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Eastern Europe, Hungary, Memorials and monuments

Back to Budapest– Cloudy skies, Jewish memorials, quirky toilets, sexist servers, and Soviet monuments… part five

I got a kick out of the Art Toilet– especially the cat’s asshole…

After breakfast, after I did some morning writing, then picked up some vending machine tokens Bill had left over after getting water and a beer from the hotel vending machine. I figured after my walk on Wednesday, I could get something from the machine on the way up to the room.

The temperature had dropped, and the skies were cloudy. It looked like it might rain, so I figured I wouldn’t be walking many miles. To be honest, I wasn’t wanting to walk for that long, anyway. Nevertheless, I set off, and the first place I went to was a square where there was a statue of Archduke Joseph of Austria. On either side of the statue, there were two smaller ones with fountains that looked like they were made of ceramic. I was more impressed with the colorful, smaller, newer statues on either side of the bigger, older one of Archduke Joseph of Austria.

I continued walking and soon found myself near St. Stephen’s Basilica, a beautiful church with a treasury and observation terrace. I didn’t go into the basilica, because you have to buy tickets, and I prefer going to places like that with Bill. But I did take some photos, and I see I got a picture of that basilica in 2009, too…

From 2009…
I noticed this “Stolperstein” in Budapest. I didn’t see any others during our visit, but I’m sure they exist. In Germany, these are all over the place to memorialize people who died in the Holocaust.

I noticed signs for the Retro Museum near the basilica. That was a place I was actually willing to visit without Bill, so I headed in that direction. But, I turned the wrong way and headed further into the residential part of Budapest. Soon, I found myself near Liberty Square, looking at a very moving memorial for people who died in the Holocaust. Some of the papers in this memorial offered English translations.

I kept walking and passed a rather impressive looking playground, next to a large, rather Soviet era building, that didn’t seem to be maintained very well. The map tells me the building was the Exchange Palace. Close to that was the Soviet War Memorial, which commemorates Russian military who served in World War II. Looking at the war memorial brought back eerie flashbacks of my time in 90s era Armenia. A lady with four cute little dogs was also there. I focused my attention on them.

The sky darkened a bit, so I decided to move on. I walked through an unremarkable neighborhood, but noticed an interesting looking Hungarian restaurant called Taste of Hungary. You have to reserve to eat there, but I thought Bill might like it. I also noticed a familiar looking van… Unfortunately, we never got around to visiting the bistro, but maybe if we manage to visit Budapest again, we’ll make it there.

As I walked down the street, it looked like maybe there was a major road that might take me to an undiscovered part of the city, but as I got closer, I realized I was just looking at the Danube River. Soon, I noticed the Parliament building, which had become very familiar. I sighed and turned toward the now familiar Akademie Street, which I knew would get me back to the hotel. My ankle was starting to ache from all the walking, and soon it was painful. I decided it would be best to go take a rest.

I tried to decide if I wanted to eat lunch, but then determined I’d rather just relax for a bit. I got to the hotel and went to use the tokens for the vending machine. Unfortunately, I mistyped my choice, and wound up with a bottle of still water and M&Ms.

It was still late morning when I got back to the hotel. I went to the room, but it wasn’t yet made up, so I grabbed my iPad and peed, and went back to the lobby to wait for a bit. I noticed the housekeeping cart was in the hall, across from our room. I figured they would get to us soon. I played games on my iPad, ate the M&Ms, and drank the water.

After about 45 minutes, I went back to the room. It still wasn’t done, and they were still apparently cleaning the room across from us. I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell had happened in there, because they were doing an unusually thorough job of cleaning. I went back down to the lobby and then decided to take a short walk around, again thinking maybe I should have lunch. But I didn’t want to eat alone, so I went back to the hotel to try again.

Another Jewish memorial.
I made a note to visit this place…

I went back to the hotel… and ordered a large lager, just in case the housekeepers needed more time. When I went to pay for it, I was told one of my 1000 Forints notes is no longer valid. It’s old currency. I made what I’m sure was a hideous face when the lady told me that. Fortunately, I had another 1000 note that is good in 2025. I gave her that to cover the 2173 Forint bill for my beer, and told her to keep the change. I drank the beer, feeling really pissy and wanting to go home. Then, I went back up to the room, expecting that the room might finally be ready.

