Esztergom, Hungary

Just 30 miles north of Budapest is the town of Esztergom.  Esztergom was the Hungarian capital before it was moved to Buda (in the mid 13th century). Today it is the seat of the Roman Catholic Church and Constitutional Court of Hungary.

Our first destination was to the Basilica.

It's impressive to see beautiful architecture and art created in the early 1800's.  I think I have a thing for beautiful ceilings...because I sure take a lot of pictures of them.

I like the gold leaf detail they used...

but really, aren't they gorgeous?!?

We went into the crypt to see the tomb of Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty

And then we went to check out the views...There's a great panoramic view of the city from the top of the building, you can even see across the river to Slovenia on the other side.

Esztergom was a great place to visit on our way back from Budapest. I'm glad we make it out to see its sights!

Budapest, Hungary

We have been out and about again, this time for a three day New Years adventure to the Hungarian capital of Budapest.  

We stayed at a hostel called Mogyorodi, and it was an interesting experience. When we showed up to the hostel, we found out that it was really a boarding school, where all of the boarders were on holiday break.  Turns out they turned the students rooms into bedrooms, and we stayed in a dormitory.  The hostel wasn't anything special, a little grungy (Jordan and Ian used the women's bathrooms because they were cleaner) but luckily we did not spend much time there; next time I think we will be staying at an Airbnb!

Now back to the real fun....Budapest is on the banks of the Danube and certainly does not seem influenced by the Iron Curtin; rather there are iconic buildings and many monuments celebrating Hungarian culture and history- it's beautiful!

Our first place to visit was the famous Széchenyi Baths.  

These are the largest geothermal baths in all of Europe and attract tourists and locals alike.  They have indoor and outdoor baths to enjoy; and while the smell of sulfur lingers in the air (and in your hair) you get used to it!

Even in the cold weather (yep a chilly 29 degrees) the baths are nice and warm, which make them wonderful to enjoy.  

At the baths we started our food adventure.  We tried tepertőkrémes kenyér, which is a crunchy "cheese" bread topped with raw onions. There was some kind of crunchy paste on the bread...interesting snack, everyone was eating it so we thought we had to try it, maybe only eat one bite if you don't want onion breath.

One place to visit is Budapest's most recognizable building along the east bank of the Danube- the Parliament.  Its buttresses, towers, statues and large dome are dazzling from near and afar.

After checking out the Parliament Building we strolled along the open market.  They had my favorite chocolate with marzipan, but what we ended up splurging for was even better...

We found Hungarian Lángos of every kind!   Lángos is a deep fried dough bread typically topped with a sour cream and cheese, but they were selling them with everything from goulash to nutella chocolate.

...Of course we went with the Nutella Lángos, duh!

A must see when visiting Budapest is the forgotten Old Jewish Synagogue, since it is the biggest Synagogue in all of Europe. It is beautiful inside and out, as evidenced by the photos below.

I loved the saying on the Synagogue-you shall make for me a sanctuary, so I can dwell in it.

They have a very beautiful Holocaust memorial too

The tree branches memorialize Hungarian victims

And the birthplace of Theodore Herzl- the father of the Zionist Movement.

The Catholic cathedrals are beautiful too

 I love the ceilings, but looking up for so long can really give you a neck ache!

Time for another snack before more sightseeing.  It's a good thing we do so much walking while we travel, because we sure do eat a TON!  We found a street vendor with lots of Hungarians waiting for food so we figured it must be good.  We tried a Lángos fried bread smothered in sour cream, garlic and topped with cheese.  It was so good, and definitely tastes better than it sounds.  

We also tried palacsinta, which is basically a crepe filled with a chocolate powder. 

If you need a place to walk off all your calories do what we did and take a stroll along the Chain Bridge to Buda to explore Caste Hill. 

The castle district in Buda is a great introduction to the cities ancient history, beautiful architecture, and outstanding viewpoints.

 There was so much to see, but the highlights are the Royal Palace, Matthias Fountain, and Matthias Church.

In the courtyard of the palace is the statue of the wild horse being tamed; it used to stand in front of the Riding School before it was moved here. 

Standing on the highest rock, with a dead stag at this feet, is King Matthias.  On the rocks below him a henchman blows his horn while another hunter rests.  The hunting hounds are lifelike and big!

The ornate details on the Matthias Church was beautiful, I loved the detail.

And the lookouts across the river to Pest was beautiful!

It was chilly outside so we found a nice warm Hungarian meal after exploring.  Hungary is known for its paprika spice, and what's a trip to Hungary without some Paprika?

We tried Chicken Paprikash-Paprikás Csirke-made with whole pieces of chicken, peppers, sour cream, and of course a ton of its eponymous spice: paprika. 

To end our trip we watched the fireworks go off along the Chain Bridge.  Everyone loves celebrating New Years, and since fire works are legal to buy there were tons going off. It's really gorgeous seeing the Parliament building lit up.

We had a great time in Budapest and will be back for another visit again! Where will we go next...well from Budapest we went to Esztergom, check out what we saw on our next post coming soon!

Chocolate Lovers Dream

We recently went to Berlin with Jordan's parents, where we not only had a great time but also  I was happily surprised to find a shop dedicated to the Deutschland favorite aka Ritter Sport only blocks from our apartment-it was a true heaven.

