Hungary Beyond Budapest

Hungary Beyond Budapest

[Music] Hello everyone and welcome to Monday Night Travel with Rick Steves Europe. If this is your first time joining us, we are glad you’re here. And to you regular Monday Night Travel viewers, we’re glad to have you back. My name is Gabe Gunning and I have the privilege of serving as your host this evening as we venture beyond big city Budapest to explore the small town charms and hidden splendor of Hungary. And now, without further ado, it is my distinct pleasure to welcome back to Monday Night Travel one of the most cheerful and generous guests we’ve had on the show. It is my dear friend, Andrea Makoy. Andrea, welcome to Monday Night Travel. Welcome back, rather. Hi, Gabe. It’s wonderful to be back. It’s so nice to to be here again and welcome everyone. Now, Andrea, I know that you just recently wrapped up your season of tour guiding for Rick Steves Europe, and so I would love to know, how was your 2025 of tour guiding? So, this season was great. I had uh amazing tour members on the tours. Always I’m delighted to do tours for Vick Travelers. They are always so uh curious and open-minded. So, it was just wonderful. I have been doing couple of proud Budapest tours which gives travelers a way to get immersed in these two great cities. And you are based in Budapest, correct? Yes, that’s right. Yes. And I know that just because you’re done guiding for Rick Steve’s Europe for the year doesn’t mean you’re done guiding. I know you always do your private tours within Budapest and doing day trips from Budapest to some of the places we’ll discuss this evening. So, if travelers are interested um about your personal guided tours that you do, we have a link for that in the chat as well. But thank you, Andrea. I know that you were guiding earlier today or yesterday for you and that you have more tours coming up this week. So, we really appreciate you not only taking time out of your guiding schedule to give us a virtual tour tonight, but you also went above and beyond to get a lot of video footage for us that we’ve incorporated through tonight’s show. So, that is going to be a very special treat that I know our travelers will appreciate. So, shall we get going? Yes, absolutely. I’m ready. How do you say let’s go in Hungarian? That’s Juke. I’m not going to attempt to touch that one, but let’s go. So, um, we are going to do Hungary beyond Budapest. And our map expert Dave Herurline, who does all the maps for our books, made us this custom map. So, we are going to be doing kind of two small loops for our Beyond Budapest presentation. One to the northeast and one to the southwest. And right off the bat, Andrea, I’m wondering if we were going to be doing a trip like this, how would we get around Hungary? Is Hungary well connected by rail or should we be renting a car? Yes. So, actually the answer would not be the same to all of the locations we will be talking about because there are some places um for example, Egar and Paige. So these are uh the the relatively bigger cities where it’s a really good train connection and it’s to some of the other places like Denu Bend and Lake Walaton. I definitely would recommend a car because there are multiple places there that you would visit and for that a car is like a much better option. Excellent. Well, tonight fortunately since we’re traveling virtually, we don’t have to worry about those logistics. Um but we will checking in about other transportation options later. Um, for now though, we are going to be venturing beyond Budapest, but I actually want to start in Budapest because of course for many travelers entering the country, that is going to be the easiest place to fly or train into. And I know that it is where you’re based. So before we go beyond Budapest, Andrea, can you give us your 302 elevator pitch for what makes Budapest great and why travelers should visit this city before going on to the other locations that we’ll discuss tonight? Yes, absolutely. So Budapest, I think, is one of the most underrated European big capitals. It’s a city of almost 2 million inhabitants, and it just has so much to offer. Uh on the Buddha’s side there are the rolling hills. On the pash side is the bustling city center. We have the beautiful river Denube dividing the city into two parts. Uh there’s a very rich history. We have also all the beautiful architecture, wonderful food, uh lots of music scenes and uh uh at least but not least uh it is like slightly uh more affordable than than many of the the big uh destinations in Europe. Well, thank you, Andrea. I had the pleasure of working with you on the Budapest presentation that you did for Monday Night Travel last year, and I want to remind everybody that you can find that in our Monday Night Travel archive if you also want to catch up on Budapest to complement tonight’s presentation. But for now, we are going to say goodbye to the big city. And we are going to go to our first stop on our Beyond Budapest tour of Hungary. And first we are going to go to the Danube bend. So Andrea, what is the Danube bend? Yes. So basically Danube bend is an area. So if you just kind of imagine uh how the river Danube is coming to Hungary from uh the northwest direction and then it gives a kind of a turn and so that is the Danube bend. The Denu Bend is an area where there are several uh cities and we are going to explore three of those cities uh tonight and uh each of them are offering something very different and we’re going to kind of dive into those uh sections of the Denube Bent area. All right. Well, we are going to get start started with the first town of Eststerome. And again, I want to remind people, Andrea, that you went above and beyond. You get an A+ on your homework because you went out and got these videos just for all of us here at Monday Night Travel. We are great very grateful and we are going to dive into the first one. Now, it’s a great day trip to go to the so-called Denub Bend area of Hungary. Denu Bend is when the Denube River is coming from the western direction and arrives uh at Hungary and then all of a sudden it goes southward. So that’s what we call Danu Bend and uh Danub Bend has various beautiful smaller towns and villages and a very nice landscape. And now here we are in Estum. Estum used to be once upon a time the capital of Hungary back in the year 1000. This was where the actual Hungarian kingdom was founded by St. Steven, the first king of Hungary. This was the cradle of Roman Catholic religion in Hungary. And here we are approaching Esther Gon Basilica which is the largest Roman Catholic church of Hungary. And we are welcomed by this enormous and beautiful building which is just coming to the end of a large scale renovation and restoration. And here we are welcomed by Virgin Mary who is actually the patron saint of all the Hungarian people. As you can see she has the crown of St. Steven. She’s holding the scepter and the orb and she is considered as the patron saint of Hungarian people. We are now entering into Bakut’s chapel which is a very unique part of Estagon Basilica. It has been built in the 16th century during the Renaissance era and it has beautiful marble architecture as you can see it. It used to be in a separate church