Culture Shock : Budapest and Prague

I won't spent so much time talking about all the tourist attraction in Budapest or Prague, because first you guys can just Google it and find a lot of information about them.  Second, I wouldn't be able to wrote down good enough description that would do justice to the beauty of these attractions.

Therefore, I would share my observation about how things in Budapest and Prague are different from stuffs in US instead!  So when you visit this two cities, you would have less of a culture shock and ready to pump your fist up in the air.

Water

First. as I have mentioned in my post about Hungarian dishes, soda water is really popular in Europe. In Budapest you can differentiate the soda water from the still water from looking at the color.  Pink for still water and blue for soda water.  However, it is the other way around in Prague.

I also like how bottles in Europe are shaped to fit your grip.  From the small bottle to the large one.  All of them are lean and shaped like an hour glass.

I am not sure why these bottles are made the way it is, but my guess is that American probably choose to focus more on efficiency of production and logistic, while European focuses more on design and packaging.  With the regular cylinder shape, a bottle with the same width and height would be able to hold more water.  It would also be easier to fit in a box.  The downside of course it isn't really convenient to hold and this is especially applicable to the larger bottle.  So the European probably see this problem and come up with the hour glass shaped solution.

Dogs

Second, I saw so many dogs literary everywhere in Budapest and Prague.  From the park, mall, all the way to metro.  What surprised me is that all of them are really well behaved.  Since people says that dog behavior reflects the owner's state of mind, I started to question whether this means Hungarian and Czechs are less stressful than American.

But then after walking thousands of kilometers, I suddenly had a revelation.  I remember a word by Cesar Milan, the dog whisperer.  He said that walking is the most important part of dog training, and European walk everywhere with their dogs!  This is also why soldier and hobos usually have a really good bond with their dogs, because they walk everywhere together.

Elevator

Third, Elevator in both countries are tend to be small in comparison to US.  I didn't came across all the elevator in Budapest and I only based my observation on the elevator in our hotel.  

One thing that I notice in Budapest is that elevator does not have a closing button, so it ran rather slower because we have to wait until the door automatically closed.  Moreover,  it uses "0" for ground floor instead of "G".  In Prague, ground floor is "1" and the underground represented with minus sign hahaha.

Public Transportation

Public Transportation on both cities are pretty good; they both got subways, tram, and buses.  However, Budapest certainly has a stricter regulation in comparison to Prague.  Most of the time when we are trying to get into a subway, there would be one all the way to three people checking whether we have the ticket or not.

Sometimes these people would even went in to the train to check or asked people to show their ticket at the exit.  You certainly do not want to forget to bring your pass in Budapest because one of my friend did and he got charged 8000 ft fine, which approximately equal to $40.

Prague was not as strict, throughout my stay I have seen zero officer standing by to check our ticket.  I would still have to make sure I bring my ticket though, because our tour guide says that the fine used to be around 800 Koruna, but it must has increased.

Street

Apparently people in Central Europe drive on the right-hand side like in US too!  All this time I thought all European drove on the left-hand side like in England and Indonesia.  Well now I know hahaha.

Both in Budapest and Prague, the street sign are not embedded on a pole.  Instead they are all attached to a wall of the first building at the corner.  Some street in Prague would also have street lamp in hanging in the middle instead of standing on the sides.  Which I thought was smart and energy conscious.

I really like the street in Budapest, it was pretty much symmetrical and easy to follow.  It's a little bit different in Prague however.  Street in Prague are a beautiful mosaic made out of little cubic.  But boy, the saying that "behind something beautiful, there has been pain" is certainly applicable to the street in Prague.

I really couldn't handle walking on these mosaic street because it is so uneven that I feel like Hans Christian Andersen's version of little mermaid.  Every step that I took feels like a sharp needle knives is protruding my feet! Also, Prague's street is more dirty than Budapest.  There's a bunch of dog poop trap in Prague, so be careful!!

Even though there are differences between countries, I certainly see more stuffs that are similar.  For example, I see that people everywhere loves ice cream hahahah.  It reminded me of how two humans are about 90% similar in terms of genetic blueprints.  This means whether we came from America or Europe, we are more alike than different.

After Budapest and Prague, I'll be heading off to Germany and Netherlands, so...Until the next adventure you all, vagabond girl is out~

Budapest's Best Restaurants

After three short flights from Detroit to Boston, Boston to Paris, and Paris to Budapest, I am totally ready to dig into the Hungarian culture.  I heard Hungarian uses paprika almost in all of their food, even dessert!!! Oh yes it makes me have food orgasm just to think about it.

I research on restaurants to visits in Budapest, but I also came across to some of the places that I listed on this post by accident.  Most of the time, I would just walk around the city and see a restaurant that full of people and stop by for a taste.

