We planned some destinations today that we knew would be
open on a Sunday but we hadn’t anticipated it being difficult to find breakfast
in our neighborhood. Thankfully one of the things Rachel wanted to do in
Budapest was go to the markets and as the Grand Market is closed on Sundays we
chose one described as the “liveliest” because it was 1) open and 2) close to
our apartment. And we were able to
cobble together a breakfast of yogurt, fruit, and baked goods. It was not at all a tourist attraction so we
mostly had to point at what we wanted to try.
Jim thought wisely to be the one to bite into the croissant with the
unidentified filling first, and discovered it was stuffed with a hot dog!
From the market we walked up to Heros’ Square, which
was alive with celebration – singing, dancing, drums, men with whips, etc. A woman explained to us that they were
holding the first-ever celebration of an important war that kept Hungary intact
many years ago but for some reason wasn’t properly given its due in Hungarian
history. In addition to enjoying the
festivities we were still able to appreciate the Millennium Monument and sculptures
in the square.
From there we walked a little ways down “Parade Street”
– an area once used for Communist Parades – to see two very cool
monuments. In fact, the 1956 Monument
might be my favorite of all monuments I’ve ever visited. It stands were a giant Stalin statue once was
and symbolizing the way Hungarians came together in the uprising – first scattered
individuals (rusty) gradually coming closer and closer together, gaining
strength in their unity. The other monument
we saw was a great idea, just not as well executed. It is a year-long giant
hourglass that is supposed to be rotated 180 degrees at the start of each year.
Unfortunately, the sand got clogged in the hourglass despite best efforts to
keep out the condensation.
As we returned to Heros’ Square we walked through a
little food festival and tried two local specialties. Budapest does have a version of the bread
wrapped around the pole and cooked over an open flame – kurtoskalacs or chimney cake - they just don’t fill theirs with ice cream (which
seems such an obvious oversight to me I haven’t been compelled to buy it yet…but
of course wouldn’t leave without trying it).
It was cooked to perfection, crispy outside and bready inside…only thing
that could have made it better would have been some ice cream! We also tried tocsni which is essentially a
huge potato latke that they spread with a sour cream like sauce and sprinkled
with cheese.
We returned to Heros’ Square and walked behind into City
Park, site of the 1896 Millennium Exhibition celebrating 1000 years of
Hungary. Hungry really had a great time
celebrating that 1,000 birthday – the year 1896 (and the number 96) are really
important here. The huge replica of a Transylvanian castle, Vajdahunyad Castle, originally built of temporary
materials for the celebration, was so loved by the people that they insisted it
be rebuilt it in brick and stone. It,
like many things in Budapest it seems to me, is an appreciation of several
different architectural styles.
 |
| Renaissance Castle with Romeo and Gothic gate |
 |
| Baroque Mansion housing agriculture museum, hence statue with rake |
 |
| Romenesque Benedictine Chapel |
 |
| Statue of Anonymous - it was hard to make out the face! |
On the other side of the park are the Szechenyi Baths. Jim had really wanted to spend some
times in the baths of Budapest, and the experience was highly recommended by
many. Unfortunately the one thing the
hip doctor said Jim couldn’t do for a year was get in a hot tub. The baths seemed an obvious extension to that
rule. But we at least got to the see the
beautiful building!
We hopped on the metro to head to our House of
Parliament tours and stopped along the way to see some of the other nearby
sights in Leopold Town. We went into St.
Istvan’s Basilica (again part of the 1896 construction) and was surprised to find that it
is St. Istvan over the alter, not Jesus!
We also saw Liberty Square, the Soviet War Memorial, and a
monument to the local hero Imre Nagy who was the head of the 1956 Uprising and
executed because of it. He is seen as an
anti-communist hero but interestingly was actually a life-long communist.
 |
| Jim, Imre Nagy, Julia and Rachel keep their eyes on Parliament |
From there it was time for our tours of the House of
Parliament. Julia decided she wanted to
take the tour in Spanish just for fun and practice and that tour started 30
minutes before the English one the rest of us took. We could have spent that
time in the museum there but we instead purchased our first souvenir – a pack of
cards of Hungary and played some Rummy.