and uh when the present day church was built in the 19th century, it was dismantled into 1,600 pieces and it was relocated into Esther Gon Basilica. It is actually the earliest reminder of the beautiful Renaissance era in Hungary. So here you can see the very moment when St. Steven, the first king of Hungary, had been crowned in the year 1000. And that was the beginning of the birth of a new Roman Catholic kingdom here in Hungary. As you look around, you have a breathtaking view of the surrounding hills of the Denu bend. And what you can see on the other side is no longer the territory of Hungary. Uh on the other side is Slovakia. It’s the town of And you can also see a bridge over there named after Maria Valyria. And that bridge was destroyed in the Second World War. and it was only rebuilt a little bit more than 20 years ago. Andrea, thank you so much for sharing that excellent video with us. I was surprised to learn that the largest Roman Catholic church in the country isn’t in the big city of Budapest. It’s in this small town. Yes, that’s kind of surprising because in the 13th century when the capital has been moved from Estum to Buddha back at the time the the the Catholic Church had remained in Estum. So it’s still there today the seat of the the the the Catholic Church and is Hungary more of a Catholic or Protestant nation overall? So absolutely the reformation got to Hungary but still uh I would say that the most dominant religion is Roman Catholic for sure. Okay. Well, we are going to move on from a a great basilica to a great fortress in Visrad. And how long if you said in this part around the Danube bend we would probably be renting a car. How far apart are these towns? Yes. So they are actually very close to each other. So if you drive from Esester Gonto Vishagrad it’s like a half an hour and uh when you get there it’s a very different kind of um you know like a feeling there because it’s a really small town. It’s almost like a village. A lot of the citizens there wouldn’t even live there permanently but just uh have uh weekend houses and uh we’re going to see that the major attraction there is the landscape and uh the the the fortress on the top of the hill. All right. Well, let’s take a look and visit Visrad now. Holy moly. I need to catch my breath. I have made it up to the top of the hill. We are here in Vishagra. This is the fortress behind me that dates back to the time period of the 13th century. After the Mongolian invasion, there was a need for new fortifications all around the country and that was the time when the Chevrat fortress was built. It’s yet another beautiful viewpoint here in the Danuben. Uh let’s enjoy the scenery. So the fortress was built during the time period of of the middle of the 13th century. But later on it was several times enlarged and uh also made as a stronger fortification. In the 15th century during the time of King Matias, a beautiful Renaissance palace was also built in the area. When the Turkish occupation started for a long time period, Vishagrat was able to withstand uh the attacks of the Turks due to the fact that they had their own water supply. We can still see the remains of that time period here. After the Mongolian invasion, David the fourth had realized that the country needs fortifications and that was when Vishagrat Castle was built. Afterwards, for 200 years, the Hungarian crown jewels and the holy crown were kept in Vishagrad. That is why even today we have replicas of these items. You can see the scepter, the orb and the holy crown. It was here in Vishagrat Castle when in 1335 the famous Vishagrat 3 met and they were the Hungarian king, the Polish king and the Czech king. You can have a look at how they were having a wonderful feast together. Even in the middle ages uh fortress life was not just about uh fighting and protection. There were also several ways how to have fun. There were night tournaments, events, music, dancing of course always together with great feasts because this area is very very rich in different kind of wildlife. In the fortress, there is a small uh military exhibition that shows how the uniforms and the military equipments were developing over the centuries. For those who didn’t meet certain criterias or they were committing a sin, uh they were definitely punished and pretty sure they understood what it was all about. Andrea, what did you do to get in trouble when you were in Visrad? So nothing in particular, but I just wanted to demonstrate uh what kind of ways there were to punish the people. I see. And were there I mean in general in Hungary, we always want to be good good tourists, good travelers, so that you know we don’t end up in one of those punishment devices. Um how can people when they’re traveling around Hungary be good and respectful tourists? I know I was in France this summer and it’s important when you’re in France to always say hello to the shopkeepers when you enter the store or it’s considered rude. Are there any cultural etiquette things for Hungary to keep in mind? So I think it’s kind of interesting that you mentioned that because in Hungary it’s also uh very very nice to know at least one or two words in Hungarian. you know we have one of the most impossible languages uh nothing knowledge of other languages will not really help you with Hungarians so if anybody knows couple of words we are just thrilled so that’s always a good practice to to learn just a few words I agree and I always tell people it’s learning those few words it’s not really about effective communication because often they’re words like please thank you low. It’s more of just a sign of respect and sometimes it uh helps you make a friend more easily. That’s right. All right. Well, we are going to continue on to the final of the three Danube Riverbend towns that we’re ex uh exploring tonight. And this is uh Santendra. Am I saying that correctly? Yes, that’s great. All right. Well, let’s uh go to one more video here in the Danube Bend and explore Santendra. Here we are in Santendra, which it means St. Andrews and it’s a picturesque quaint town that dates back to the time period when lots of Serbian refugees settled down here. So therefore, the town has a Mediterranean feel to it. Lots of cuddles, quiet alleyways, and of course nowadays cafes, restaurants and stores. Santandra has lots of museums and galleries and truly the most uh visited one is the museum by Margaret Kovach. Uh she was a truly um very very popular artist in the 1960s and ‘7s. No one has ever made such big pieces of pottery on the potter’s wheel and her art is still very popular uh today. So, as you are walking up uh through this very narrow alley, you can discover one of the most uh traditional Hungarian uh fried dough, the so-called langosh. And it’s delicious. You can have it plain, you can have it with garlic, you can have it with sour cream and cheese. It’s absolutely delicious. So this is how authentically Hungarian people would have it with the sour cream and the cheese. It is delicious and of course zero calories included. It may be worthwhile also to visit the Serbian Orthodox Church and also to admire the work of the local artists. There are several small galleries and museums and Santandre is really a kind of