2024 Europe Trip: Day 3 - Budapest

Day 3 - Buda

Budapest is the combination of two old settlements, one on each side of the Danube. One is Buda, the other is Pest - Buda on the West and Pest on the East. In a way, you can naturally split it so you focus on the touristy aspects of one side per day, and today was the Buda side - most known for its Buda Castle Hill, a large hill that starts about two blocks away from teh river. The hill stretches quite a distance, with the Buda Castle (and accompanying Museums) on one side, and the complex of churches ahead of the Fisherman's Bastion on the other side. 

The day started a bit late, with me fighting off jet lag making me leave at 11:45 (instead of what would've been 10:45), to a mostly sunny, bright, lovely high-60s day. I took a bolt cab over to Caste Hill Square, the large square in front of St. Mathias Church, the heavily ornate, beautiful gothic style church, which offers countless photo angles. Sadly, the inside of the church was closed for renovations, but it still a place of so much life in the streets. Down some really picturesque alleys it the Mary Magdalene Church, which is now just a solitary tower, again overlooking this time a cliff heading further west (away from the city) - where you can see that on the Buda side, Budapest doesn't extend nearly as far.

Walking through the streets and alleys with their pastel colors was a lovely way to kill a bit of time before my lunch at Deryne at 1:30. Deryne is a lovely bistro down a series of steps walking down from the hill. I was seated around their long oval bar, but the place is really quite large. I regret not pushing to eat outside, to enjoy the lovely day it was. For a starter, I got a traditional 'bean soup' which was a lvoely spiced broth with giant flat beans, yellow carrots and slices of ham. It was hot, spicy and velvety as a way to start the meal. The main of a confit duck leg and garlic with their take on saeukraut was beautiful as well, Overall Deryne was a great experience, if again only dinged by me not eating outside.

The rest of the day was spent in, around, below and on top of the large Buda Castle complex. The first view was a downer as two of the exterior buildings had heavy scaffolding, but of course that only was way outside the real complex. Soon, after meandering around barricades you reach the large expanse that is the Buda Castle, which was as full as life as anything I've seen in the city. In front of the mail building, which has turned into a giant Art Museum, was a courtyard with a stage and a band playing traditional folk music, and a beer garden - sadly sponsored by Paulaner. People were soaking in life, all with the view of the entire city below you. This was a really mesmerizing scene.

As was the stuff inside the building. The Hungarian National Gallery is the main site, an art museum that exclusively shows art by Hungarians, taking up four floors of what used to be a palace / castle. The art started from teh earliest days through all the various trials and tribulations over the decades, and ended as you wouild think with modern art at the way top end. All of it was quite good, even if you don't think of Hungary when you think of the great art scenes of Europe.

Under that was the Budapest History Museum, which was a fairly small but effective run through of the original castle, which is basically the foundation now, adn then a few floors describing Budapest over the years, up to and including the royal family's use of the buildign the museum is now in. It was a fairly small, quick, traipse through history. 

The last bit of fun in the Buda Castle complex is the grounds, which are very well kept and fancy and walkable as you walk down towards river level. The whole experience of a few hours on Buda Castle Hill was brilliant, and a really effective way to experience everything about Budapest - the art of its history, the history of its history, and the views and people enjoying life of its present.

Dinner was more rustic, but still excellent, at Hilda - a bistro with a super interesting, stylish tile decor and fairly simple menu that belies the exactness of their preparations. For a starter, I got a dish that was lsited as Pork Boul with white asparagus. I tried asking what Boul was, which the waitress wasn't able to convey. I can't blame her. It basically was a pork jowl/cheek/head terrine, which was sublime with a dash of horseradish, a sweet mustard and supremely well cooked white asparagus. It could be a dish at a tasting menu spot to be honest. The main was more homely, but no less great - a big bowl of goulash served with sourdough bread. Few things I wanted to do more during my time in Budapest than eat goulash, and when I had that in my head, it was the way it was presented at Hilda that I had in mind. It was so great.

