Travelfood

The Hungarian plains, the Pusta, is hot in summer and extremely cold in winter. The temperature changes are less dramatic by Lake Balaton and the Danube. Most Hungarian visitors unfortunately stay in the capital Budapest only although there is much else to see in the other parts of the country as well. For example Pecs is a beautiful town with baroque-style buildings. I have had the golden opportunity to stay on the Hungarian countryside, relaxing and enjoying farm life and sun in the small picturesque town of Geresdlak. The Hungarians are relaxed and patient with tourists, but as with the national vegetable paprika, sometimes things are heated up!

There are many pompous buildings in Budapest that resemble of Vienna, but also hills and an architecture that looks like Prague. On one of my Interrail trips I spent the night at Budapest’s Keleti railway station, when I had to return to the capital from the Hungarian-Romanian border due to visa problems. The Romanian passport checkpoint demanded a visa, or at least a visa fee, although it officially would not be needed, so I refused to bring tourism money to Romania and stubbornly I returned to Budapest. I spent the night at the railway station along with many who could not afford to sleep elsewhere.

Hungarian food almost always contains paprika, Hungarian peppers. They are sold at the street and they look so tempting that I tasted one as if it was a fruit. It was much hotter than any fruit! The Hungarian national dish goulash is a hearty meat stew that contains for instance paprika. Popular street food are salty pies and one of the most famous ones is langos, a deep-fried dough that can be eaten with toppings as if it were pizza. Pörkölt is a pork meat sauce served with knödel- wheat dumplings.

As in the neighbouring country Austria, which used to rule Hungary, the coffeeshop culture is highly developed. Hungarian bakery shops sell numerous different kinds of pastries that are filled rather with custard than with whipped cream. Sacher tart and apfelstrudel are guaranteed choices. The Eszerhazy cake contains chocolate-butter custard and apricot jam so prepare yourself for a long walk around Budapest in order to digest that calory bomb!

Europe, food, Hungary, travel, travel experiences