a relaxing place. It’s a great ending to your Denube Bend trip and you can enjoy the views of the Denube furthermore and also uh stroll in the town. So I really recommend to include as the last stop of the Denu Benur the lovely quaint town of Asantendra. Thank you again for that excellent video content, Andrea. I am curious if somebody wanted to stay the night in the Danube Riverbend, is there one town more than the others that you would recommend staying in for the night? Yeah, I would actually uh recommend to stay in Santendra. They have uh some nice places to stay there. Uh even though that’s the closest one to Budapest, but but that would be perhaps a really nice place to experience something outside of the big city. And Andrea, I always love visiting small towns when I travel, but I noticed that it it varies from place to place. In in some regions, the small towns seem like they’re they’re charming, but they’re mostly kept alive just by tourism. it almost feels like more of a living museum while in others there’s still a very vibrant and strong local population and local culture. What do you feel like is the case for these towns on the Danube Bend and what would the local life there be like? Yeah. So I think it’s a little bit different in this case because uh the first town Estum and the last one Santendra they are both towns of 30,000 inhabitants which may sound like they are very small but on the Hungarian scale that’s considered like a typical smallsized town. It’s very important to mention that in Hungary we do not have big cities. We have only one and that’s Budapest and then all the others are much more smaller. So they would be close to 180 200,000 inhabitants. So these with the 30,000 they qualify for like a typical smalls size town and there are like the population there. I mean it’s like permanent population. It’s not just sort of the tourists. I mean there are lots of visitors going there but but basically they would be um you know like places where people would live. uh otherwise Santendra is a place which is very popular to live uh and so then many people would commute uh into the city from Santandre uh Vishagrad in the middle so where the fortress is is very small like the the local residence number is not even 2,000 and uh it’s also a place where there are many you know like holiday um houses so it would be a little bit more quiet during the winter time And in general, if there’s just kind of the one big city with a lot of smaller towns, do you see many young people that stay in these smaller towns or do a lot of them go to Budapest or maybe even to other larger cities in the EU? Yeah, it definitely you can see that and that is actually a a kind of a natural development because for example if we think about Hungary uh since Budapest is the only major city that is where like twothirds of the university students would study so the major universities are in Budapest we have also some other universities in some of the other relatively bigger cities but yes there is definitely that tendency that that young people would go to the bigger cities. Well, we’re not going back to the big city yet. We are continuing our journey and the next place that we’re going to go has some royal heritage and you have to help me pronounce it again. Um, how do we say this palace, Andrea? So, this is Gdulu. The town itself is called Gulu and there is Gdulu Palace there. Gdulu. Gdulu Palace. So what is exciting about Gdula Palace? So Gdulla Palace is basically a beautiful barack palace that dates back to the 18th century. So in the 1730s they started to build this palace for one of the wealthiest Hungarian aristocratic family, the Grashovich family. And then afterwards throughout three generations the palace was built. It was enlarged. It became more and more beautiful. And then eventually uh here we can see actually the the main facade and the entrance of the palace and uh it uh was then uh purchased by the Hungarian state. And then eventually in 1867 it was given as a coronation present to Emperor France Joseph and his wife Queen Elizabeth whose nickname was and it ended up to be the very favorite place for Cece for Queen Elizabeth. She spent a lot of time here. She loved the garden. She loved the horse riding. I mean, look at this uh photo. It’s a really beautiful garden. And uh they have ongoing restoration of the palace. And uh by now it has uh reached a very uh beautiful form. So it’s kind of going back to its old glory. Yes. And we will just uh kind of go through a little bit the palace. I just wanted to show you some of the sort of uh images from how the palace looks inside. Here we can see actually the so-called small dining room and you can see the beautifully decorated Rocco stove in the corner. Uh one of the peculiar feature of course of the oven is that there is like no uh hole up front. So the servers have to kind of put the wood from behind so that they wouldn’t disturb the guests. You can see um the very famous herand porcelain is on the table and there is the typical good pattern that they were using for the herand porcelain for the uh the coffee set. And then on the wall there is just a sort of a casually hanging a painting uh depicting Maria Terresa among her children and the children are uh playing all kind of music instruments. So Maria Terza was known for having 16 children. So besides just uh sort of ruling the entire Hapsburg Empire. Wow. So they had a whole family band all 16 playing their instruments. Yes. Um also there is a church uh inside um the actual palace. Here we can see the palace church and um uh it was consecrated for the memory of uh St. John of Nepomok and uh there is a statue of him on the main altar. Uh you can see of course the very rich uh Barack ornamentation and uh in the Barack era it was quite customary to try to make the churches look so that they would be God’s throne. So even now the the main altar looks like a kind of a throne and that was kind of a common feature. Uh France Joseph the emperor who had also the title of king of Hungary. He was not so keen on Hungarian people in Hungary because we were always causing the problems right we were having multiple war of independencies against the Hapsburg. So I’m not saying that we were the most favorite location for him to come. However, of course, the palace uh had to be ready for him uh as the summer residence of the Hapsburg. So here is the reception room uh for France Joseph. And we can see the beautiful colors on the tapestry, the matching colors on the beautiful handmade um carpet. And there is that stove in the corner which has moments and scenes from the Hungarian conquest. Hungarian conquest is what uh we call it uh the the kind of the time when Hungarian nomadic tribes came here from the Eural mountain range in 896. Um the palace has actually a barack theater but uh here on the photo we can actually see the so-called grand hall also with a beautiful decoration the chandeliers and this is a place where they have regular concerts different kind of cultural events. Um here this is uh the the dressing room of Sissy’s dressing room and uh she was um a devoted mother but she became a mom very very young. She was only 16 and of course within the empire it was not like such