Day 7

With a rare night comes a rare morning…we ate breakfast at 9:30 today. Since we loved Trattoria Mamma so much the night before we decided to eat there one more time for lunch. Almost all of us had something with the Wild Boar Sausage which was such a hit last time. It did not disappoint. One of the 2 MUST DOs in Budapest is apparently taking in a Hungarian Bath House so we figured we would be remiss in not following suit (get it, bathing suit?). Okay, bad puns aside, it was a fun experience with lots of overweight locals and foreigners crammed into speedos to look at. From there we made a short journey to a Photography Exhibit that was showing at the Hungarian Museum. I enjoyed it quite thoroughly as it documented very well how photography has grown in the realms of composition, subject matter, the human body, the human spirit and war. Probably the best thing I saw all trip personally. Then it was time to head back as our altered Budapest card's hours were finally running out and we needed to get to the Farewell Dinner. As I write it is now 2:11 am and we just finished up at the bar downstairs (the bloody marys are phenomenal! and also over $10 each!) Our bags need to be out in front of our room in 3 hours and 20 minutes and we leave the hotel at 6:25am, eck@! I can't believe it's been a week already, as usual, but I had a great time. I was thinking early on in the trip that even if this place sucked, I am still glad I get to spend one whole week with my brother, free of any interruptions and requirements of his time. We both agreed that this is the single longest time we have ever spent together in one span and I LOVED IT and will never forget it!! See you all stateside.

Love,
The Brothers Andersen and The Brothers Muller

Day 6

We’re quite an efficient team at this point. 10:50) Walk in to Peppers 10:51) Find table, go straight to Omelette Bar and place order. 10:53) Grab fruit and other breakfast staples like hashbrowns, sausage, bacon and ham. (Their cuts of ham by the way are very Doran-worthy) 10:55) Stop to pick-up omelette 10:56) Place on table to cool and go straight to the baguettes for lunch prep. 10:57) Make meat(s) and condiment choice 10:59) Grab some juice and maybe a pastry 11:00) Refill juice one last time before they take it away 11:05) Use placemat to neatly wrap sandwiches (Peppers logo on the outside)

Chad Muller was the tour leader today. He had studied all night to get the most logical path laid out. It was raining rather hard and there were no umbrellas at the front desk because the Jones side trip took them all, leaving us to take a cab to the Hungarian National Gallery. When we arrived, Brian realized he forgot his Budapest Card. This is a special card that is good for either 48 or 72 hours for free transportation in the city and gets you anywhere from a 10% to 100% discount at many sights around town. Our 2nd stop, The Labyrinth of Caves (secret caves they had dug underneath Castle Hill) made the day a liitle more interesting. We stopped at a little place called Café Miro for some coffee and Coke Light to take in the sights afterwards. Lastly, we re-toured Matthias Church which we missed on our City Bus Tour because Doug HAD to get a perfect photo and we got left behind by the group who was paying for the admission. Eh, it was a typical church and I was happy it was free with our Budapest Card (Brian didn’t go in). We looked around for a bookstore Chad wanted to visit but couldn’t find it and decided to head back and get ready for dinner.

At the Maritz Travel Desk they have a board where the previous Jones groups would suggest good restaurants and things. We decided to take this advice and eat at the 7 star Greek restaurant Tavernus Pireus. For all we know, and apparently this is true, some slack-jawed yokels from the deep south could’ve given this rating. Only that would explain this Greek cuisine that is easily beaten by any local Dino’s Greek Fast-Food Restaurant back home. Chad had the only good pick and the rest of us suffered. It would be the catalyst for the night to end early as neither Doug nor I ever felt energized enough for a night on the town after the Jones Ice Cream Social. Brian bravely decided to go it alone and headed out, but not before (much like a dog crapping on it’s owners bed when they are away for too long) taking a whole glass full of almonds from the bar and dumping them in front of our door. Housekeeping did not look thrilled. It was the first night we went to bed before midnight.