About as good was my little walk along hte banks fo the Danube, with the lit Buda Castle, St. Matias Church and many other buildings on the Buda side, glistening for us all soaking it in on the Pest side. If I have any memory of my trip to Budapest in 2000, it was the lit buildings at night against the Danube. Granted, I may be easily getting it mixed up with Prague, but anyway, the image that seared in my mind was replayed abotu as well as I could have wanted 24 short years later.

Post dinner was a mix of new and (a day) old, with me hitting the more reputed cocktail bar in Budapest, named Boutiq Bar. To be honest, while it was very good, and I don't know if it was better than Hotsy Totsy, at the very least the first two drinks that I picked were a bit too sweet. Granted, I then asked for smokey and got somethign great, so maybe it is more on me than them. I then went abck to Hotsy Totsy, quickly thinking of it as a favorite already. From there, went back down that alley between the two BlueBird karaoke spots, both fun but less crowded on the Saturday Night than the were the day before. At the very tail end of the night, I went back to Aether Club a bit dismayed as it was still the same hip-hop vibe up top. I went to the bathroom, which was downstairs.... and then realized there is a preper EDM underground club in the bottom level.

After cursing myself for not figuring this out yesterday (granted, had I figured it out, I probably then don't go to the karaoke spot...), I went in and it was great. Could do with more of a crowd, but the music was graet, the crowd was great, the scene was great. It was about as good as the chicken gyro to end the night, but in reality, I think Aether is graet, especially given its location right in the heart of the city. The other noted EDM club from my research was Arzenal, which is in a warehouse type space a 10-min drive away. Maybe that place is better, but I can't imagine it is so much better to make up for the proximity advantage athat Aether has. Without doing research specifically on the party areas, I really picked as perfect spot for the AirBNB as possible.

2024 Europe Trip: Day 1-2 - Flight to Budapest

Day 1-2 – Hungry in Hungary

If people haven’t picked up (and why would anyone) I’ve centered most of my travel in recent years to Continents not named Europe. It’s not like I’ve never been to Europe since Covid. I’ve stepped foot on the Continent on five different occasions – but if you peel it back, three were for work, and the other two on group trips with 4-5 friends. I haven’t done any solo travel in Europe (I’m going to not count Istanbul as Europe for this exercise). Since Covid, I’ve been to Africa three times, South America four times, and Asia twice – not all these trips were solo but some were.

This isn’t a decision made without any forethought – I have my reasons, mostly the crazy prices that pile up in Europe during Summer, the equally crazy crowds, and the general sense that (1) I’ve seen a lot of it when I was a kid and (2) a bit over the whole Colonial European exceptionalism. But anyway, I decided to break this whole routine this year, on a 10-day lark to Europe across Budapest, Helsinki and Talinn (and a few random excursions surrounding thereof. “Why?” you may ask, this seemingly random collection of places.

I cannot disagree it is fairly random. Budapest a place I’ve heard a lot of great things about, and have scant memory of my trip there with my family back in 2000 (a more enterprising me would’ve found a way to lop Prague onto the trip as well). Helsinki because I loved what I saw on Somebody Feed Phil when he went there – truly that is the primary reason I’m going. And Talinn because (1) my parents loved it on their trip through the Baltics and (2) it’s a 2-hour ferry from Helsinki.

The other factor on this trip is finally using Lufthansa miles, most of which I got through a Lufthansa credit card that I impulse applied for after getting denied a Chase Sapphire Reserve when it first came out. That was back in 2016. I remember specifically because I took a trip with two friends that year to Peru, where they both had the Reserve and got to use a priority pass lounge. I told them back then “just you wait, one day I’ll be flying biz on Lufthansa with these miles.” Well, eight years later, here we are.

Ironically, given that preamble, my initial flights from Newark to Budapest via Frankfurt are not using miles, though on Lufthansa. I tried upgrading with my United plus points but never escaped the waitlist. I picked an economy seat three rows into economy, with a view of the last rows of business in plain sight, which was tough. Made more tough was that Lufthansa seems to have really pared back their service in economy, seeming in the last two months as my two Lufthansa flights back in Feb (CPT – FRA & MUC-EWR) were quite a bit better. The dinner wasn’t bad – an interesting beef pie with a nice quinoa salad – but the breakfast was embarrassing, literally a small box with a small fruit cup and a wrapped marble loaf. The loaf was tasty but this was staggeringly small portions – even compared to what passes for breakfast in economy on America to Europe red-eyes on United or American.