a free life for her. So um uh she always sort of loved to come to um Gdala Palace because really she really felt that she’s away from the rigid habits of the vianese court. And uh on the paintings you can actually see two of her children. One of them is Rudolph who was the crown prince who was supposed to become the new king and the new emperor but he never became because he committed suicide. And then on the other side you can see the painting of Maria Valyria. And then you can also discover uh somebody else in in sort of a camouflage. That’s me in the mirror. I just realized after I took the photo that I’m visible on it as well. I think that’s the most beautiful portrait, Andrea. Thank you. And u so this is actually the reception room for Maria Valyria. So, uh she was the youngest and u um uh she was addressed by the Hungarian people, the little Hungarian princess. You can see her depicted as a as a little baby on the painting. And uh actually learned Hungarian and she only spoke Hungarian to Maria Valyria. And um so if you just recall uh that there was the uh the the the film about Esther Gome and there was the bridge going over to Slovakia. So that was also named after Maria Valyria. Andrea, I’m wondering I know that there’s a lot of diversity throughout Europe and attit attitudes towards royal families. Obviously you have the UK where the the royal family are still figureheads. You have other countries where they still have royal families, but it’s they don’t talk about them much. And then you have places like France that very notably do not have a monarchy. Um, what is the state of monarchy in Hungary today? Yeah. So, the situation is that we had been a kingdom ever since the year 1000 until the Second World War. Uh however to be able to talk about our own royal family we would have to go back all the way until the 14th century because that was when the Hungarian house of Arpat had died out. So that was the only uh truly uh Hungarian royal family. Afterwards we had centuries uh under Ottoman rule and we had also centuries under the Hapsburg. If we wanted to talk about any kind of royal family, our royal family to go back to would be the Hapsburgs. And the Habsburg family is still around. Uh there are several members of the Hapsburg family living in different countries of Europe. We have also one of them living in Budapest, George Habsburg. Um but we are a republic at the moment. So we do not have royal family anymore. working for a European travel company. I’ve definitely heard of the Hapsburgs once or twice before. Um, but that is uh very interesting. Thank you so much for the tour of this royal palace. And I understand, Andrea, that there’s another notable site that tourists might be interested in very nearby. Yes, there is the so-called Laza uh Lash Park, which means horse park uh just not far from Gulu Palace. And uh in Hungary we have had and in a way still we have a a kind of a horse riding horse breeding culture and uh this horse park was founded by the Lazar brothers. They are multiple times uh world champions in uh pair driving uh riding of horses and derby winners and their whole life is about uh showing people this really amazing culture that is behind horse riding and uh they found this excellent uh beautiful valley uh just about um you know like a short uh ride from Gdulu and they offer the visitors uh kind of introduction to this how how this is um happening with the horse riding, the horse breeding culture. They have a stable and uh they await visitors with a wonderful traditional Hungarian lunch and uh showing uh all the horse riding traditions. Well, I’ve been water skiing before and this looks like it’s pretty much the same. So, I bet I I bet I could give it a try. Yes, probably. So, um, Andrea, I want to check in on transportation again out of curiosity. So, we just finished up with Gdula Palace. We’re about to go to Edgar. Are those places that we could access by train from Budapest? Yes. So, definitely for Edgar, I would recommend the train. It’s a straight two hours train from Budapest, so it’s very convenient. M and Gula Palace, would that also be accessible by rail or should we have a car? So, Gdula Palace is uh very well um accessible by the so-called suburban train. So, it’s only like 45 minutes. You get on the suburban train in Budapash and you literally get u off the suburban train right in front of the palace. Oh, wonderful. Well, that’ll be a great commute when I live in that palace someday and commute to my job in Budapest. That’s right. So, we are going to move on to Edgar. And Andrea, in addition to leading tours for Rake Steve’s Europe, you also help with guide book research. And I understand that you were recently doing some guide book research with our dear Cameron Huitt. Yes. Uh, that’s correct. I mean, it’s absolutely my great privilege that I have been uh kind of included in the guide book as a private tour guide in Budapest and Hungary ever since the very first book came out. You can see some of those additions even behind me. And of course, I always like to help uh whenever it’s needed for the regular updating of the books. And so, we were uh with Cameron in the Denu band updating the book together. And after that, I know Cameron went to Edgar and you asked him if he could please get some video for us and amidst his busy travel uh his busy research schedule, uh he obliged. And so we are going to see a little video now from our dear guide book researcher um and director of all things content, Cameron Hewitt. Hey there, Monday night travelers. This is Cameron Huitt. I’m at the Kleti train station here in Budapest, Hungary. One of my favorite big cities. And I’m about to hop a train to go two hours to Edgar, one of my favorite small towns in Hungary. I hope you’ll join me. Come along. Trains depart Budapest regularly for the easy ride to Edgar, offering a look at Hungarian countryside and villages. I’m guessing you’ve never heard of Edgar, but it’s a beautiful small town with so much to offer. It’s always so great to be back in Edgar. This is just such a perfectly wonderful small town. Has a little bit of everything. It’s got some great fun sightseeing, excellent wine, amazing thermal baths, a very important historic castle, a super super charming main square, great food, easygoing lifestyle. Um, I just really enjoy being back here. Agger has a charming main square studded with landmarks and monuments. On my visit, a random Wednesday afternoon, I happened to catch a folk dance performance. [Music] The square centerpiece is a statue of Dobo Ishtvan. Together with soldiers and civilian women from the village, he famously defended Edgar from an Ottoman siege in 1552. Above the square rises that castle. It still provides commanding views over Edgar, memorials to those who defended it, and a museum of artifacts, including items left behind by those Ottoman invaders. Another remnant of that time, the northernmost minouret in Europe, which stands lonely on a work a day street. Later, Edgar’s powerful bishops graced it with grand architecture, a spectacular cathedral, an episcopal mansion, and a teacher training college called the Lisa. Inside, the recently restored cathedral has stunning ceiling frescos and other details. The