Today, Steve and I are starting a new adventure, a 13-day journey, a group trip. We will be traveling with 12 more people. Starting in Budapest, Hungary, our Eastern European route through Romania and Bulgaria will take us to Istanbul, Turkey.
Day 1, Tuesday, June 23: Budapest
We are traveling with GEEO (Global Exploration for Educators Organization). It’s a nonprofit headquartered in Norristown, Pennsylvania that offers affordable small-group adventures for K-12 teachers and retired teachers. Each educator can bring along up to three non-teachers (friends or family members). This is why Steve can be on this trip.
GEEO partners with G Adventures and one of their employees will serve as our tour leader, a ”Chief Experience Officer” (CEO).
Steve and I are experienced travelers, but have never traveled with a group. We like to explore the world on our own. This time, however, we are excited to gain new and different travel experiences.
All of our accommodations and transportation were arranged by GEEO. Our preparations included purchasing travel insurance, connecting with group members via WhatsApp, and doing some extra research based on the trip’s itinerary. Our fellow travelers came from all across the U.S.
We left my village in Slovakia in the morning. Two hours later, we returned our rental car in Budapest at the Liszt Ferenc Airport. Took the airport bus E100 to downtown Budapest, to the Deák Ferenc Square (Deák Ferenc tér). After a 40-minute ride, from the square we walked – for about 20 minutes, in 31 degrees Celsius heat! – to our hotel, Ibis Styles Budapest Center, located at Rákóczi út 58. We were lucky to be allowed to check in at 1:30 pm.
The Rákóczi Street with its classic buildings is a lively shopping street on the Pest side of Budapest. It extends from Kossuth Lajos Street (Kossuth Lajos utca) near the Elizabeth Bridge (Erzsébet híd) to the Keleti Railway Station (Keleti pályaudvar).
After some rest in our lovely hotel room, we walked to the famous New York Café (New York Kávéház), ”The Most Beautiful Café in the World,” just 4 minutes from the hotel.
At the turn of the 20th century, it was a popular gathering place for writers, newspaper editors, and artists. “After World War II, the once famous café fell into disrepair and it served as a sporting goods shop. Although the café reopened in 1954, under the name of Hungária, it wasn’t until 2006 that the New York Café was restored to its original splendour,” can be read on the café’s webpage.
Yes, indeed, the interior was spectacular, the service not that much. We had to wait for our order for a long time – apparently, they misplaced our order – but the Somloi sponge cake (somlói galuska) was fantastic.
Then we visited the Dohány Street Synagogue (Dohány utcai zsinagóga), the largest synagogue in Europe and the second largest and most beautiful in the world.
From our guide we learned a lot about its history, the architecture, and the neolog Judaism. The synagogue was built between 1854 and 1859 in neo-moorish style. To this day, it’s the center of the Jewish religious life in Budapest, suitable for 3000 people. Because of the excellent acoustics of the building, it also serves as a concert venue.
The garden, adjacent to the synagogue, besides honoring the Hungarian soldiers of Jewish birth who died in World War I, since World War II it also honors the victims of the Holocaust.
Behind the Heroes’ Temple, in the Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Park stands the Memorial of the Hungarian Jewish Martyrs (Holokauszt áldozatainak emlékfája). On the steel leaves of the statue that’s shaped like a weeping willow, anyone can have the names of their deceased ancestors engraved.
We also briefly checked out the Jewish Museum, which showcases items of everyday Jewish life.
Back to a group introduction meeting at 5:30 pm, in the lobby of our hotel. Our CEO, Flavia, welcomed us and gave us lots of practical and useful information. My first impression of our group: friendly, interesting, and enthusiastic about travel type of people.
The day ended with a dinner at Café Vien where we got a chance to start to know one another. As we were walking, Flavia stopped to tell us a story about a small sculpture on the sidewalk – The Frogman with Key. It’s related to a legend according to which the New York Café won’t open until its key, thrown into the Danube, was found.
