Budapest
It still hurts me that for the first time in my life I tried to update directly into LJ without saving it on a word document and everything got lost because of LJ maintenance. Ugh. Anyway, here’s the
It was at five in the morning when I went down to the car dragging four small bags for my trip to Hungary with Ateh because I was too lazy to go down to the cellar to pick up my 10 kilo suitcase. Not a good idea. I wouldn’t have done that if we were flying. I picked ateh up from his flat and we flew to Hungary from 6am to 1130am, a record of five and half hours with only one thirty minute stop for toast at a Mc Donald’s 150 kms away from Prague.It's approximately 400kms to Hungary, and we had to make it there preferably before 1230, because he still has to change into a suit before his work day starts. Work day for him, absolute pipi day for me. The Four Seasons in Hungary is a lot more breathtaking than the one in Prague. It is a renovated palace which the Hotel chain has bought from the city of Budapest, the Gresham Palace. After lunch, I went straight to the spa and exfoliated my dead cells to kingdom come, it was uh-mazing. I was on a short holiday, kaya walang guilt trip. Even if it was pricey and even if it took an hour and a half which I usually don’t have because I would always rather be doing something else. Ang boba ko, kung pwede lang matunaw sa lilim ng aromatherapy at zen music araw araw gagawin ko. I went swimming and did what felt like a hundred or so laps intermittently going to the steam room. In total, I was in the spa for five hours, hindi naman ako hayok at gutom sa pahinga. Slight lang. I even took Lauren Weisberger’s book (the Devil Wears Prada) to the sauna and didn’t realize that I have been there for half an hour. Muntik na kong himatayin. By the time I was in the 17th chapter, I already felt like dragging Miranda Priestly by the neck with her Hermes scarf out of the Elias-Clark building, as in feel na feel ko. Epekto pala ng init yun. Hehe. At 6 I went up to the room, took a nap until ateh came. We decided to have room service instead and ended up with orrechiette arabiata with fried prawns, antipasto (the usual olives, prosciutto, cheese), carbonara, at diet coke. After which I slept (how can relaxing be so tiring?) while the TV droned and ate watched White Chicks (as in one of the dumbasstarded Wayans brothers movies). At kahit na anong hagikgik niya, hindi ako nagising. (although I managed to laugh with him with the blond socialite twins’ - “oh my god, you said it --- but you were thinkin’ it” --- kainis. =))
On Friday, the next day, I slept away half of the day and met him at the lounge to go for a Whopper lunch, tama yun, after the previous day’s cleansing, maligo naman sa mantika. =)) He left me there at the shopping street which was not a very good idea. Dahil kahit na makunat ako may kahinaan pa rin ako. After watching this street performer play ‘Jailhouse Rock' with wine glasses with water, I went straight to the shops and bought myself two rings and a loud necklace, a hat and a scarf. I swore to myself that I will only shop after Christmas when every store has a sale, but the flesh is weak and the mind is scrawnier. I took some photos and ended the day with a cappuccino in one of the local coffee places while watching the tourists and three boys play football (as in 3-7 year old boys, maternal instincts ito, hindi perversion, hahaha defensive). In the evening Ateh and I went for this local place where they served traditional Hungarian cuisine. We shared goose cracklings for starters, he had foie gras with lechos and I had veal cutlet in mushroom sauce with mashed potatoes. We walked around St Stephen’s church and started talking about how it would have been if he had accepted the offer to move to Budapest. I mean, Budapest is a bigger city than Prague, pero duy, Friday night walang tao sa square. Kakabuang. I guess Prague makes you less lonely because its cozy, o siguro hindi lang naming kabisado yung city.
On Saturday I went for my traditional speed tourism, I took a bus tour around the city for the whole day and learned about Budapest. Hungary impressed me a lot. I mean no doubt, it IS grand and I bet it looked even more magnificent during the reign of the Austro Hungarian empire. In continental Europe it was the first city to have a subway line (second to England in the whole Europe), there were beautiful old palaces and buildings all over the city and they had a kick ass art noveau building for a market place where you can buy virtually anything but especially goose liver pâté and their version of our lechong kawali. Hahaha aliw. The parliament is immensely ostentatious and for me only rivaled by the Heroes' square where they had the representative statues of the seven Hungarian tribes, this square has two museums on each side, one even had an exhibition of Caravaggio’s and Rembrandt’s work, kaya lang punyeta wala na kong oras dahil pa-spa-spa pa ko. We went from the Pest side where the Gresham Palace and St Stephen’s are and then moved to the Buda side. Buda is a word derived from the Slavic version ‘voda’ which means water, most of the famous hot spring baths are found in this area. I wonder what happened to Hungary, parang tayo sa Pilipinas. We were the tiger of Asia in 70’s, first underpass in the south east Asian region. Sa Quiapo yun, tingnan na lang natin ang Quiapo ngayon, medyo bumagsak, medyo lang. Sayang talaga. Now with the riots in Hungary calling for the resignation of their Prime Minister who lied to them about his platform and then admitting it, it just gives them a harder time to go forward. All the buildings shout of an old majestic air, but most of them are not maintained well. Sayang talaga. Pero ganun talaga siguro.
On the third night we fine-dined a bit - hindi ko alam kung bakit nire-record ko lahat ng pagkain, malamang gutom pa ko - pero isagad na natin - I had a seafood soup and he had the seafood risotto, at para hindi masyadong malansa ang gabi I had the lamb and cream potatoes and he had the wild boar chop.
I had a great time in Hungary even if I had to drive 12 hours there and back, on Sunday it was my turn to work because we were sponsoring this advertising and retail forum the next day I had to have a meeting at noon with the organizers to ensure a no boo boo day. So I drove at five in angry weather back to Prague already thinking about work - how pathetic is that? Now I think I am in need of another short vacation, and having had a great time there which was a pleasant surprise makes me long more for another one.
