Hungarian late night food, Langos (pronounced Long-goash)! It's a super fried piece of chewy bread with sour cream, garlic sauce, and cheese on it. All of Cara's favorite food groups!


Taking shots of Palinka with Meetesh and Denes, our hosts. Palinka is a local Hungarian digestive. It's traditionally taken upon the entry of a guest into a house, and before and after meals.


Playing with Danny, Meetesh and Barbara's son, before dinner.


Mill - Vienna Garden Restaurant near our hostel.

Arriving in Vienna!

Vienna and Budapest

Vienna welcomed us with blue skies and 80 degree weather. We arrived around 6pm, and after taking a short bus trip into the city we found our hostel (Hostel Ruthensteiner) with the help of a friendly local. After settling in we asked for a dinner recommendation from the hostel staff, which lead us to an Austrian restaurant settled in a beautful garden courtyard.

We will return to Vienna at the end of our trip to fly home, so we decided to spend just one quick day exploring before heading to Budapest. Our day involved a workout in the park, figuring out our train logistics, and taking a quick tour of the inner city of Vienna.

The inner city of Vienna has all the museums and historical buildings. The centerpiece is Stephansdom. It was built in the 13th century is huge and intricately designed. We then walked around a bit before heading to catch our train to Budapest. We are excited to revisit Vienna at the end of our trip.

After a 3 hour train ride, we were greeted at the train station by the awesome smiling faces of Meetesh of Danny. While they were happy to see us, we later learned that Danny loves trains and Daddy also bought him an ice cream. The later lead to an awesome amount of energy to run off in the apartment before dinner.

After a welcoming shot of Palinka, we had a delicious meal of paprika mushroom and pasta that Barbara prepared. Paprika is the word for pepper (any pepper, similar to chile for us), and peppers and the traditional spice paprika that we are familiar with is used in many Hungarian dishes. Following dinner Meetesh drove us to Denes's (pronounced 'Day-nesh') house. Denes is a long time frisbee friend of Barbara and plays on Meetesh's team. His apartment is located in the southern central part of Pest and very close to the action.

We got to know Denes over another two rounds of Palinka shots followed by a beer for me and wine with sparkling water for Cara and Denes. After our starter drinks we made our way into the city to have a few more beers and hang out. We started at a huge outdoor square which is a massive gathering of locals drinking and relaxing. From their we went to one of Meetesh's favoriate bars which had a massive courtyard. The highlight of the night, is shown above. To settle those extras beers and Palinka we had our first taste of late night Hungarian food. While I had the falafal I've been craving since we landed in Europe, Cara went for the local fare of fried dough with sour cream, garlic butter, and cheese. Pretty much a massive savory funnel cake!

Thank you friends new and old for a great welcome to Hungary.