermal water (two 86-90F and 90-97F), plus lots of shady lawn space, lounge chairs for rent and reasonably priced food and drink stalls. They also have a few big water slides, although we didn't try any of them because Aldus is too young.

Aldus passed out on the blanket, and after an hour we decided it would be best to just pack him up into the stroller and go, rather than let him wake up at the pools and be told he couldn't go swimming. On our way off the island we stopped for dinner at a food stall in the park (sausages, potatoes, bread and tables and chairs in front of the Japan-Paraguay World Cup match). Aldus slept right through it all.

This morning halabuhji and halmeoni decided to stay at the apartment, so Charles and I took the boys up to City Park. We went to the Transport Museum of Budapest, had lunch in the park, gawked at the Vajdahunyad Castle and the Timewheel statue, had a drink back at Café Kara, and just came back to the apartment.

Ask Aldus what he saw today, and he'll tell you about the bulldozers, backhoes and cranes working behind the castle.

Tonight? We'll try to have an early dinner at Callas Café!

Restaurant Review - Charivari (Paris)

Before I get too deep into my Budapest travel review, I have to put up a quick post about my dinner at Charivari ("Bistrot de Qualité") at the edge of the 6th and 14th arondissements. I went on a Thursday night and found it at the corner of Boulevard Raspail and Rue Bréa. The sidewalk tables are perfect - busy enough for people watching, but not next to the heavy traffic of Boulevard Montparnasse.

The entrecôte with roasted potatoes was outstanding. Nicely cut, nicely cooked, the fat fried sweetly and contrasted perfectly with the fleur de sel, and there was absolutely no need for the sauce that came on the side.

I wish I could say the same for the entrecôte I had the next night at La Petite Rotonde. Oh well.

Update from Budapest #1

Traveling with the two little guys means that my downtime is more limited on this trip, and so far the little bit I've had has been spent on taking naps or drinking coffee or alcohol so as to keep everyone happy). So my trip updates are going to a LOT briefer than previous trip updates. Anyway, here goes!

Day 1 (Friday 25 June)

After taxi, train, plane and bus rides (potentially Aldus's best day EVER), we arrived at the apartment in the late afternoon / early evening. The boys were both nearing meltdown stage, so dinner in public was out of the question. Charles and I went grocery shopping, made pasta dinner at the apartment, then for a walk with halmeoni and the boys around neighborhood and got ice cream near the Opera House.

Day 2 (Saturday 26 June)

Legenda boat tour on Danube, quick visit to Margaret Island with pedal cart ride for Charles, Aldus and I and ice cream for everyone. Lunch at József nádor Square, walked ALL the way up Andrássy út, coffee at Café Kara while listening to a sound check for a huge free concert in City Park (Rod Stewart, but none of his music in the sound check), Heroes Square where Aldus ran around shirtless, dinner at a Hungarian buffet place around the corner from the apartment.

Day 3 (Sunday 27 June)

We thought it was going to be a rainy day, so we started indoors at the little Millennium Underground Museum. (The M1 line in Budapest opened in 1897 - the first subway system on the European continent, just a few years behind the London Underground.) Then we took the real subway over to the gorgeous Parliament building on the river, bought some of the last tickets for a tour that day, grabbed lunch at a place called Rokfort (potentially the only place open in that neighborhood on a Sunday), returned to Parliament for our 1pm tour, then walked through Szabadság Square to Első Pesti Rétesház ("First Strudel House of Pest") for strudel and some sweet Hungarian Tokay wine.

After Aldus woke up from his nap and ate two(!) pieces of apple strudel, we went back to Szabadság Square where we stripped him down to his diaper and sandals and encouraged him to run around in the awesome interactive fountains. He was too excited or too scared of the fountains or expected the water to be too cold or something, so he just ran around and didn't actually go in the water. Then we let the kids play in one of the two little playgrounds while we listened the cheers of the crowd gathered in the park to watch the England-Germany match on a huge screen set up for World Cup. We took the subway back to the apartment for some rest and then went out to Két Szerecsen for dinner. It was really good and would have been a GREAT dinner if the boys had cooperated. Oh well.

Day 4 (Monday 28 June)

Everyone's been really tired, so we decided to make it a light day. We took the tram over to the Great Market Hall for the morning where we ogled the stands of produce, paprika, poultry, beef, sausages and souvenirs. We also ate a langos - Hungarian fried bread! - topped with sour cream and cheese. We had lunch in the Gozsdu Udvar passage and came back to the apartment for a big siesta for EVERYONE.

Traveling with kids

We arrived in Budapest yesterday with the boys (now officially aged 1 and 3 years!) and Charles's parents in tow. All things considered, the boys are really good travelers. They are generally pretty flexible and forgiving when we screw around with their schedules and throw them into new situations like this. We want to take them to new places, show them the world, teach them how to be good travelers.

That said, traveling with kids this age is hard work. Being on my own in Paris last week was like a little slice of heaven, and I'm dying to go back for a long weekend with Charles, just the two of us.

Who wants to come watch the kids for a few days? :)  (No, Mom, I'm not trying to put you up to this publicly. There are other people who read this blog, too.)

More updates from Budapest to come.