Szentendre shopping

Szentendre is a small quaint town just north of Budapest known for shopping and historic buildings.  Since my grandparents came to visit Kristin and I, and my grandmother loves to shop, we decided to just go straight in to the belly of the beast and go to this tourist shopping mecca on our first full day in Hungary.

Moose Wine!

Moose Wine!

The best thing I never ate

I don't even know what these things are, but good god, why did I not eat them?  The funny thing about going through pictures at the end of each day is that I see stuff that I totally missed out on.  Like these breads topped with heavenly goodness.

Kantin Budapest - Hungarian cuisine

Before hitting up the Opera house in Budapest, we dropped into this simple restaurant called Kantin.  They offered a brilliant 3 course menu with a bunch of great Hungarian options.  We really enjoyed it.

A strange antique shop in Szentendre, Hungary

We stumbled into this great shop in Szentendre, Hungary that had very old things.  Furniture from 1700's France, ornamental ivory swords, strange religious paintings from other worlds, and some kind of tusk from an arctic marine mammal from 1860 (Narwhal?).  It made me appreciate commerce. My favorite stores are the ones where I have no idea what I am going to get.  This place was as weird as it gets.

Arriving in Budapest

HDR - From Buda, looking out at Pest

We finally arrived in Budapest after an uneventful drive from Slovakia.  Truth be told, I do not even remember it.  We scooped up my grandparents at the airport and headed for our hotel in Pest - Hotel Palazzo Zichy.

Exploring the great Bratislava

We landed in Vienna and picked up our wheels at Sixt. Blazing across Austria at 95mph while listening to Old Dirty Bastard, we approached Bratislava.  What is Bratislava?  I really had not thought about it much before.

It ended up being one of the coolest cities we have ever visited.  It is a very quirky place with bizarre statues and people dressed in odd costumes amidst an old town center that fells perfectly preserved.  Several partiers lined the streets of old town.  The town was well stocked in  bachelor parties, bachelorette parties, and drunk goons watching Dortmund-Bayern square off in the Champions League final - on fact, it was as though all of old town was one big party.

This Guy - Slovak edition

I was trying to take a picture of this weird old modern thing, and this guy waked into the frame, slipped a hand into his pocket, and smirked a great Slovak smirk - great photobomb buddy!  He even winked at me afterwards.

Bratislava castle and the best chicken ever

The gates

These guys - Bratislava

Passed out in the park after a rough night

The old Slovakian mining town of Banská Štiavnica

The past whispers of grandeur have faded on the streets of Banska Stiavnica.  Heavily mined since the 3rd century BC, the Slovakian town of was once a hotbed for innovation and mineral wealth.  A massive source of gold and silver for Europe in the middle ages, the mining town was home to  a number of firsts.  It was the first mine to use gunpowder and the town housed the first technical school in the world.  Today, the old town is mined out and exists simply as a perfectly preserved medieval town, left as it was in its heyday.

Granted Unesco status in the early 90's, the old city square surrounds a gigantic plague column that looks like a strange art deco version of the eye of Sauron.  So what to do in such a place?  Wander.  Aimlessly.

We loved exploring this strange town and its surroundings, and, we had some bad pizza while watching 30 seconds to Mars videos in a little pastry/pizza shop.

Cumil the watcher, the missing paparazzi, and other weird statues in Bratislava

Bratislava has a number of strange statues.  There is this guy peeking out a manhole.  Another is a French soldier resembling Napoleon on a park bench.  There is also a guy tipping his hat commemorating an old Bratislava resident.  One of the most famous statues - The Paparazzi - was missing when we visited.  After looking for about an hour, we found some evidence of where he once stood, but we never figured out where he went.

The path to Njegos Mausoleum atop Mt. Lovcen

The road was too wet, the winds too strong, and the rains too hard.  As we ascended Mt. Lovcen in a beat down Skoda with our great driver "John" aka Cizmovik aka Clutchmaster Supreme, we decided to head back down, failing to reach our summit where the old prince bishop of Montenegro was put to rest - Petar II Petrovic-Njegos aka the Shakespeare of Montenegro.  We gave up halfway up the mountain.

As we went around the mountain, our driver stewed, feeling more guilty with each km.  He wanted us to see the top sight in Montenegro, so he made another run at the mountain from the other side.  He assured us that we would not miss our flight later that day and tossed the taxi meter out the window.

Budva, Montenegro from above

 Budva held like a cup by the Montenegros

Climbing the mountains behind Kotor

 After waiting small eternities for the skies to clear so we could climb the fortifications behind teh ancient city of Kotor, we found a few hour window to make the climb amidst cloudy skies and a tough beginning to the day.  While I did my morning routine just fine, Kristin was really dragging.  She managed to spill Cheerios all over our sink and accidentally put her pants on backwards.  I remember thinking, "yup, that's my climbing partner."

Of course, it was more of a pace up a few thousand steps than a true climb.  The weather was less than ideal, but the views were dizzying.

Kotor at Night

 The Kotor waterfront with the black mountains behind it - the black walls mark the sea gate wall

Dining at Galion in Montenegro

Galion is the best restaurant in Kotor, so we had to eat there.  The main dining room is built over the bay of Kotor surrounded by Mediterranean fjords (above).  It is dramatic and the food is absolutely perfect.   The meal blew our minds.

We liked it so much that we asked for a reservation the following night, and they declined us because we were dressed like slobs.  Our server was gracious the entire night, but we were dressed like we had been exploring in the rain all day, which we had been.  He said in broken English, tomorrow is very busy., maybe not come. 

That said, I would eat there again - it was that good.

 Rolls the size of donut holes

 menu 

 Fresh catch 

 Salad 

 The best, I mean the best, risotto ever 

 Montenegro steak

 The Saint Pierre fish in truffle with polenta and pesto = heaven

Dessert

The greatest sandwich ever

Tarifa, Spain 2008.  I ate the best sandwich ever much to the ire of my brother.  It had traveled to two continents prior to being consumed.  It was a foot long and about 1 inch wide.  It was a weird little sub, long on flavor and perfect in its simplicity.  I think it was filled with egg and cheese, but who really knows for sure.

I don't even remember.  I trudged back to my time capsule of a myspace page to read the old blog about this sandwich.  Information is scarce and I could only find a few lines.  How good was that sandwich?  I may never know again.  If I ever invent a time machine, then I will investigate this before I tell my old self to stay in college for a few more years.  Oh wait, I already did that.