bishops wanted to build a university, but the empress said no. So, instead, they built this grand teacher training college. Inside, you’ll share corridors with students as you climb up through some engaging exhibits. One of Central Europe’s grandest old libraries has 60,000 books sorted by size and shape under a spectacular ceiling fresco. Higher up, you’ll find old scientific equipment, hands-on modern experiments, and an original camera obscura from 1776. Demonstrations in a darkened room show how this very old technology cast some moving image of the outside world on a white canvas. I’m not here just for fun. All day long I’ve been scrambling around to update our Rick Steves Budapest guide book for the new edition. And after all that work, I need a treat. Locals line up at this humble window to grab a fresh baked kto kalatch. This Hungarian pastry wraps dough around a spindle, then caramelizes the sugar by slow cooking it on a rotisserie. I just love a good kto scalach. Fantastic. Wow, today has gone fast. Time to head back to the station. All right. Well, thanks for traveling along with me. Monday Night Travel. I’m back at the train station in Edgar heading to Budapest. My train should leave in about 10 minutes and I’ll be back to the capitol in time for a late dinner. Thanks for riding along with me. And a big thank you to Cameron for that video. I would love to be able to tuck away in Cameron’s backpack. And it always, as somebody who has used the guide books long before I worked at Rick Steves Europe, it always makes me so happy to see a guide book all marked up and see the research actually happening on the ground. Um, Andrea, I saw on the map that near Edgar there is another site that might be of interest to tourists and you’ve coached me on this before. Let’s see. Is it Hoka? Yes. Fantastic. It’s it’s getting better and better, Gabe. It’s wonderful. So yes uh holoku is actually an example of what we had been talking about earlier. So it was really preserved deliberately like to show how was a kind of a typical small village in in Hungary um uh before the let’s say um agricultural revolution in the 20th century. So it has the typical traditional farm houses. There are 55 of them and basically there is the uh the the small church there. They have the uh sort of land around it and there is a castle a medieval castle also on the top of the hill. So this is a kind of a traditional small village which really was kept to show people the kind of old lifestyle over there and the number of the local residents is like 300 right. So basically uh they they they they kept this village to show it to the visitors. I’m surprised that there’s even that many. Um and I know that in the in the video of Edgar, Cameron saw those folk dancers. Are folk traditions something that most Hungarians are still familiar with and celebrate today? um or are there a lot of people that aren’t that have become kind of distant from those traditions? So I would say that the folk traditions, folk dances, folk songs especially, they are very deeply embedded in our culture. So most people would have knowledge of it. They would understand it. They would many of them sing them. And uh when it comes to like big celebrations, the kind of traditional folk wear would also come out and most of us would have some kind of embroidered uh folk uh you know pattern uh tableclothies at home. So it’s it’s still around in our culture quite a bit. I think that is so beautiful that people keep that connection. So, Andrea, we have finished our first little loop to the northeast of Budapest. We’re about to embark on our second loop to the southwest, but I think we need to take just a little break first. And I know that you have um something from Edgar to share with us. So, I’m going to have you do your show and tell in just a moment, but I’m also going to remind our viewers uh in just a few minutes we’re going to be doing our Q&A session. So, if you have any questions for Andrea um about what we’ve discussed so far, put that in the Q&A and Ben will collect it. But um Andrea, what are we going to enjoy on our brief little break between um the two halves of our journey? Yes. So, basically what I have brought is a special bottle of wine uh from Egar. Uh Egger actually is a wonderful wine region. Yes. And uh this is the so-called egri beav which means bull’s blood from egar. Yes. And uh according to the legends uh there was there was the siege about which Cameron was talking about in the video how in 1552 the Ottomans were attacking agar castle. Apparently, Do Ivan, the captain of the castle, had brought up uh bottles of uh uh bulls blood uh wine uh to sort of uh uh cheer up the soldiers and to give them some more energy and they were drinking it and uh the Turks were seeing that kind of this uh very dark red liquid is pouring down their chin and the rumors started to spread among the Ottomans that they are drinking bull’s blood. So according to the story, that’s how the name was given. A little bit problematic with this legend is that up until the 18th century, uh um red wine was not produced in Hungary, right? So it’s more just like a legend, but it’s a very nice wine. It’s actually a blend. It’s a kind of a cuet type of blend. And u important feature is that none of the the the the different variety of the grapes can be dominant. And uh but it has a beautiful color. Here it is. I can show it to you. It’s a kind of a dark ruby. It has a as a a fruity a little bit spicy taste. So, cheers. I’m going to I’m going to have my tea from my cute little teacup. And Andrea, just confirming I can still drink that even if I’m a vegetarian. No bulls were harmed in the making of the bull’s blood wine. No bulls. No. All right. Well, thank you for that little lesson. And um we actually had a question come in from Nick who was wondering what your favorite Hungarian dish to eat is. So, what might be the dish that you would eat with your your glass of wine from Edgar? So, uh this kind of red wine goes very well with everything that has paprika in it. And that’s not hard to find in this country because we are the sort of paprika capital. And uh so I would say a very nice chicken paprika with noodles would be excellent. Um I also don’t eat that much meat these days, but there is a substitute for that and that’s the mushroom paprikash. So, it’s cooked the same way as the chicken, but it’s from mushroom. And it’s just really nice with a little bit of sour cream and with a cucumber salad, a glass of bull’s blood wine, and that’s an amazing lunch or dinner. Oh, I would love to have that mushroom dish. I will keep that in mind for when I get to Hungary. And we are going to continue on now. Thank you, Andrea. And I should say Ben posted a link to that wine in the chat widget. It will also be in the follow-up email, so you can check that if you’re interested in researching that wine a bit further. But we are going to continue on for the second leg of our journey where we’re going to be going to the southwest. And our first stop is going to be P. So Andrea, what can you tell us about the city of Pa? Yes. So this is actually a kind of a um let’s say little bit Mediterranean feel city because it’s very close to the Croatian border and PH is