I learned that lots of Hungarian food are pretty similar with Indonesian.  Unlike Western European, Hungarian food full of spices.  Many looks like Rendang but taste different.  Their soup are crazy good and usually contain mushroom in it.  Also, Hungarian takes ice cream seriously.  There are a bunch of ice cream parlors around the city, and each of them would probably have thousands of customer each day.

Another thing that is unique in Europe is that they LOVE soda water.  So, if you don't like it make sure you order "natural water" or "still water".  If you just say water, they most likely would give you the carbonated one.  If you are trying to buy regular water at a convenient store, grab the pink one! Blue stands for soda water here.

Lastly, you need to give 10% tips whenever you eat a a restaurant in Budapest and it is considered rude to leave your money at the table.  So make sure you ask for the bill and wait til the server takes the money.

Now, since you know the basic Hungarian dining etiquette, you are ready to go visits some restaurants...

Gastland Oktogon Bistro 

This is a must go buffet! For only 1190 ft, you can try all sort of Hungarian dishes.  From Hungarian curry vegetable soup, pickled red cabbages, deep fried breaded cauliflower, Hungarian grilled chicken, all the way to some sort of Mongolian style beef.  Oh my lord they have it all!!! They even sell gelato outside for only 99 ft/scoop.  Is this even real??

Cafe Vian 

This is your all European cafe.  It serves some Italian, French, German food too.  But of course since I am in Hungary, I promised myself to eat only Hungarian food.  I didn't eat too much because I was still kinda full from breakfast.  Therefore, I ordered frozen smoothie with banana for 890 Ft and Hungarian mushroom soup for 850 Ft. The menu on the website says 790 Ft for the soup, I guess they have increased the price but haven't really update the website.

My friend Kaiser ordered a Chicken Vian Style, which basically is a ratatouille plus some kind of hash brown.  However, I need to make a note on this because the hash brown was sooooooooo good!  It's so different from what we have in the US.  It is well seasoned and had some onion in it.

I really like Cafe Vian because not only they provide perfect food at a reasonable price, but the servers were really friendly too.

Első Pesti Rétesház Kávéház

I went to this wonderful restaurant for a welcoming dinner of our study abroad program. We went there with our professor and our fabulous tour guide. All cost was included in our program fee and all of the food was pre-ordered. So I have to take a look at the menu online and try to figure out what I ate at the dinner.

We all get to try the Chicken Soup "Ujházi" Style which apparently cost 1.490 Ft. Then we have Filet Mignon of Pork with "Letscho" Potato Hungarian Style for 3.990 Ft. So yes, this restaurant is fancy and expensive. But you'll get strudel making show in additional to the lovely food that you get to eat.

Moreover, this restaurant is also known as the "Strudel House" because on top of the shows, they allow you to try to make some strudels. They said that Hungarian need to know how to make strudel, otherwise they would never get married hahhha. Of course I would volunteer for this opportunity!

So apparently I would end up as a Nun, cuz we failed so bad, but the pastry chef was being really nice and keep on praising our terrible job hahahah. Then, after we are done with our meal, we even get to try the strudel that the pastry chef made during the show. We got the Almás (Appel) strudel and potato cottage cheese strudel. It wasn't as sweet as American dessert, but still good.

The restaurant also have gorgeous decoration. Even the restroom was decorated with transparent sink that allows you to see through things below, so vintage and interesting. Definitely would recommend tourist to visit!

Kovari Grill

I found this in a Bread and Cheese festival on May 10.  I shared the meal with my friends Grace and Shuo.  We didn't know what's the name of the food that we ordered, we just point and the server would scoop up the meats and put it on top of a pita bread.

Unfortunately I took a bad picture and only show one of the meat that we chose, which looks a lot like Rendang.  It taste different though, it wasn't as spicy and I don't think they use coconut milk to make the sauce.  On the other side of the plate there was suppose to be a chicken dish with tons of paprika and onion.  It was salty but wasn't quite like any other dish that I have tasted before.  It was pretty expensive though, the whole thing cost us 3750 Ft.

Belvarosi Lugas

I definitely never thought that Eggplant and cheese would go together so well! It just reminded me of the royal wedding, because the combination was so perfect! The eggplant was stewed with some tomatoes, and it wasn't overcook. The skin was soft but the inside is light and fluffy. Then they put the cheese on top of the stew and probably baked it for a little bit, so the side of the cheese are slightly turning brown. The eggplant stew doesn't really have a strong flavor on its own, but the cheese gives enough saltiness to the complete dish.

Chivas

I was just looking at something on the menu that sounds unique and doesn't cost that much, and decided to go with the chicken yogurt with grilled peach. It was indeed unique in a good way. The chicken was seasoned and grilled to perfection. and the peach was sweet and refreshing. It kinda take the same role as pineapple on Hawaiian pizza. The only thing that I was kinda disappointing is the fact that I could not really taste the yogurt at all.

