A Less Stressful Day in Budapest

Trip Start Aug 25, 2006
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Trip End Sep 10, 2006


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Sunday, August 27, 2006

After a good night's sleep we took a walk down Vaci Utca (a long pedestrian walk lined with shopping opportunities). It was Sunday morning so it was quiet and many of the stores were closed. Probably for the best as many of them looked out of our price range! We went to a coffeehouse for a leisurely breakfast, and then walked past the Great Market Hall (also closed on Sunday) and along the Danube, passing Chain Bridge and Gellert Hill (in the distance).

We went in St Istvan's Basilica, it's very ornate inside with lots of gold and red. The church has a special display case that holds what's rumoured to be the hand of St. Istvan.

After that we split up and John and I went to the Terror Haza museum which explains the history of communism in Hungary and was well worth a visit. Afterwards we went to a special Picasso exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts. Then it was time to meet the others for dinner--at a randomly chosen cafe with outdoor seating. I don't know what it was called, but the food was again excellent.

That night we made two startling discoveries: 1) Many Hungarian tv channels become hard core porn at night; 2) the hotel lobby sold champagne for $5 a bottle. No--we didn't get drunk and watch porn, we took it as a lesson to avoid tv in the evenings and play pinochle instead. With the champagne added in this meant we were up until 4 am. John and Russ eked out the win.
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