Our Trip to Hungary: Day 6

After Austria, we made one more trip out of Budapest. This time we went to Eger. Eger, is a small town in hungary where in 1552, a force of under 2000 Hungarians defeated 100,000 Turks who where invading, although 71 years later, Eger was taken by the Turks, but that doesn't matter. Eger was nice, but small and not well known to English tourism. We didn't do much our first day there, but me and dad went up to the castle. We also went to the TI, and walked around a bit.

Our trip to hungary: Day 5

On Sunday, we went to Saint Stephen's cathedral for church. There, we met Sarah and Kate. The church was very ornately decorated, although part of the outside was covered in scaffolding when I was there.  After looking around the Cathedral we went to a cafe, and then we went to the Belvedere, a Hapsburg palace that is now an art gallery. it had many paintings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries when Art Nouveau was in, including The Kiss, by Gustav Klimt. Afterwards we took the train back to Hungary.

Our Trip to Hungary: Day 4

On Saturday, we ate breakfast at a bakery, and then went to the Kunsthistoriches Museum. They had a bunch of paintings. there was a whole room full of Bruegels, including two of my favorite, Children's Games, and the Tower of Babel. Another painting I liked was Summer, by Archimboldo. This was one of the four seasons series he did. however, only two paintings remain. the museum also had a cool sculpture of Theseus slaying a centaur.

After lunch, we went to the royal treasury museum at the Hapsburg royal palace, where there were lots of treasures from the  Austria-Hungarian Empire. they had a scepter out of "unicorn horn" (or narwhale tusk) as well as royal robes, order of the golden fleece, and several crowns.

Our trip to hungary: Traveling to Austria

On Day 3, we traveled to Austria, where we would meet dad. We got excursion tickets, which covers the trip there and back, and public transportation. There were lots of wind turbines on our way there. The train was pretty cool. it was a Rail-Jet, and had these neat computer screens that had the time, speed, and maps of where you were. After getting to Vienna, we crashed in our (somewhat Spartan) rooms at Etap Hotel.

Our Trip to hungary: Day 2

The next day, got tickets to Austria (where we were going to the next day). Then Sarah took a train to Austria to meet her friend Kate. After Sarah left we went to the zoo. There were lots of great animals (350 of them) like the polar bears, camels, leopards, and my mom's favorite, Grey crowned cranes. They also had a tower with an empty cage were you could pretend you were a zoo animal. Unfortunately some of the animals weren't around because it was too cold. The zoo was opened in 1866 as a private institution. later, it was taken over by the city. The Elephant house is very Art Nouveau (the popular art style in the USA and Europe from the 1880s to the 1910s. For more info look here) After dinner we went to a Hungarian folk ensemble, which was great. The tram ride there had an excellent view of Gellert hill, and the Castle District across the river.

Our Trip to hungary: Day 1

In march, we took a few weeks off to go to Hungary. our plane took off early in the afternoon on March 10, and next morning we landed in Budapest. After getting to the bed and breakfast we were staying, Sarah came over and we had lunch at a pancake place nearby. our room had a great view of the Parliament Building, across the Danube. After lunch, Sarah showed us her school, and then we had dinner at a hummus bar with a few of Sarah's friends where they had delicious blaclava.