Menza

Hungarian cabbage and minced meat was the special main dish of the day and it cost only 1290 Ft, so without a second thought I ordered it.  It came in Hungarian size (read: BIG).  It doesn't look fancy at all, but absolutely taste good.  The cabbage are stewed until it doesn't have any form and mixed with some potatoes and orange sauce.  The meat taste like meatloaf in general.

Look at me getting really excited to be in the picture.  I almost dropped the food, but as you can see my friend luckily stopped me from doing so.

Overall,  the dish was not surprising and pretty bland.  It is probably my least favorite out of what I have had in Hungary.  However, my friends ordered other stuff and I tried a little bit of everything, and it was good.

On top of that, I really like Menza because they have a retro and earthly theme that's just awesome.  The walls were painted in warm orange and and decorated with flowery wall paper.  Super cute!! a really nice place for family, friends, or even for a date.

Zeller Bistro

You need to make a reservation way ahead if you would like to go to Zeller.  We were so surprised that we got in when we made the reservation only two days ahead.  Usually people would make reservation two weeks ahead.  Zeller do not have an online menu or website because they changes the menu every now and then to fit the ingredients available during the time.  Zeller is located in a rather shady place, but this is THE BEST restaurant in Budapest that I have been to.

To start with, they gives us welcoming champagne with 2% alcohol and it was delicious!!!

Then after we put in our order, they brought a basket of never ending bread (which is uncommon in Hungary).  On the side they also brought some really good olive oil, balsamic vinegar, chili pepper, and salt.  I don't know what it is, but the olive oil is different from what I have had in the past.  Zeller's olive oil almost had a little bit garlic taste in it.

Afterwards, come the appetizer.  My friend Grace ordered a Goose liver and Helen ordered small fish appetizer.  I had a bite on both dishes and I could swear the heaven split open and the angels sang Gloria as when Jesus was born.  Both dishes was really good, the goose liver was so soft you could break it with a light touch.  My friend Kenny trying to safe up some money, but immediately order another goose liver once he tried one.  It was that good!

Once we finished the appetizer, here come the main dish.  I ordered a paprika chicken for 2200 Ft.  Really affordable considering they gave us free champagne and bread.  The chicken was really good too, I never had a chicken breast that is cooked to perfection like this.  It was really moist and chewy but cooked, I really don't know how they do it.

We were really happy with the service and the food, so we were ready to pay for our meal and leave a huge tip.  Just when we receive the check, we had another surprise.  They even gave us poppy seeds cupcakes with cream cheese on top and some Hungarian candy.  Oh come on!!!! Now I wish I had more Hungarian Forint.

Unfortunately I had exchange every Forint that I had before I went to the restaurant, leaving enough money to give only 10% tips.  Otherwise I would give 20% or even 50%.  Zeller really gave me the Disney happy ending in Budapest.

I would have a separate post on Hungarian snacks and dessert, please look forward to it.

Until the next adventure you all, Vagabond girl is out~

Slovakia

Slovakia, a small country with a big personality.  Today I had a day trip to Slovakia, which used to be part of Czechoslovakia until the end of 1992.  It took us about 2.5 hours of driving from Budapest to Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia.

We had a city tour and I learned a bunch of interesting stuff from our tour guide.  For example, look at this little naked dude.  It was randomly located on one of the building to remember the coronation of a king.  Legend says that one day a dude was taking a bath, and he started to hear the music that accompany the coronation.  He didn't want to missed the chance to see the king, so he just ran to the closest window that faces the street fully naked.  Unfortunately, a sculptor saw him and uses him as the inspiration.  It was so random that it is preserved throughout the centuries.

Then, there's also this fountain that represent Slovakian's love to alcohol.  Wine used to run out of the lion's mouth.  But of course when you provide free wine to the citizens, they would all be drunkards and do lots of stupid things.  So the government decided to stop the wine all together.  Now, this fountain only produces water.

In the middle of the town, there's also a large fountain where the water came out of a fish held by little boys.  However, it wasn't initially designed that way.  The water used to come out of the little boy's peewee, and back then the ladies have to act all shy and proper.  Every time they pass the street, ladies must cover their eyes.  Which causes a major distraction, since the fountain is basically in the center of the city.  Therefore it was reconstructed to make everyone's life easier.

And just right in front of the fountain, take a look at this building.  You probably didn't notice it right away, but if you look closely to the left side of the lowest window, there is a little black thing.  This is actually a canon ball that's left behind by the owner of the building to remember Napoleon's era.  However, just like any human would do, many Slovakian start to see this as an opportunity to get money from the government.  They started to put in a fake cannon ball on their wall.  So, I don't know whether this one is real or fake.