Below are 1000 Forints notes. The one on the left is no longer valuable. We’re going to send it to Bill’s grandson. Maybe he’ll find it interesting.

Unfortunately, once I got to the room again, they still hadn’t done the room. It was, at that point, after 1:00 PM, and I was feeling kind of cranky, because my ankle was hurting. As I was opening the door, one of the housekeepers appeared and asked if I wanted her to clean the room, or just change out the towels and get more toilet paper. I asked how long it would be before she was ready, and she said ten minutes. I told her she could skip us, because I didn’t want to loiter in the lobby anymore.

With the room situation settled, I took a nice nap. When I woke up, it was raining. I decided that would be a good excuse for us to go around the corner for dinner and eat at the Mercatino Ristorante Enoteca, an inviting looking Italian place very close to our hotel. When Bill got back to the room, that’s exactly what we did.

We walked to the restaurant, but first stopped at a very unusual public toilet near our hotel called Art Toilet. The below photos from from the men’s side, and we didn’t realize it was an actual working toilet until a woman used one of the stalls on the other side, which were identical, except there were toilets instead of urinals. You pay a machine admission, walk through a turnstile, and then get assaulted by the bizarre! There was weird 16 bit computer music playing, too. There was an art store next door, and a location of Madame Tussaud’s wax musuem. I think it was affiliated with Madame Tussaud’s. Have a look…

After we visited the quirky public pay toilet, we walked to the restaurant. We soon found ourselves sitting at a communal booth in the cozy restaurant. It was the kind of place where the tables were situated pretty close to each other, to maximize the number of people who could be served at one time. I understand that is a necessity in a city with as many restaurants as Budapest has, although it can lead to people being “trapped” at their tables, as they don’t want to have to squeeze their way out from between two tables that are close together.

I liked the inside of the Mercatino Ristorante. There were lots of bricks and a beautiful bar area, although it was just for preparing drinks, rather than sitting. The restaurant was pretty small, and I think reservations are probably a good idea there because of that. I got the sense that the manager/proprietor was very money focused, as well as loyal to his locals. He was clearly saving the coveted window seat for a regular who had made reservations.

Both a male and a female server served us. When the female server took a dish that had focaccia bread from us, I commented that I liked it. She hadn’t heard me, so I repeated myself. The male server piped up and said, “She doesn’t speak English very well.” I noticed that the comment offended the female, and she flipped him the bird. She and I privately shared a good laugh, as the male server was oblivious to his colleague’s middle finger salute.

There was an American couple sitting two two tops down from us at the banquette, and when two ladies showed up and said they had reservations, they were seated at the two top between us and the other American couple. The younger lady had asked if they could sit by the window, but the proprietor answered curtly, “No.” I was a bit taken aback by that, but perhaps I shouldn’t have been, after the way the male server had openly insulted his female colleague. I sensed a touch of sexism in that place.

The two ladies were speaking French, but they also spoke English. It turned out they were from Montreal, Canada. The American couple volunteered that they were in Budapest to start a two week cruise on a Viking ship. They asked if we were also on the cruise, and I said that Bill was in Budapest working, and I was tagging along.

The American couple gave off conservative vibes. They were from Florida, and I heard the American man asking about the taxes in Budapest. They only had main courses. The ladies from Canada shared an appetizer and had main courses. Bill and I had a bottle of wine, sparkling water, main courses, and dessert, so when we were paying the bill, we rated a house shot of limoncello. The manager asked us to rate them on Google, which I did. Below are some photos…

Bill had spicy tiger shrimp with black squid ink spaghetti.
I had seafood risotto.
I had pistachio cake for dessert.
Bill had tiramisu.

