Budapest, Land of Goulash

I recently returned from Budapest, Hungary, where a friend of mine organized a group trip from Prague for the weekend (it's an overnight train ride). It wasn't my first time in Budapest, I visited around 8 years ago and once again I found the city to be as charming as ever. We were only there 3 days so we did the standard bath house runaround, checking out a different bath each day we stayed. If you've never been to any of the Budapest baths, these are some of the best in the world. Since Roman times Budapest (Aquincum) has been revered for it's thermal waters and several of the baths were originally used by the Romans and later built into elaborate structures by the Ottoman Turks, which still stand. They are masterpieces of old world architecture and are well worth a visit.

One of the surprise discoveries of my trip was Hungary's national dish: Goulash. It's a hearty stew that consists of a meat, seasoned with paprika and other spices, sometimes with potatoes thrown in. I'd been eating a lot of goulash in the Czech Republic, but had no idea what I was missing till I came to Hungary. Perhaps it's the quality of the paprika, or the more tender meat they use, but Hungarian goulash is unlike any other goulash I've ever tasted - this stuff is awesome! And cheap!!! The Transylvanian goulash, often made with cabbage, is even better! I think we had goulash every day for lunch AND dinner and never got tired of it. Once I got back to Prague it was impossible to eat the local goulash, since it tasted like something from a can.

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