The second flight from Frankfurt to Budapest was no better, with anything aside from water and a small chocolate being only available for purchase (including coffee, on an 8:30am flight…). I wanted to sleep anyway, so it wasn’t really an issue. Before I knew it I was in Budapest, happy to finish my time on Lufthansa. I’ll welcome my business flight back, and do appreciate being able to fly on one of the last remaining 747s, but this trip only reinforced in my mind that for all the hate the US main airlines get, the main European airlines are no better at this point.

Anyway, to Budapest. It was a gloomy day weather wise, though the rain held off and it brightened up as the day wore on. It is hard to get a read on the city in overcast conditions, on a working day, but the drive into the city did show the cobblestone streets, art deco buildings and patented alleys that make European cities so distinctive and nice. Many parts of the drive on the Pest side (where both the airport and my AirBNB, and most of the nightlife lie) did show a more weathered, darker vibe which I didn’t mind. As we finally got towards my AirBNB, the streets opened up into wide esplanades, nice circles, statues, fancy buildings, where we could as easily be in Western Europe.

Lunch was at Getto Gulyas (Goulash), a really nice, affordable bistro about a block away from my AirBNB that has a classic Hungarian menu. For a starter I got their version of bone marrow which was incredible. Nothing too fancy – just two giant bones with tons of marrow, roasted perfectly, with a light sauce and pieces of roasted garlic, all to spread on 5 pieces of toasted bread. Perfect. The main was one of their many goulash options, with me getting a lamb paprikash stew with spaetzle – this was classic, tasty but I do wish there was a better carb option that spaetzle, and something more in the pasta or rice vein. Still, Getto Gulyas was a really nice gastronomic start to the trip – only expecting to enhance by my trip to Salt, Budapest’s first Michelin-star restaurant, tonight.

My plans for the afternoon on my first day were quite light – saving all the true tourism for the next three days. The primary driver of this being unsure if I would need a nap (update: I do) on the first day, and also any potential flight delays and the like. Instead, especially since the rain held out during the day, I was able to just go for an elongated walk around the town. It started from Getty Gulyas, down towards the Danube, crossing the main road in Budapest which in this area had two circles with fancy buildings on each end, multiple nice alleys shooting off either side, a small park with ferris wheel, and a lot else. Budapest (so far) is not the fanciest or prettiest city, but it is closer than you would think.

Crossing the Danube took place at the Chain Bridge, which is a suspension bridge with nice lion sculptures on each side, and a look reminiscent of the Tower Bridge, albeit smaller. The real joy though is the view you get from the bridge, for both the Buda side (Western side) and Pest side (Eastern side). The Pest side has a row of colorful buildings on the banks leading up to the Parliament building (more to come on that), and the Buda side having hills leading to the Buda Castle, various churches and other ornate spots.

My intended end point of the walk was the Fisherman’s Bastion, a weird translation of a fancy stairs, platforms and lookouts point attached the hill before you get to multiple churches and sites (of which I’ll come back to tomorrow). The walk had a nice gradual incline that totalled a lot higher up than you would think. The main site I got a view of was the St. Mathias Church, albeit from behind but still really ornate. The real view though is of the city below, including a higher-up vantage point of the giant Parliament building.

The Budapest Parliament Building is the biggest parliament / congress building in the world. It is also incredibly ornate and a must-do (I have a tour booked there for Monday). It truly does stand out so brilliantly amongst the rest of the buildings on the Danube. At this view you also get a sense of how big Budapest really is, sprawling out on the Pest side about as far as the eye can see (granted, probably just 400 feet or so above river level). From the Fisherman’s Bastion, it was a nice walk down back to river level, getting to the banks of the Danube on the Pest side, with an even better view of the Parliament Building. I’ll say this, the only weird thing I can note about the city so far is that it is quite odd that there is no bridge that close to the Parliament building, though I guess this can be for security reasons.

