Central Europe in December

The final two trips of my 13-city, 9-country tour that I like to pretend was my last semester of law school were to Budapest and Krakow. I've decided to combine these into one post as they were fairly short trips (especially Krakow), they were both in generally the same part of the world and frankly, I've run out of time to write.

The best part of both trips, in my opinion was the food. This is apparently the best part of every trip for me. But the food was of the Christmas Market variety, which is truly the best in the world:

Budapest Christmas Market

Krakow Christmas Market

Sausage and pork knuckle stand in Krakow. Central Europeans love their meat and for that I love central Europeans.

Rooster testicle stew in Budapest was one of the few delicacies I didn't sample. And not because I wouldn't have. We were all planning to come back for lunch on our last day but made the sad realization that it's hard to eat a massive egg and strudel breakfast at 11 and be hungry for a vat of rooster testicles by 1.

Polish Pierogi! The plural of pierogi is apparently pierogi, not pierogies. Elly taught me that. I will look smart and cultured to Polish people from now on.

Description of this amazing foccacia with garlic, sour cream and ham all over it in Budapest

What I thought was some kind of pastry being slowly roasted over an open fire

It turned out to be smoked cheese. Pure, delicious smoked cheese. Best discovery of my life.

While the food was hearty and amazing, the drinks were pretty phenomenal as well. Europeans know how to do hot liquor much better than Canadians:

Hot wine is best out of ceramic mugs, especially when you can buy the mug (filled with hot wine) as a keepsake for under 3.50 Euro

Sarah getting her mull on one last time in Budapest. Note the festive mugs. I bought one not knowing cooler ones were to come in Krakow (above)

Hot beer, just to switch it up. This one was flavoured with cherry vodka, but still tasted too much like beer for my liking. It was a hit with all the ale fans, though.

One major disadvantage to Central Europe in the winter, which we didn't think of when we booked our tickets from sunny Holland in September, was of course the cold. Thankfully, we managed to find ways to overcome this in both cities. The mulled wine and hearty food went a long way, but after a couple of hours in freezing temperatures we had to get more creative. In Budapest, we hit the bathhouses. Cameras weren't, for obvious reasons, allowed inside, but the two we went to were the Gellert and the Szechenyi baths, both of which I would recommend highly.

The outdoor pools at Szchenyi. Even more fun in -15 in a bikini. There was some kind of "lazy river" mechanism in the centre that sent people swirling around the centre tub in a circle and was the highlight of my trip. Perhaps my whole time in Europe.

The women-only baths at Gellert

The main baths at Gellert

In Krakow we didn't have the luxury of spas, or at least didn't have the luxury of time to look for spas, so we adopted the simpler temperature-fighting solution of buying furry hats from one of the Christmas Market's many furry hat vendors.

As for the actual sights in both cities, there was an abundance of beauty, like everywhere in Europe it seems.

Roof of a church in Budapest that I should know the name of (the main one?). The entire place was absolutely stunning, I couldn't stop taking pictures. Even though I don't think you're supposed to in churches.

Something else beautiful in Budapest I don't know the name of. I suck.

Inside the Opera House in Budapest. It was opulent.

Krakow's main square, our hostel was about a block away from this and all its Christmassy glory.

The pictures don't do either place justice, they were both stunning. I definitely want to return to both cities in the summer one of these years. I think they would both be fantastic and they both seem like great cities to just spend hours wandering and getting lost in, which isn't so much fun in negative temperatures with only shoddy, H&M boots between your feet and frostbite.

I especially need to get back to Krakow, as our flight in was delayed and so we missed our connecting flight on the first night. While this meant a free night at a nice hotel near the Prague airport along with liquor money and breakfast buffet, it did mean missing an entire half-day in the city. On our only fully day Sarah and I went to Auschwitz which took about 6 hours, meaning we only had two evenings and one rainy morning in the city itself.

Basically, the result of all my travels has been to swear to myself to return to almost every city I've visited, as well as add dozens of other destinations to my list of places I need to see before I die and preferably while I'm young. First thing I'm doing on my return to Vancouver is buying a lottery ticket, otherwise I don't think any of this is feasible. Seriously though I've been lucky enough to have travelled to Europe twice before this (once for vacation and once to live for 4 months) and I consider myself extremely blessed for having been able to do that. I just wish I knew when I was coming back.

I'm hoping to get one more wrap-up post written before I leave Saturday morning and then it's back to Vancouver (YAY!) and the slow realization that I have absolutely no money left in the world and that all my friends are now legitimate working adults. Hmmm....

Thanks for reading so far!