I liked the restaurant fine, but was a little put off by the rather curt manager and the male waiter. I also didn’t like that they held our wine hostage, and we had to ask them to top us up. Still, the food was good, and it was nice to talk to the Canadian ladies from Montreal. When the American couple left, it was kind of clear that they weren’t fans of our current POTUS… although they were polite about it. We didn’t bring up politics, by the way. The American guy at the other table did, just before he complained about Hungarian taxes.

As we were leaving, the female server and I shared another laugh and a hearty goodbye. I liked her. She clearly has spunk and personality to go with her good looks. I think she’ll go far.

Well, that about does it for Wednesday, September 10th. Stay tuned for part six!

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An underwhelming late lunch at Chillers in Wiesbaden…

Bill needed time to bottle his latest homebrew and Zane got us both up at about 4:00am.  Consequently, after a morning spent doing laundry, I laid down to read and fell fast asleep.  By the time Bill was finished bottling, Zane, Arran, and I were all catching some Z’s.  I finally woke up about about 1:45 or so, kinda late for lunch.  Since we didn’t go out yesterday, we decided to try lunch at a place where there is no pause.

I generally make it a habit to steer clear of German “American” style restaurants, with the exception of those I know have a connection to an actual American person.  However, I had seen Chillers at the Wiesbaden train station and was kind of intrigued by it.  I kept getting suggestions to try it on Open Table.  So, realizing that a lot of places would be closing soon for their pre-dinner pause, we decided to give it a try.  I made a reservation for 3:00pm, but there was no need to do so.  They had plenty of open tables.

Before I get too cranked up with my review, I must mention the truly confusing parking garage next to Wiesbaden’s train station.  We had a hard time figuring out how to get out of it, since it’s Sunday and the garage is attached to a mall.  The mall is closed and they don’t leave it open like they do the Schwabengarten in Vaihingen, and some other places we’ve been when we lived in Stuttgart.  It took us about fifteen minutes to find the way out, since every exit had a sign that said it didn’t lead to the mall… not that we wanted the mall.  We just wanted to escape the garage.  I think we finally just said “fuck it” and picked a door to see where it would lead.

Out front.  They were setting up umbrellas for all the pale people avoiding the sun.

Anyway…  Chillers is supposed to be a “Californian” beach bar.  The bartenders were wearing t-shirts that read “Never leave the beach”.  The waitresses were dressed in black.  We heard both German and English spoken there.  In fact, the staff all spoke excellent English.

The bar area.

Bill told them we had a reservation and the bartender joked that he wasn’t sure he could accommodate, as he pointed out all the open tables.  A lot of people were sitting outside, since the weather is warmer today.  I wanted to avoid the sun and cigarette smoking, so we decided to sit inside.  I liked the music they were playing, which was one part hard driving rock, one part head banging metal.  The inside of the restaurant appears to have been part of the train station, so the building has some character.  It’s also a bit noisy inside, due to the high ceilings and hard floors.

Bill checks out the menu, which is chock full of burgers, quesadillas, ribs, chicken wings, and a few salads.

 

I got a kick out of the welcome, which started in English, welcoming everyone to California, then went to German.  The menu is in English and German.

Lots of burgers.  They let you choose what kind of patty you want– beef or “gemischt”.  Mixed there was half beef, half bacon.

We sat in a booth and I decided to have a Lynchburg Lemonade, which is basically lemonade with Jack Daniels.  I don’t usually order mixed drinks, but I wasn’t in the mood for beer.  Bill had a hefeweizen.

This Lynchburg Lemonade wasn’t bad.  It was generously sized and potent.  I noticed the non-alcoholic drinks were kind of pricey.  For instance, Dr. Pepper was selling for over four euros a can.

 

Bill had a regular Weizen, also kind of pricey at about 4 euros.  I think my mixed drink was about 6 euros.

 

They also have American craft beers in bottles.

There was a large group of Americans in the restaurant and the wait staff had their hands full with them.  Consequently, they were a little too busy to deal with us right away.  That was alright, since we weren’t in a hurry.  Then the group moved outside, which made things a bit more chaotic.  The waitress was apologetic as she took our food orders.  I had a “Social BBQ” quesadilla, which was a tortilla with chicken, guacamole, barbecue sauce, melted cheddar, melted Monterrey Jack cheese, and bacon.  It came with a choice of sides– fries, garden salad, Caesar salad, or for a euro more, curly fries or sweet potato fries.  I went with a small Caesar salad.  Bill ordered a half rack of baby back ribs, with Californian jerk sauce, and fries.