From there, I headed back towards the AirBNB, into the maw of the Jewish Quarter, which is basically the bohemian / party quarter of the city. Most bars in Budapest only open at 4pm, so the palce was still fairly quiet. I decided to check out the Ruin Bar area, which is a large bar & beer garden built into the remains of what was a synagogue. There’s really no sign of religiosity – moreso just a lot of small bars, with open seating in the courtyard, crazy decorations, and a general cool vibe. A place like this is easy to mess up, either making it too kitschy or too dark & dingy – and given it closes at 4am, I feel like if I came back at 2am, it may sway towards the dingy side, but for now it was a great stop to give Hungarian beer a first try. Glad to say it passed in flying colors – with me getting a craft IPA on draft and porter in a can, both quite good (the Porter specifically smooth).

After this I finally did retire to the AirBNB for a brief R&R time. I generally bake in an hour of R&R before dinner – mainly to recharge cell phones & shower (order intentional to portray the relative importance), but extended it a bit further to get in a proper quick nap.

Dinner at Salt was amazing - as always I'll do a post at the end about each of the tasting menu spots, it will be five in total during the trip. Salt may end up easily being the best, and if not I can't wait to see what the other four provide. I will say one of the interesting aspects was that during my time there, the power cut out. Seemingly just in the restaurant, as I was near a window and outside all was fine. They continued cooking through the blackout, which chefs taking out their phones and putting flashlights on. Luckily their gas was still working, so it worked out fine, where even though the outage lasted about 40 minutes, it just became a cool cande-lit phase of the meal. The lights came back on for the last bit of the meal, and it was also an awakening of sorts for me for a night around Budapest.

I'll say one thing, I picked a really good location for my AirBNB - right off one of the main nightlife streets, and situated well enough for me to hit a craft beer pub, a speakeasy cocktail joint, and a street of bars, "clubs" (quotation marks explanation to come) and karaoke spots (which seem to be super popular in Hungary) all within five minutes walk of the AirBNB. The first of these was the craft beer spot, named Hopaholic, with a really chill vibe. I got there around 11:15, and seated myself at the bar with some locals who were curious about my travels. After that Hotsy Totsy, a speakeasy, was an ever cooler vibe - below street level, low lights, cool drinks. The drink menu is a palying card deck of seemingly 54 options, with the suits representing flavor profiles (bitter v. citrusy v. sweet v. strong). It was nowhere near as pretentious as a place like that can be.

The final stop was an alley where Aether "club" was situated, along with a series of eateries, bars and karaoke spots. Aether was not really a traditional club, but did have a DJ and a darker back room, but the frontage is open to the street. The music was good (not really EDM or anything, if anything more traditional 00s hip hop), the crowd was fun. Same can be said about the karaoke spot - which there are a bunch. The two I went to are the more fun ones for solo travelers, something like Barcode in Kyoto - with a normal bar with a giant karaoke screen. A great way to end the night - well, I guess the great chicken gyro, which is conveniently located on the walk back from the karaoke spot and my AirBNB, was the true great way to end the night.

On the potential death of Inside the NBA

For years, I've set my DVR to record Inside the NBA. I rarely actually watch regular season games. I follow the sport but don't record it for the sport. I record it because there are few things on tv more consistently entertaining than Inside the NBA. The first time I ranked my favorite TV shows of a given year was in 2014. The peak-tv / streaming-tv era had barely begun. I only had a Top-10 that year, and put Inside the NBA on it. Now, with the imminent news that NBC is on tap to take back the NBA from TNT starting with the 2025-26 season and the potential end of Inside the NBA tied to that, I can safely say I should've ranked it every year.

We say it so often that there is no better studio show than Inside the NBA. And that is totally true, staggeringly so. Forget ESPN, which has for a good 20 years now since getting the NBA contract (ironically, from NBC) in 2003 failed at putting together anything close to what TNT has. Yes, there are a few shows that combine analysis and jovialness - be it College Gameday, or the current flavor of the moment of CBS/Paramount's Champions League group (Kate Abdo, Thierry Henry, Jamie Carragher, Micah Richards). But even those shows aren't close, because what makes Inside the NBA so great is also what makes it unique - it is a world class comedy show parading as a sports one.