It was at five in the morning when I went down to the car dragging four small bags for my trip to Hungary with Ateh because I was too lazy to go down to the cellar to pick up my 10 kilo suitcase. Not a good idea. I wouldn’t have done that if we were flying. I picked ateh up from his flat and we flew to Hungary from 6am to 1130am, a record of five and half hours with only one thirty minute stop for toast at a Mc Donald’s 150 kms away from Prague.It's approximately 400kms to Hungary, and we had to make it there preferably before 1230, because he still has to change into a suit before his work day starts. Work day for him, absolute pipi day for me. The Four Seasons in Hungary is a lot more breathtaking than the one in Prague. It is a renovated palace which the Hotel chain has bought from the city of Budapest, the Gresham Palace. After lunch, I went straight to the spa and exfoliated my dead cells to kingdom come, it was uh-mazing. I was on a short holiday, kaya walang guilt trip. Even if it was pricey and even if it took an hour and a half which I usually don’t have because I would always rather be doing something else. Ang boba ko, kung pwede lang matunaw sa lilim ng aromatherapy at zen music araw araw gagawin ko. I went swimming and did what felt like a hundred or so laps intermittently going to the steam room. In total, I was in the spa for five hours, hindi naman ako hayok at gutom sa pahinga. Slight lang. I even took Lauren Weisberger’s book (the Devil Wears Prada) to the sauna and didn’t realize that I have been there for half an hour. Muntik na kong himatayin. By the time I was in the 17th chapter, I already felt like dragging Miranda Priestly by the neck with her Hermes scarf out of the Elias-Clark building, as in feel na feel ko. Epekto pala ng init yun. Hehe. At 6 I went up to the room, took a nap until ateh came. We decided to have room service instead and ended up with orrechiette arabiata with fried prawns, antipasto (the usual olives, prosciutto, cheese), carbonara, at diet coke. After which I slept (how can relaxing be so tiring?) while the TV droned and ate watched White Chicks (as in one of the dumbasstarded Wayans brothers movies). At kahit na anong hagikgik niya, hindi ako nagising. (although I managed to laugh with him with the blond socialite twins’ - “oh my god, you said it --- but you were thinkin’ it” --- kainis. =))
On Friday, the next day, I slept away half of the day and met him at the lounge to go for a Whopper lunch, tama yun, after the previous day’s cleansing, maligo naman sa mantika. =)) He left me there at the shopping street which was not a very good idea. Dahil kahit na makunat ako may kahinaan pa rin ako. After watching this street performer play ‘Jailhouse Rock' with wine glasses with water, I went straight to the shops and bought myself two rings and a loud necklace, a hat and a scarf. I swore to myself that I will only shop after Christmas when every store has a sale, but the flesh is weak and the mind is scrawnier. I took some photos and ended the day with a cappuccino in one of the local coffee places while watching the tourists and three boys play football (as in 3-7 year old boys, maternal instincts ito, hindi perversion, hahaha defensive). In the evening Ateh and I went for this local place where they served traditional Hungarian cuisine. We shared goose cracklings for starters, he had foie gras with lechos and I had veal cutlet in mushroom sauce with mashed potatoes. We walked around St Stephen’s church and started talking about how it would have been if he had accepted the offer to move to Budapest. I mean, Budapest is a bigger city than Prague, pero duy, Friday night walang tao sa square. Kakabuang. I guess Prague makes you less lonely because its cozy, o siguro hindi lang naming kabisado yung city.
On Saturday I went for my traditional speed tourism, I took a bus tour around the city for the whole day and learned about Budapest. Hungary impressed me a lot. I mean no doubt, it IS grand and I bet it looked even more magnificent during the reign of the Austro Hungarian empire. In continental Europe it was the first city to have a subway line (second to England in the whole Europe), there were beautiful old palaces and buildings all over the city and they had a kick ass art noveau building for a market place where you can buy virtually anything but especially goose liver pâté and their version of our lechong kawali. Hahaha aliw. The parliament is immensely ostentatious and for me only rivaled by the Heroes' square where they had the representative statues of the seven Hungarian tribes, this square has two museums on each side, one even had an exhibition of Caravaggio’s and Rembrandt’s work, kaya lang punyeta wala na kong oras dahil pa-spa-spa pa ko. We went from the Pest side where the Gresham Palace and St Stephen’s are and then moved to the Buda side. Buda is a word derived from the Slavic version ‘voda’ which means water, most of the famous hot spring baths are found in this area. I wonder what happened to Hungary, parang tayo sa Pilipinas. We were the tiger of Asia in 70’s, first underpass in the south east Asian region. Sa Quiapo yun, tingnan na lang natin ang Quiapo ngayon, medyo bumagsak, medyo lang. Sayang talaga. Now with the riots in Hungary calling for the resignation of their Prime Minister who lied to them about his platform and then admitting it, it just gives them a harder time to go forward. All the buildings shout of an old majestic air, but most of them are not maintained well. Sayang talaga. Pero ganun talaga siguro.
On the third night we fine-dined a bit - hindi ko alam kung bakit nire-record ko lahat ng pagkain, malamang gutom pa ko - pero isagad na natin - I had a seafood soup and he had the seafood risotto, at para hindi masyadong malansa ang gabi I had the lamb and cream potatoes and he had the wild boar chop.
I had a great time in Hungary even if I had to drive 12 hours there and back, on Sunday it was my turn to work because we were sponsoring this advertising and retail forum the next day I had to have a meeting at noon with the organizers to ensure a no boo boo day. So I drove at five in angry weather back to Prague already thinking about work - how pathetic is that? Now I think I am in need of another short vacation, and having had a great time there which was a pleasant surprise makes me long more for another one.