relatively in the category of a bigger town in Hungary. It has about 140,000 inhabitants and in 2010 it was the cultural capital of Europe. So there were lots of new development. It has amazing new museums as well as some of the old buildings. So I would like to tell you a few words about the buildings. The one that you can see right now on the uh slide is uh showing the the mosque of uh page and this mosque was built in the 16th century by the Ottomans. That was when uh Ottomans had taken over and the 150 years of Turkish occupation had started. So they had built uh the mosque on the remains of the former uh church over there and it’s very interesting that even though later on it was kind of converted into a church and now it is being used as a Catholic church but uh it still has some of the remains of the um you know the the the time period when it was a mosque. So for example, there are inside all the the the white striped arches. There is there are the the bronze lamps. There is the mikra the the praying niche facing Mecca. They have a inscription from the Quran. So it’s a really interesting uh building and it’s on the main square of page. Uh here we can see actually the the cathedral uh the page cathedral. It’s actually called cathedral of St. Peter and Paul and um originally it was uh there was already a church on the spot in the very early time uh but it was restored rebuilt and the present day time period is from the late 19th century when all over the country they were building the buildings in neo style so neo renaissance neo romanesque neo baro this is a neo romanesque building and it has the beautiful symmetrical structure with the four towers the outside is decorated with uh the uh the the statues of the 12 apostiles. There’s a beautiful uh uh uh grape uh motive on the main altar and uh what we don’t see on the slide but if you are ever in page you can see that part of the cathedral has this beautiful white color uh western facade which was modeled on the cathedral of Pisa. And then here we can see the interior of the cathedral. It’s a very beautiful decoration. It’s a kind of a a combination of the simplicity of the Romanesque decoration with some of the Renaissance and Baroque elements in the 19th century. And then there is another uh very remarkable building in page and that’s uh the synagogue and uh the the synagogue is basically a neologue synagogue and it’s very important to mention that it was built at the time also the late 19th century when the Jews in Hungary had an emancipation time period. So uh they were getting all the equal rights as the Hungarians and uh uh basically uh they were building u synagogues um uh you know like larger size synagogues all over the country. Uh and this synagogue has a capacity of about thousand um visitors or thousand people to go there and neol Judaism is a really interesting branch. This word uh needs a little bit an explanation because this is how we consider that branch of Judaism that developed in the 19th century. It is somehow in between uh orthodox and conservative. Uh some things they have kept from the orthodoxy for example the strict separation of men and women. uh but some things uh they used uh from even reform like for example even this synagogue has a uh beautiful organ inside which you can never find in orthodox synagogues and also uh it has like upper galleries where the separation was for men and women but for example the language uh of the services would be in Hebrew. uh page is very famous for its uh porcelain uh manufacturer. Jolnai porcelain manufacturer was established by Michlo in the 1850s and the original idea was to do the replacement for the broken china uh dining sets and tea sets and then they started to come up with some kind of special material and this is the so-called uh ain but also it is a kind of a combination between porcelain and ceramic and there’s a shiny glaze layer on the top so it gives a very vibrant color and you can see the joy fountain here which was erected for the memory of the founder of the manufacturer and here we can see the county hall um Hungary has altogether 19 uh counties and the page is the let’s say capital of Barana County and this is the county hall which is a very beautiful art noo building that also dates back to the late 19th century originally there were two buildings on on the spot. And then uh they were building uh this uh as a bank building and it has the decoration of the join uh uh porcelain tile on the top of the building and also around the windows on the top floor. You can see some uh it was a bank. So there is a referral to how we are supposed to collect the money as the bees are collecting the honey. So, there is even a beehive over there on the top at the roof and the images of the bees. I I love that. It um uh Andrea, I’m a big Lady Gaga fan and it makes me think of her song Money Honey. So, I love that connection. Um we have one more stop tonight. It is a place that I know is very special to you. That is Lake Balaton. So, um, Andrea, what can you tell us about Lake Balaton before we play one more excellent video that you captured for us? Yes. So, Lake Balaton is the largest lake in Central Europe, and it’s a very popular holiday destination, not just for Hungarians, but for for all kind of foreigners as well. Nature is beautiful there. As you can see, there are always different colors there, small villages around the lake, and it is just a lovely place to visit. All right. Well, you are going to take us to Lake Balaton now. So, let’s embark on this final stop of our journey with a great video from Andrea. [Music] So here we are at Lake Balaton. Behind me it’s the Abbey of Tony which is one of the oldest churches of the entire country. Lake Balaton is actually one of the largest lakes of central Europe and it’s not only uh one of the most popular holiday destinations for Hungarian people, but it’s also becoming very very popular for foreign visitors. Today it’s a little bit windy day, but it’s absolutely full of people and you can understand why. Have a look at the amazing view of the lake. [Music] So the average depth of the lake is about 10 ft. So it’s really shallow. It gets warm in the summertime. So that’s why it is the most popular destination for Hungarian holiday makers. Many years ago uh during the communist era it was the meeting point of East Germans and West German visitors and nowadays it’s really international. People come from all different countries and enjoy a weekend or a week at Lake Balaton. Around the lake there are beautiful small villages with excellent cuisine and there are also very great windyards with uh wine as well. And uh I am now on a 32 ft sailboat which is considered our second home. We come down here every now and then when we have time. And it is just so beautiful to be out there in the middle of the lake and enjoying the beautiful nature. Dhon has been inhabited for the past 3,000 years. Already a thousand years before Christ, there was a fortification built on the top of the hill. The Romans also used this fortification for protection purposes. Centuries later in 1055, um Andrew the first, Hungarian king had built the Tihan uh Benedicting Abbey and also he had built his family crypt there. He