The analysis on Inside the NBA has never been all that great, but to criticize it for that is to miss the forest for the trees. Again, Inside the NBA is one of the great shows of all time because it is an unscripted comedy show. It exists to make people laugh, to make people have fun, to make people enjoy a 60-ish minute stretch on something tangentially connected to a game we all love. But I do truly believe if you say down someone who has never seen the NBA and has no use for sport, and had them watch Inside the NBA, they would love it for the jokes alone.

There are so many things to note about what makes Inside the NBA special, but I want to focus on a few that go beyond what everyone knows (the unfilteredness, etc.). Firstly, the fact that they laugh at each others jokes. One of the weirder aspects of most sitcoms, even truly great ones, is that the characters are so plainly saying funny things yet no one is laughing. Inside the NBA, because it is unplanned and unvarnished, is so much better for the fact that the cast is laughing along with us. They laugh at Chuck's take on San Diego women or various allusions to liking blowjobs. They laugh at Shaq tripping over his lines from time to time. They just laugh and we do along with them.

Next is the fact they sometimes have tiffs, and they lean into those / gang up on each other. There's teh famous clips like Shaq's famous "it's 1 to 2 to 3, not 1 to 2 and back to 1" when Charles and Kenny traded responses without giving Shaq a chance to respond. Similarly so many times has Charles gotten perturbed over something and the others bash him on it. 

Next is they have the rare ability to beat bits into the ground without them ever losing their sheen. The best two examples are Shaqtin' a Fool, which might be the most perfect running gag, and the Gone Fishing conceit to wish all eliminated teams a good offseason. Shaqtin is never not funny, and Gone Fishing has the great gag of truly awful photoshop. If anything, Inside the NBA has made perfect in bad photoshop - nothing better when they combine the two with weird photoshop work interspersed within Shaqtin clips.

Next is how good the show gets when they flip the switch to real topics, be it Shaq when he gets introspective on what he's lost in life, or Charles and Kenny speaking out about black issues. Of course Ernie's battles with cancer. The team is so earnest, so real adn special even when they need to perfectly switch to seriousness and away from silliness. But man o man the silliness.

Nothing will replace it. Most sad is that coming into this season Shaq and Charles both signed extensions that made it seem that this show that has gone on since the early 90's, and with the current quadro since 2012, would never leave us. And now it looks like it might. We will all savor the return of roundball rock, which is as universally accepted as the best sports theme song as Inside the NBA is as a sports show. But that is not going to make up for it.

Every season, when whichever Confrence Finals TNT has ends, to me the NBA season does. I don't rue the end of the sport, but the end of the hourly brilliance that is Inside the NBA. When the first Thursday of the season hits adn we get it back, it is the return of the season. I like basketball, I love Inside the NBA. Thanks to Youtube it will live forever in clip form online, and if TNT is smart they would release old episodes on HBO Max or something or the like, but it won't be the same. It seems inevitable the best sports show ever will end, but at least they're going out on top.

The Real Madrid Magic

It isn't shocking that Real Madrid is playing in the Champions League Final. Again. For the sixth time in eleven years. They are undoubtedly one of the best teams in Europe so far this season, having just one loss in La Liga - which they clinched last weeked being both the best goal scoring offense and fewest goals conceding defense. They are dominant, deep and wonderful, blending a bevy of great youngsters with aging brilliant masters.

What is shocking is they were ten minutes away from getting knocked out, at home, against the worst Bayern team in a decade. It was about to be a harrowing night in the Bernabeu, but instead - Madrid does what it does, as always. Find a way to manufacture wins, and get back to where they just belong, at the precipice of another potential Champions League title.

It wasn't suppsoed to come this easy. This was a year of transition. No Benzema, and no Mbappe yet. Injuries to their mainstays in defense (Alaba, Medy) and goalkeeper. Modric and Kroos splitting time. Integrating untested youngsters in Tchoumeni and Cammavinga in more full time roles. Now, they were not bad or bereft of talent. Anyone with a brain would think they could have competed for La Liga, but last year they were fully outclassed in the Champions League Semifinal loss to Manchester City, losing 0-4 in teh second leg. This was in theory a worse team tahn last year, and definitely worse than the 2022 team that won the Champions League with Benzema at his ballon d'or best.