Our food took a long time to get to us.  After we’d been sitting for awhile without food, the waitress came over and apologized, explaining that the large group had put them behind.  It was alright, since we were neither in a hurry nor particularly hungry.  However, once the food arrived, I couldn’t help but notice that it wasn’t very hot and appeared to have been sitting for awhile.  I wondered what it would have been like if they were dealing with that large crowd of Americans and the restaurant was actually full.

My barbecued chicken quesadillas.  This was actually good, but not very fresh.  Obviously, it sat for awhile before it got to me.  The cheese was no longer very melted, and it was just warm.  I could have complained, but I didn’t want to wait longer.  I did enjoy it well enough.  It would have been better if it had been hot.

 

Bill enjoyed his ribs, which had a bit of heat to them.  They were saturated with sauce.  He said he also liked the dip that came with the fries.  I can’t comment on that, since I didn’t try it.  I did try the ribs, which were pretty good.  I did notice that the sauce tasted a lot like the sauce that was used on my quesadillas.

 

After we were finished eating, the waitress asked if we’d like an espresso on the house, since we’d had to wait.  I missed that she was comping it and said I’d rather have a shot.  She said that was fine.  Bill then explained that these were freebies.  It was no matter, since the shots were cheaper than an espresso or cappuccino would have been.  I decided on Bailey’s.  Bill had an espresso.

I was expecting a small shot glass, but she brought me a big glass with a healthy pour that looked watered down… but didn’t really taste watered down.  

You can’t go wrong with espresso.
 

While we were waiting for the check, which came to about 34 euros, we noticed a man talking to the waitress.  He was from the large group that had moved outside.  We heard him apologizing and wanting to pay for ribs.  She said something along the lines of what he was asking wasn’t allowed– I mean, I’m sure she would take his money, but it sounded like something else happened that was technically verboten.

I wasn’t sure what was happening, but her reaction and body language were definitely not what I’d expect from a restaurant in California.  It was very German, in fact.  But I can’t comment on who was in the right, since I’m not sure exactly what was going on.  He seemed to be trying to smooth things over and she was kind of chastising him for something.  Rather than stand back and rubberneck, Bill gave her 40 euros and said “Stimmt”, so we could get out of there and let them settle their dispute in peace.

We went back to the parking garage and proceeded to get off on the wrong floor, wandering around the garage for about ten or fifteen minutes in a fruitless search for my car.  I kept telling Bill I thought we were a level lower.  He finally listened to me and we found the Mini.  Very soon, that car will be the senior one in our fleet, as we send his Japanese SUV on to its next owner (in Africa or Asia maybe?) and start driving a Swedish SUV.

As we passed Chillers on the way home, we saw that same large group of Americans standing in a circle in front of the restaurant, appearing to be having a discussion with someone in charge.  It just occurred to me that the lady at the bus stop was posing!  

This election poster gave me pause.  It sounds a bit like MAGA.

It’s election time…

I didn’t think Chillers was horrible.  It wasn’t as bad as Chili’s at Ramstein, for instance.  I might give it another chance if the opportunity arose and I really wanted a German interpretation of American style junk food, although I don’t think I’d go out of my way to give it another try.  I would have had a better impression if my food hadn’t been lukewarm and service had been a little more attentive. However, having once been a waitress myself, I understand that sometimes shit happens.  I don’t hold it against her too much.  It looked like that group might have been giving her a hard time.

Drinks were a bit pricey, but the food was reasonable.  I just don’t want to park at the garage from hell again.  Anyway… not my favorite local restaurant… could have been better… but it has its positives, too.  Probably best for a young crowd.  Bill pointed out that Erbenheim isn’t too far away.  I’m sure American youths come by there often to get their chicken wing fixes.

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