This morning was very cold and foggy. Our hotel is directly on the Danube and we could not see the river at all. Being a Sunday, things were slow to open up, so we got some breakfast and wandered around.

We made it out to the Jewish Quarter and the Dohány Street Synagogue. This was built in the 1850s and served as shelter for some of the Jews here in 1944. There is a Hungarian Jewish Museum here, as well as a Jewish Cemetery and Holocaust Memorial. We did not go inside today, but have in the past. It is well-worth a visit.

Eventually things began to open up and we made our way back to the Christmas Markets. We decided to have a late morning kürtőskalác. Kürtőskalács, or chimney cakes, are pastries made of a yeast dough that is wrapped around a wide wooden dowel. The pastry is then rolled in sugar and basted with butter. This is then baked over coals, with the dowels being turned to cook evenly. Once done, they can be rolled in other toppings like cinnamon, cocoa, coconut, or nuts. Sometimes they are filled with nutella or whipped cream. They apparently date back to at least 1679 and originate from the Hungarian speaking regions of Romania. They make a very similar pastry in the Czech Republic called a trdelnik.

I warmed up with some mulled wine. Here they actually had mulled white wine, which made my day.

This evening, they finally had everything lit up.

We ended our evening with another kürtőskalác, cocoa this time, and more mulled wine. Can’t complain.