Instead, here we are, Madrid the team being dominant in Spain, and Madrid the team being magical, mystical and unkillable in Europe. 

It all centers around Don Carlo, the coach who was given a renewed life being spared from Everton right before the start of the 2021-22 season, after Zidane left Madrid more quickly than anyone would've wanted. Ancelotti was seen as a desperate hire, a retread for Madrid itself, him having been unceremoniosly sacked in 2015 after losing La Liga and the Champions League. Of course, that firing brought in the Zidane era, which transitioned so beautifully back to the Ancelotti era. The duo on the sidelines for La Decima, when the voodoo and black magic all started, have been on teh sidelines basically ever moment since, and it has never not been just simply magical.

The resume at this point is comical, starting from that night of La Decima, with Ramos's goal at 92:48 to break Atletico's heart. From there we ahve Cristiano's hat trick to overturn a 0-2 first leg loss to Wolfsburg in 2016. Their incredible win against Bayern in the 2017 Semifinals, winning in extra time. Their escape against Juventus in 2018 after nearly blowing a first leg 3-0 win in Turin (the famous Ronaldo bicycle-kick game). The trio of comebacks in 2022 on their way to their latest win, including a win so similar in a way to this one in that year's semifinals - with substitute Rodrygo scoring two quick goals. That year it was to force extra time. This year it was to just force another miracle win.

What it is about Madrid and this tournament? But more realistically, what it is about Madrid and their mentality in the Ancelotti/Zidane eras. As going into 2014, Madrid was having a rough divorce from Champions League glory. Notably from 2004-2010 they lost in the Round of 16 seven straight times. They made the Semifinals in 2011 - 2013 under Jose Mourinho but lost each time, first harrowingly to Barcelona, then hauntingly to Bayern in PKs in 2012 and lastly, embarrassingly, to Klopp's Dortmund in 2013. That all changed with the arrival of Don Carlo - and his assistant manager in one Zinedine Zidane.

I think what has most made this possible is a commitment to both calmness and flesibility. Madrid never loses their cool. They never get overmatched (again excepting I guess the Semifinal loss to Man City last year). They never seem stressed or rushed or anxious. And some of that also is they're built to react and adapt. It has been a longstanding knock, stupidly, against Ancelotti and Zidane that they're more vibes and "man management" (often used in the most condescending way...) than tactics and manegerial brilliance. Maybe that was true (it wasn't) in 2014-2018 when they were supremely talented, but starting with Zidane's Covid La Liga run in 2020 after losing Ronaldo, Real Madrid has been incredibly malleable.

In those last few Zidane seasons, he would alternate between a 3-5-2, 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, going week by week gameplanning excellently. Injuries became a all too common occurrence. It was those years that the ingenuity became truly on display, with ideas like playing Lucas Vazquez as a fullback and whatnot. That has only grown in truth in these last couple Ancelotti seasons, losing Benzema (who post Ronaldo, had taken his game to the next level) but then himself needing to do things like play Tchoumeni as a fullback, Cammavinga has a centerback, Bellingham as a false nine, and turn to Brahim Diaz and, of course the hero of today, Joselu. None of this should work, and none of it would if the mangers weren't creative, flexible enough to make it happen.

And that mentality, and yes a healthy dose of vibes and a super strong connection within the team, came to play today. Joselu getting the two goals - admittedly one gifted by a terrible mistake by Neuer. But the other was a brilliant cross in by Rudiger - a guy who has grown in stature as most of the rest of the back line has been a mixed bag week after week. This was Madrid in all their glory.

It isn't done, and this Dortmund team is special and easily could beat Madrid in Wembley in a month. Heck, a similar, magical Dortmund team did just that in 2013 against Madrid. But this time, this Madrid is a stronger team mentally, a stronger team managerially, and a strong group overall because they rise to the moment, time after time after time. There's magic in that locker room.