First off, I can’t wait, so I’ll start with the end of the day first….Budapest is AMAZING! I love this city already and we’ve only been here about 5 hours. It’s filled with the most incredible architecture, the colors are beautiful, there’s a river running thru it (like all great cities), restaurants everywhere and it’s totally affordable! I can’t wait to explore tomorrow, I know there is so much to do.
I will back up though. We started the day still in Zagreb, and I forced the kids up early so that we could go to the Museum of Broken Relationships right when it opened at 9 a.m. before we got on the road. It was only a 10 minute walk from our apartment, and it was on my list of interesting places to go. Apparently there is also one other official such museum and it’s in Los Angeles. Who knew? It’s an odd sort of concept, but one that intrigued me. It’s pretty small, but super interesting. It’s one “item” on display, after another, each with a little plaque that describes briefly the relationship and context of the item on display. There were such random things, and the types of relationships were all vastly different (most were romantic, but definitely not all…there were parental relationships too). They were all very ordinary objects, but you could feel the weight that people put on them. I read a few to Romeo but then he lost interest and mostly just tried to touch stuff, the other two girls last a bit longer, and Ava had to be pulled away—she was definitely intrigued by it. Here’s the thing….there’s something about seeing all those moments in time, of lovers lost, and hearts broken that makes it feel both bigger and smaller than you’d imagine. I don’t know quite how else to describe it. The gravity of each one was felt, but then you saw it in totality--this wave of emotion of loves gained and lost and it also made it feel less tragic, more communal I guess, small and big at the same time.
Anyway, we let Ava walk around for as long as we could while the rest of us had coffee, tea and juice in the coffee shop. Glad we went for sure. We noticed a strike protest going on outside a state building next to the museum—which also happened to have the coolest roof so I snapped a pic.
Then it was back on the road. Turns out, like almost every other drive we’ve estimated pre-arrival, it was off…and not in our favor. It seemed to take forever, but it was “only” four hours. Once again, we got stuck at the border because there were only two lines of cars, both were for EU or other neighboring countries specifically, but all European—it was like they just weren’t inviting anyone else. We got up to the kiosk eventually and the guy took our passports and said, “Ooohhhh, Americans” and then directed us off to the side, where we waited—FOREVER.
I will also note, because I was pretty proud of myself, that I figured out the Hungarian toll system, which unlike any of the other places we’ve been, is something that you purchase before you use the roads at all, and you buy it at registered places that sell it (petrol stations etc.) They enter your license plate number, you pay the fee, and then you avoid a ticket (which they do by capturing license plate numbers and then you just get a huge bill in the mail months and months later when the ticket goes to your rental agency and then the agency tracks you down)! They don’t make it terribly easy to figure out either, because the sign on the road said “vignette” and has this little picture, but I’m not sure if you didn’t know the language and didn’t google it, how would you know?
The last hour or so Ava DJ’ed the music, the little kids fell asleep (they aren’t big on rap), and we drove thru the pouring rain (turned out to be a perfect day for driving since the rain would have kept us inside).
Our apartment is fantastic, and we are smack in the center of everything. We parked our car in the garage two minutes away, and 4 days cost a total of $40---can you believe? I’m pretty sure that our one day in Dubrovnik was close to $30. We got everything out of the car, into the apartment, figured out the 3 different door entry codes, and unlocking procedures (I have to carry a cheat sheet with me because it’s not simple at all.) We were overjoyed to finally be IN the apartment.
We had a fantastic dinner at this little café around the corner—and I’m telling you, the kids ordered a TON of food, and the entire bill with tip was a whopping $32. That’s pretty amazing right there. Apparently strawberry basil soup is a specialty in the area, and they are big on pulled pork (who isn’t)? I also spotted a Vegan City restaurant right around the corner from me—yep, just blocks away. Now I’m not vegan, but I don’t eat dairy, or gluten, and the vegan’s are nice enough to often provide gluten free options as well. I’m definitely hitting it tomorrow.
So overall, very successful day, and I think we are all super excited about this city. The sun should come back tomorrow, and we’ll be ready to roam the city.
Signed, ME {lv}
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