 

Another thing that caught my attention is Cumil "the watcher" which is Bratislava's version of John Harvard statue.  Slovakia has a really cute sense of humor, just when I thought that this guy was someone important, the tour guide told me that this guy is just peeping on women's skirt. Hahahaha, so clever and quirky.

The difference between Cumil and John Harvard is that people would touch the top of his head for good luck instead of his shoes.  Cumil, almost lost his head twice from careless driver.  So he end up getting his own "man at work" traffic sign ahahah.

After walking around for one hour in a light shower, me and some of my friends decided to just go straight to the restaurant where we were supposed to have our group lunch. The rain was starting to pour a little bit harder before we reached Flagship.  The restaurant doesn't look fancy at all from the outside, but the interior design was fabulous.  

We were getting three course meal and we couldn't choose what we want. First, we got a Slovakian sauerkraut soup with some beef.  It seems like it was made with a bunch of chili oil, but you could barely taste the spice, probably because the sourness from the sauerkraut was somewhat overwhelming.

Second, we got this Slovakian version of mac & cheese.  However, I think they uses gnocchi and goat cheese instead of macaroni and cheddar cheese.  I guess if you are a fan of sour and bold cheese, you would love the dish.  I wasn't a big fan, but I do like the pork skin at the top though.

Lastly, we had a Slovakian crepes, which is filled with some other cheese which finally kinda sweet.  It also have some raisins inside.  Even though it wasn't the best crepe I ever had, I still like it.

and this crepe ended my adventure in Bratislava.  I learned from Slovakia that you are as big as your heart will let you be!  No matter how the world sees you, you can always make a difference and have fun by being yourself.

On the side note, please look forward for my post on Budapest!! I have start writing on it since my first day in Hungary, but I want to wait 'til I leave the country to complete the post.

Until the next adventure you all, Vagabond girl is out~

The Ultimate Survival Kit for Travelling

I have really thin skin that I caught on cold easily.  So whenever I travel I would make sure I have enough nutrition and enough clothing.  I would eat hearty breakfast so I have enough energy.  Today I had a vegetable sub from Jimmy John #freakyfast.

I would also make sure to drink plenty of water.  The downfall of this is that you will need to go to restroom a lot!! And it's inconvenient to do so when you travel.  Therefore, whenever I took a plane, I always requested to sit on the aisle seat so I won't need to step on other passenger.  If I am travelling on car, I would utilize the rest area as much as possible hahaha.

But this post is about survival kit, hence I'm gonna introduce you to the stuffs that I always bring to keep me safe and warm.

First is Emergen-C.  This miraculous small packages of 1000mg vitamin C taste heavenly.  It provides the amount of Vitamin C that you need for a day to improve your immune system.  Moreover, Vitamin C would also make your skin supple and glowing, which is hard to achieve due to lack of sleep from travelling. Since most people would not have access to fresh products when travelling, Emergen-C offers convenience.  You just need to open the package, mix it to your water, drink,  and you'll turn into a super hero.

Second is "Tolak Angin", which literary means "Resist the wind" hahaha.  Indonesian believe that cold is caused by trapped wind in the blood systems.  That's why the traditional cure is to draw coin coated with balsam across the shoulder, neck, and back.  This supposedly would increase the blood flow near the skin's surface and release the wind.  Sounds silly, but this is the best cure for cold!  I am healed immediately every time hahaha.

Anyway, tolak angin is a traditional potion made out of honey, ginger, mint, and some other herbs.  You can just drink right out of the sachet or mix em with water.  It would warm up your stomach and heals sore throat. I love the children mix more than this one because they put more honey, so it is sweeter and less strong, but this one works better..

Third is "Minyak Angin" which translated to "Wind oil".  Since balsam smells like your grandma, I usually use minyak angin instead.  It is now come in different fragrance like green tea, lavender, lemon, cherry, and so on.  I love the mint green tea one, it is relaxing~

Last but not least is "Norit".  Even though this thing looks kinda like rabbit poo, but I kid you not it actually taste pretty good.  Norit is made out of coal, it supposedly absorb poison and cure diarrhea, indigestion, and food poisoning.  Some people usually drink the tablets, but I just like to chew on em.  If you like eating the burn side of your marshmallow or steak, you would probably like Norit.  Warning, the next day your poop would be black, but you will be healed in no time!!

If you live in Asia, you could probably find these items easily in your local market.  Unfortunately, this things only available in the larger state in US like California or New York.  That's why I always stock up or ask my friends to buy me some when they go back to Indonesia lol.

Cuz no matter what, your trip can only be fun when your body is at a good condition.  Just like they say, you wanna keep healthy and carry on ...

Until the next adventure you all, Vagabond girl is out~