is still buried there today. His wife, Princess Anastasia of Kiev, arrived together with eastern monks, and they settled in Thihine, cutting their cells into the rock. These monks quarters can still be seen today. Centuries later, the Bolaton became the border between the Ottoman Empire and the Christian world, and the Tian fortifications served as a border fortress. Monastic life was put on hold during the Turkish times, and it only resumed after the end of the Turkish occupation. It was that time when the church in Tihon uh was beautifully restored in uh Barack style. We can see now the interior of the church, the main altar, the side altars and this is also the place where there is the crypt of the Hungarian king Andrew the so lake Balaton uh has a lot of reed. Greed had been used in the past for many different things, but one of the most important ways how they used it was to actually cover the rooftops. You can see the traditional thatched roof that was very common in Lake Balaton area. Nowadays, you can actually see it on a lot of those houses that had been uh basically converted into showing the old traditional professions. obviously fishing for example uh at Lake Balaton. So you can see how beautiful these homes are. So behind me, look at the change in the weather. Uh there are really dark clouds above uh Balaton Fured. Balaton Fured is also an iconic uh spot uh at Lake Palaton. Couple of days ago there was uh a sailing competition with the participation of 600 boats. they have to complete a round of almost uh 100 miles uh from Balaton Fed and going all the way around the lake and coming back to where they had started out from. So here is to a wonderful holiday at Lake Balaton. Cheers. Oh, that is so beautiful Andrea and it is humbling to me. I love when travel makes me humble that there is this large, gorgeous lake, the biggest in central Europe, that I had not even heard of before. Um, I know that you have a long history with Lake Balaton, and I’m just wondering, how old were you when you first traveled there? Did you go there as a kid? And how have you seen it change throughout your life? Yes, absolutely. So during the communist era in Hungary, it was already possible to buy u you know like a little weekend house but at Lake Balaton. So my parents bought uh a little piece of land and b and built a little wooden house there when I was born. So I have been going to Lake Balaton ever since that time. And then also my uh father had a sailboat and uh we we started sailing uh on Lake Balaton where I was like very very little. And um of course I have seen a lot of changes because now we are trying to sort of uh build everything at the lake so that it would be meeting the sort of uh 21st century criterias. But I think the the charm, the special kind of uh nature and and everything it it because of that it I I consider it really like my second home and uh there are many Hungarian people that feel that way that we have been going there since a very long time. Well, thank you so much for sharing this piece of your personal history with us. And from now on, I’m going to start calling you Captain Andrea, seeing you at the helm of that sailboat. Yes, you can actually because I do have a license for the boat. So, yes. There we go. All right. Well, Captain Andrea, thank you so much for that tour. That brings us back to Budapest. That ends our tour for this evening. We are going to get to your excellent questions that Ben has been collecting in just a moment. But first, we have our word from our sponsor. And this week, it’s a bit of a the more you know. Um, many of you who have watched Monday Night Travel for a long time know that every summer we do a viewer survey and we read through every single response. This summer we received hundreds and hundreds and I spent much of the past month combing through them. And there were a few things that people suggested as changes. We love suggested changes, but some things that we already have. And so I wanted to make sure that everybody was aware. And the first is our archive. So I’m going to just very quickly show you our website. To get to the Monday night travel web page, you can either look under the watch, read, listen tab, or it’s usually linked on the homepage in a widget. Once you are there, there’s two places you can access our archive with over 200 shows. One is this bullet point that says watch previous recordings. Or if you scroll past Andrea’s beautiful face through our past our upcoming shows, past our recordings, at the very bottom it says browse more recordings. And this is where you can find our over 200 past Monday night travel shows sorted by destination. There’s also a new tab as of last week called Rick’s Picks. Rick picked out all of his favorite shows that are most information-packed that he presented and compiled them here. But let’s see if we can find Andrea’s previous show. We’ll go to Central and Eastern Europe. And here we go. Budapest with Andrea. Now, you can watch the show here on our website. Or if you click over to YouTube, I want to point out one more thing. We had a few people asking how they could find the links after the show. One way they do get emailed to you, so if you keep that email, you’ll have them on file, but if you’re coming back to one maybe a year later, you can also find the links in the description under the YouTube video if you’re watching on the YouTube site. So, those are some the more you know notes and hopefully it will help you um find more great Monday night travel shows to re relive past shows that you loved or to brush up before you travel to your next destination. Andrea, thank you again for that wonderful tour of Hungary. I very much enjoyed it. Our viewers very much enjoyed it and they have quite a few questions for you. So, we’re going to do a brief Q&A. The first question comes from Veronica who is very grateful for the videos that you filmed for us and is wondering who helped you with those videos. Who is your camera person? So I have to reveal it was my very own husband who is very great with everything with technology. So he was my big big help uh in in in filming and editing as well. Well, I think that you two were a dream team and we’re very grateful for that footage. Of course, as often happens after our presentations, people are feeling fired up and energized to visit these places and they want to know what’s the best time to go. So either based on the weather uh in Hungary or maybe some interesting festivals and events, what might be the times of year that you would recommend visiting these Hungarian places beyond Budapest? So I definitely would recommend either either the spring or the fall because in the summer it can get very hot. So I think it’s it’s a little bit better to travel during those times. If it’s very very cold in the winter like January and February, you can’t for example really enjoy the Denu Bend because part of the attraction there is the beautiful nature and in January and February it’s a uh you know it’s not exactly the greatest time but but but all the way I would say from April till July and then from September till November it’s the perfect time. And we have Ashley that’s wondering if you travel during the holidays, does Hungary do