On Saturday February 28th we walked from St. Stephen’s Basilica to the Jewish District looking for Mazel Tov. We had reservations for a meal at 4:30 but we wanted to see if they would slip us in at 1:30 instead since our dinner reservations at Retek Restaurant were for 7:30 on Saturday instead of Friday. (Did you follow that?)

The area had a lot of interesting murals.

We arrived tired and thirsty from our 1.6 k walk in the sunshine. They graciously changed our reservation and we joined the crowd of diners for our meal. We met someone from Costa Mesa, California who is studying abroad. That was fun.

 

Our meals were both delicious. Greg ordered the DIY Falafel Sandwich and I ordered the spicy lamb shank ragout, couscous with root vegetables, raisins and red onion chutney.

We had another long walk (1.6k) ahead of us to get back to our hotel. We were entertained by interesting buildings on the way.

Our dinner reservations at Retek would be a 1 k walk so we opted for a taxi ride to the restaurant and then we’d walk back to the hotel after dinner.

We went traditional at this very popular restaurant.

Hungarian Beef Goulash with the fresh bread.

Chicken Paprikash

Cottage Cheese Dumpling and Grandmother’s apple pie for dessert.

A delightful all around experience. This was all my kind of comfort food.

This statue was the beginning of history we would learn all through our cruise about the Habsburg empire.

The year 1795 saw Archduke Josef, son of Emperor Leopold II and brother of Emperor Franz, being appointed Palatine of Hungary, a post he held for more than half a century. As such he was the deputy of the King of Hungary – who was of course none other than the Emperor in his capacity as the head of the house of Habsburg. 

The streets we walked at night in Budapest seemed safe.

I’m saving St. Stephen’s Basilica which we visited on this two restaurant day for another post.