5th Day

On Tuesday we awoke at our usual time, 10:50, and hustled down to the prestigious Peppers Restaurant for our breakfast and lunch gathering. Several of the Jones folk have been watching us do the "lunch" thing and have started to follow suit. They were walking by our table and telling Doug how genius it was. We decided to get some more sight seeing done and headed down the main drag, Andrassy Blvd. First stop was the Museum of Terror, which displays a lot of videos, items and all sorts of information about the commmunist Party's time in Hungary and the atrocities they committed. It was a massive amount of information that was artfully presented and made a definite impact. However, a museum about war crimes and murder isn't exactly what we needed after the lengthy night about the night before. We were all very sleepy and as we headed towards our next sight, we went for some food and a Coke Light instead. This really only made us more tired and we resigned ourselves to getting a much needed nap. We had some appetizers at Peppers and at the Jones cocktail hour and that became our dinner because we had to go to the Lenny Kravitz show. The show was awesome, he is a truly entertaining artist. We had bought seats in the corner of the 1st level but when he went on all the fans ran down and the guards couldn't stop them so we just followed suit. We ended up right in the middle of the stage about 15 rows back with a great view! Afterwards we found out that the subway stops at 11 or so and it was 11:30, so we hopped a bus and some locals showed us the way to our connecting stop. When we got there, we found that it would be another 55 minute wait for the next bus...so we started walking. Everyone was hungry in Hungary (a running joke of course) so we made our first stop of the trip at McDonalds. Doug ate the most of all of us and I'm still amazed HE was the one of us to do it. We finished the hour and 15 min. walk back to our hotel and crashed, ears ringing from the rock we endured.

4th day

After our business meeting, we headed into town to learn how to ride the subway system. We found our way to the stadium where we bought tickets to see Lenny Kravitz play on Tuesday night. For lunch we enjoyed the ultimate european treat...ham/turkey & swiss/provolone cheese in a fresh baguette and a Coke Light. We returned to the hotel around 3:30 and got ready for the theme evening at Lazar Equestrian Park. A 1/2 hour bus transfer took us into the countryside where we found horse stables and a farm with all kinds of animals ranging from miniature horses, dogs, pigs, bunnies and everything in between. They put on a riding show and you can see from the pictures, it was pretty interesting. The dinner to follow was fantastic. At our table were the 4 brothers, Del & Marilyn Peterson, Gary Peart (Baja buddy) and his daughter Abby and Blake & Michele Bergeron (1st trippers). We had Goulash (of course), and the rest of the meal "Hungarian Wooden Plate with Barbecue dishes and mixed Vegetables" (roasted Chicken breast, roasted Duck leg, Chick breast Kiev style) was served family style. We enjoyed the "original" Budweiser beer, Amstel and red & white wine. As it was my birthday evening, the boys lines up a birthday "surprise", a special cake (with everyone in the place signing "Happy Birthday") and a solo dance with one of the young dancing girls that was accompanying the Hungarian band. I did break out a few of my Riverdance moves, and thankfully, I stayed on my feet. We enjoyed a few roadies on the bus ride back to the hotel. A group of about 15 of us decided to make a run down to the old John Bull Pub for a pint and stayed until last call. What a fun night...

2nd Day

We woke up at 10:30 and made a run to catch the bountiful buffet breakfast which ended at 11am. All of us, except Brian, made a few baguette's for the road (he made fun of us for making them, but regretted it later when he had a snicker bar and a banana shake for lunch). We walked the city for a bit, then made it back to the hotel for the group city tour. The 3 hour bus ride took us to all of the major sites on both sides of the river. At 8pm we went to St. Stephen's Basilica to watch the Solti Symphony Orchestra along with the Cantilena Chamber Choir play Mozart's Requiem in D minor k 626. Muller (Brian) only fell asleep 3 times. It was a memorable performance (at least the 1st 1 or 2 movements). After the performance, we strolled down the street to an italian restaurante called Trattoria Mamma, where we had the best meal of our trip so far and a top 5 italian meal for many of us (Wild Boar Rigatoni, lasagna, penne bolognese, veal medallions, fresh bread and a shot of pomegranate schnapps to finish). Our last stop was at the John Bull Pub for a pint of cider on the walk home. We turned in early, due to the Jones business meeting the next morning.

Nightlife

After the Jones dinner, Muller (Brian) decided to take us on a 5 mile death march/pub crawl to find an outdoor dance club called "RIO". After a few pints and many miles we found the club just after midnight. Another Jones FA from MN joined us and we enjoyed the scene, watching Dave & Brian break out their moves. We took a taxi back to the hotel around 3am, and regrettably decided to make a food run near the hotel. The only place open was a convenience store called Non-Stop, which only had candy bars/chips, etc., which we made due with.

1st day in Budapest

On Saturday, after a short nap, we walked the city to get our bearings. We are staying on the "Pest" side of the Danube...flat and newer than the "Buda" side of the city which is hilly and has much older buildings. We enjoyed the Jones welcome dinner and had a few beers on the hotel patio where we watched the sunset over the Danube.