When it was our turn to go in Rachel had to surrender her Swiss Army
knife to the Hungarian guard (which she later got back). The tour
was interesting. The huge building was
built entirely symmetrical because they had two houses of government, an
upper and a lower, that would operate at the same time on opposite sides of the
building. In 1945 with the communists it
changed to a single house and so now one side is used for official business and
the other is for tour groups. And, it
sounds like they gave us the more decorated side. It is lavish inside, decorated with more than
84 pounds of gold. We weren’t allowed
to take pictures of the guarded Hungaraian Crown, kept under the massive dome
(which is 96 meters high – nothing is allowed to be taller in the city).
 |
| Grand Staircase = 96 steps |
It was much cooler today than yesterday – 11 degrees in one
day – a much welcome relief. By the time
our tours ended it was actually getting a little chilly! We were excited to go back to the apartment
to change into long sleeves that we had worried we had brought over by
would never need. I was really feeling
the need to eat some goulash while in Budapest so we found a Hungarian
restaurant a few blocks from us. The
girls were able to find a few things they could order – Rachel had an amazing
fruit soup (peach). I got beef goulash with dumplings; at least I can say
I did that!
Around the corner from our apartment is a place called
the Flipper Muzeum – a basement full of over 100 working pinball machines. You pay an entrance fee and play as many
games for as long as you want for free. We got there at 8:45 and, luckily, they closed
at 10:00 – that gave us plenty of time to play and it would have been really
hard to get Jim to leave if the guy hadn’t been turning off the machines all
around us. A super fun way to spend our
last night in Budapest!
We planned some destinations today that we knew would be
open on a Sunday but we hadn’t anticipated it being difficult to find breakfast
in our neighborhood. Thankfully one of the things Rachel wanted to do in
Budapest was go to the markets and as the Grand Market is closed on Sundays we
chose one described as the “liveliest” because it was 1) open and 2) close to
our apartment. And we were able to
cobble together a breakfast of yogurt, fruit, and baked goods. It was not at all a tourist attraction so we
mostly had to point at what we wanted to try.
Jim thought wisely to be the one to bite into the croissant with the
unidentified filling first, and discovered it was stuffed with a hot dog! 
From the market we walked up to Heros’ Square, which
was alive with celebration – singing, dancing, drums, men with whips, etc. A woman explained to us that they were
holding the first-ever celebration of an important war that kept Hungary intact
many years ago but for some reason wasn’t properly given its due in Hungarian
history. In addition to enjoying the
festivities we were still able to appreciate the Millennium Monument and sculptures
in the square. 
As we returned to Heros’ Square we walked through a
little food festival and tried two local specialties. Budapest does have a version of the bread
wrapped around the pole and cooked over an open flame – kurtoskalacs or chimney cake - they just don’t fill theirs with ice cream (which
seems such an obvious oversight to me I haven’t been compelled to buy it yet…but
of course wouldn’t leave without trying it).
It was cooked to perfection, crispy outside and bready inside…only thing
that could have made it better would have been some ice cream! We also tried tocsni which is essentially a
huge potato latke that they spread with a sour cream like sauce and sprinkled
with cheese. 
On the other side of the park are the Szechenyi Baths. Jim had really wanted to spend some
times in the baths of Budapest, and the experience was highly recommended by
many. Unfortunately the one thing the
hip doctor said Jim couldn’t do for a year was get in a hot tub. The baths seemed an obvious extension to that
rule. But we at least got to the see the
beautiful building!
We hopped on the metro to head to our House of
Parliament tours and stopped along the way to see some of the other nearby
sights in Leopold Town. We went into St.
Istvan’s Basilica (again part of the 1896 construction) and was surprised to find that it
is St. Istvan over the alter, not Jesus! 
It was much cooler today than yesterday – 11 degrees in one
day – a much welcome relief. By the time
our tours ended it was actually getting a little chilly! We were excited to go back to the apartment
to change into long sleeves that we had worried we had brought over by
would never need. I was really feeling
the need to eat some goulash while in Budapest so we found a Hungarian
restaurant a few blocks from us. The
girls were able to find a few things they could order – Rachel had an amazing
fruit soup (peach). I got beef goulash with dumplings; at least I can say
I did that!
Around the corner from our apartment is a place called
the Flipper Muzeum – a basement full of over 100 working pinball machines. You pay an entrance fee and play as many
games for as long as you want for free. We got there at 8:45 and, luckily, they closed
at 10:00 – that gave us plenty of time to play and it would have been really
hard to get Jim to leave if the guy hadn’t been turning off the machines all
around us. A super fun way to spend our
last night in Budapest!
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