Christmas markets? Oh my god, absolutely. So that’s a very big thing. I mean, of course, Christmas is the most important holiday, let’s say, throughout the year. And we are actually opening our Christmas markets fairly early. you know, it’s like getting earlier and earlier, but some of the Christmas markets open already in the middle of November. Okay, very nice. Better for business, I suppose. Yes. We have Lesie that’s wondering, would you recommend for travelers to Hungary an overnight stay in Edgar? Would that be a good a good place where people could find good lodging options and have enough to keep them busy? Yes, absolutely. So, I mean, of course, that’s a great idea because uh you go there there and if you go down there, I mean, it takes two hours on the train, but then you will not feel that, oh, you have to rush, you have to come back. I mean, Egar also has wonderful thermal spas as well, all the wine and everything and and and great opportunities to stay there. They have some really cute, you know, like bed and breakfast type of accommodations and boutique hotels. So, it’s it’s a great thing to do to stay the night there. A few weeks ago, we had one of our travel advisors, Marta, talk with us about Switzerland, and she advocated for the idea of taking kind of a reset day in the middle of your travels where you do your laundry and relax and give yourself a day to to sleep a little bit more. And so, maybe doing a spa day, an Edgar, could be a a great way to do a travel reset day. Yes, absolutely. So, I I I absolutely recommend it if somebody has the time. It’s great to spend the night there. Leslie is also wondering, speaking of relaxing, if people go to Lake Balaton, are there good public beach access points there? Yes, absolutely. So, uh there are all around the shore um you know, opportunities to get to the lake and so on. And basically, they are doing also all sorts of water sports as well. uh also the sailing there are also other boats where on which you can get and get to the other side of the lake or there is a regular ferry service. So if you go by car you can let’s say drive down to Thihon and then get on the ferry and then continue on the southern shore. Lovely. So lots of good relaxation options. We have a question from Angela who is wondering about the language. You mentioned that always it’s a good idea to learn some pleasantries and greetings in the local language, but we do know that Hungarian can be tricky. Can people expect to find plenty of English spoken even if they’re going to some of these smaller towns beyond Budapest? Yes. So, I would say that because we know that our language is really sort of impossible to foreigners. uh therefore we have to you know get prepared and so in uh even in the smaller towns you would find usually the menus uh in uh English and German so that those would be the two languages um and then if it comes to it that it’s a very small place like no English then you just get adventurous and you pick something that you don’t know what it is that’s the best part or use the Google translate app that I’m a language learner. I love learning languages, but it, you know, Google Translate is a good backup option. That’s right. Um, another question. So, people are of course excited to travel here and unsurprisingly to me, some people would love to travel with you. You of course have your uh private day tours that you do. Those are linked in the chat widget. But Gary is wondering if you can remind us which Rick Steve’s Europe tours do you lead guide for? Yes. So I lead guide the 8 days uh best of Prague and Budapest tour and that’s really a wonderful combination of these great uh cities and of course one of them is my hometown. So I love to do that tour and uh it’s really nice because we spend like four days in each of the cities and that gives you a a kind of a deeper understanding and it can be also ideal for those who don’t like to travel uh sort of longer periods on the bus because we have only just one sort of fun bus ride from Prague to Budapash but that’s it and the rest of the time we are exploring the cities. Well, I would be so glad to be on a tour bus with you. That said, while some of our travelers love to request certain guides, um, we, you know, we do not allow for requesting them in advance and all of our guides, Andre, I think you can agree, you are wonderful, but your colleagues are wonderful as well. Yes. I mean, absolutely. That’s always, you know, like uh on my recent tour, there was a couple that it was their 18th Rick Steve tour. So I was like, “Wow, then they really know how the Rick Steve tours are and how the guides are.” And I think uh I can speak for myself of course, but I think my other colleagues are the same that we really know that the the the bar is set high and we want to live up to the expectations when uh we are doing the tours. Well, Andrea, I think we will all agree you sailed over that bar tonight. We appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule in the middle of the night and weeks in advance preparing all of that video content for us. It was very thoughtful and generous of you and I am glad to have you as a colleague and we wish you well in your continued guiding. Thank you very much, Gabe. It was just really wonderful to return to Monday Night Travel and I have really enjoyed it. Well, hopefully you can come back again soon. Thank you so much. And to all of you, we hope you come back even sooner. We hope you come back next week when again Rick will be joined by executive director of the ACLU, Anthony Romero, for a wide-ranging discussion that will cover Renaissance art, European history, and of course, our civil liberties. So, you can register for that at ricksteves.com/mntt. We look forward to seeing you then. [Music]

Sitting at the crossroads of Europe, quirky Hungary has become cosmopolitan while remaining perfectly Hungarian. And while many travelers begin and end their visits in Budapest, those who venture beyond the big city are rewarded with winsome riverside towns, genteel palaces, and plenty of local wine. Alongside tour guide Andrea Makkay, we explore these cultured corners of Hungary — from spa-crazed Eger and Danube delights in the northeast to museum-packed Pécs and holiday hotspot Lake Balaton southwest of Budapest. Pour yourself a glass of wine to sip as we indulge in this one-of-a-kind country.

– Andrea’s Website, Personal Budapest Guide: https://www.privateguidebudapest.com/
– Visit Hungary Tourism Website: https://visithungary.com/
– Hungarian National Rail Company: https://www.mavcsoport.hu/
– Hungarian “Bull’s Blood” Wine: https://winesofhungary.hu/magazine/is-it-bikaver-or-bulls-blood
– Central Europe: Prague to Slovenia in 15 Days Tour: https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/eastern-europe/central-europe-tour
– Rick Steves Budapest Guidebook: https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/p/budapest-guidebook
– Monday Night Travel Budapest Show: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/travel-classes/monday-night-travel/budapest
– “Democracy in Europe” Radio Episode: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/radio/programs/program-769
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