Walls and walls of chocolate bars of different sizes and flavors, so sweet and yummy!

They had a museum to show how their chocolates are made (cocoa beans sourced from Nicaragua and Papua New Guinea).

and a really fancy chocolate bar, where you can create your own Ritter Sport with toppings galore. 

So after spending the evening inhaling the smells of sweet divinity (and of course buying a few bars, of which there were so many to choose from) I had a great idea.  Why not have a taste test of our own.  So, this week, Jordan's brother and sister (Ian and Alyssa) came to visit us, and we gave it a go.  

Jordan made a bracket, and we had 17 different Ritter Sport bars to taste test.  On the first night we tried one square of each (that's over an entire bar per person), rated them 1-5 and narrowed the bars down to our top 8.  On the second night we put the top 8 up against each other to find the best one.  

Here's what we tried, and what we thought.  Keep reading to find the winner!

-NUT CRESCENT COOKIE-

Rating: 4

Had a nutty chocolate smell, creamy nutty center filing with slight crunch of a cookie. 

-CARAMELISED ALMONDS-

Rating 3.15

Nutty and chunky looking...not as creamy smooth but crunchy.  Even without mulled wine, this bar is good for a Christmas market mood.   

-DARK CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT-

Rating: 2.5

Well this bar was really nutty, and looks just like the wrapping.  We weren't a fan of the whole nuts (crushed is better) and there were about three nuts per square.

-HONEY SALT ALMONDS-

Rating: 3.63

Almond is definitely better than hazelnut.  A bit of honey and a touch of salt make for a great touch to this bar of creamy milk chocolate.

-OLYMPIA-

Rating: 1.56

Not a winner; the greek yogurt was a little too sour, and the crunchy honeycomb and nuts didn't mix well with it.

-MILK CHOCOLATE WITH CORNFLAKES-

Rating: 4.21

This makes for a perfect round-the-clock breakfast bar.  The crispy flakes make it a good excuse to have this bar for breakfast; after all it is the first meal of the day?

-CARMEL NUTS-

Rating: 2.26

 

You can smell the caramel but not a good after taste and not a natural caramel flavor.  Unfortunately, the caramel was creamy, and not gooey.

-MARZIPAN-

Rating: 1

Okay I need to preface this one because I actually liked it...Although Ian spit it out and said he would much rather not have any chocolate at all than eat this bar.  It was a very strong marzipan taste in dark chocolate.  

-VANILLA MOUSE-

Rating: 3.3

Smooth, very sweet and stuffed with vanilla.  Not whipped enough to be a real mousse, just not convinced. 

-DARK CHOCOLATE 50% COCOA-

Rating: 3.25

This is one solid bar, and has some snap when you break it apart.  A little bitter but still smooth, break a tooth worthy, smooth bitter but still sweet.  It's a good mixture of chocolate from Papua New Guinea, Madagascar and West Africa.

-ALPINE MILK CHOCOLATE 30% COCOA-

Rating: 3.5

Very creamy, an ideal milk chocolate.  It does job well but nothing to write home about (Alyssa really liked it).

-STRAWBERRY MINT-

Rating: 1

If the wrapper was in English on ours, or I could have understood the German I would not have bought this bar.  Strawberrys + Mint tastes like medicine, or a Colgate childs toothpaste.  Freeze dried strawberries with a hint of mint does not go well.  Ian's quote after eating a square: "No wonder they lost WW2".  Not a taste we ever would want to have again. 

-MILK CHOCOLATE RASINS & HAZELNUTS-

Rating: 1.88

Chewy because of the raisin...but lots of raisins.

-YOGURT-

Rating: 2.58

Looks plain with a creamy filled yogurt flavor.  If you like plain yogurt you may like this bar, but it was a little sour/bitter for us. 

-COCONUT-

Rating: 3.89

It is a nice break from the usual Ritter sport varieties, and contains no nuts, just lots of crispy coconut pulp which gives the fine milk chocolate its exotic taste. 

-MILK CHOCOLATE WITH COCOA MOUSSE-

Rating: 5

This is the good stuff, and some of the best stuff too.  Having extra large pieces adds to the benefit because it's just so good.  You really have to try to it believe it- it's so creamy and you can taste the different types of chocolate. 

-MILK CHOCOLATE WITH BUTTER BISCUIT-

Rating: 3.9

It was good, crunchy and tasted like a cookie dipped in chocolate.  Not too special but wouldn't turn it down if it was on the table. 

After the first night of indulging, and narrowing it down to the top 8 bars, we gave our palates a rest and revisited them the next day.  Here was our top 8 (we switched the raisin one for the cornflake one because originally the raisin was up against another awful flavor.)

TOP 8:

Milk Chocolate with Cocoa Mousse

Nut Crescent Cookie

Coconut

Alpine Milk Chocolate 30% Cocoa

Milk Chocolate with Butter Biscuit

Milk Chocolate with Cornflakes

Honey Salt Almonds

Vanilla Mousse

From this we got our TOP 4:

 And then our TOP 2:

What was our conclusion? While we had a great time ranking the chocolate bar of Deutschland we decided the Milk Chocolate Cocoa Mousse was the winner.  Sweet, smooth, easy to break apart, and very easy to finish an entire 100 grams single handedly.  If you haven't tried the Milk Chocolate Cocoa Mousse you really should, it's pretty amazing.