How many forints?

Remember I told you that when the hostel said they had free maps and luggage storage in their description online they lied? Well Tuesday is when that became relevant because we had to check out at 10 and leave for the airport at 5 with no place to store our luggage. Luckily back on Saturday, I had scrounged up a booklet with a map in it from a tourist kiosk and it had other useful tidbits of information such as how to find the cave we went to on Monday and that the train stations had luggage storage, apparently the newly risen Lord was looking out for us. So if took us an hour to find the luggage place because of course it was upstairs and behind the trains and all complicated. On top of this good fortune, my batteries died, so I have no pictures of the day I will just have to describe it to you. (Don't close your eyes though because then you won't be able to read the description.)

It was cold and just as we crossed the Liberty Bridge into Buda, on our ascent up Gellert Hill, it began to rain. Poor Lindsey's umbrella had snapped so we were both cowering under mine climbing up steep paths until we go to the citadel at the top. Then we realized it cost 4000 forints or something ridiculous like that to go inside the citadel. So we just walked to the Liberty statue (the one holding the giant feather in the photo above that I had taken the day before) So after all that cowering under the umbrella and hiking up, we ended up being at the top for maybe 20 minutes. The other side of the hill had better paths and the rain stopped so the descent was much more pleasant. At the base of the hill we walked into a glassed off niche that turned out to be a small cave that had been converted into a chapel. We warmed up in there for a little bit then braved the windy walk over another bridge back over to Pest. There we took shelter in the local market building and wandered through aisles of meats, fruits, paprika, and tourist junk. I was so tempted to buy one of the Buddha statues for Gwendolyn (you know, a Buddha from Budapest) but they were asking for a billion forints. We ate lunch in the little cafe at the market. I had pork and potatoes and Lindsey got goulash which in essence is also meat and potatoes but in soup form(typical Slavic nation food: meat, meat, potatoes, and meat.) A little bit down the street from there were a couple churches that we hadn't seen yet and then it was time to go get our luggage and head to the airport.

All in all a successful trip. Budapest was gorgeous and the free walking tours were the icing on the meat and potato cake.

Caving

Budapest has a huge amount of natural springs which is where they get all of their water. As a result several natural caves have formed in the limestone around the city. Lindsey and I wanted to go to one where the crevices are so winding that you have to wear overalls and helmets with lights, but that cave was closed for Easter so we ended up going to one where you just walk through on a normal tour. Not as thrilling, but it was still gorgeous. We were the only Americans in a huge tour group of Hungarians so we ended up not paying attention and taking pictures in the side passages because as you might know neither of us is fluent in Hungarian, I barely know how to say thank you- köszönöm(kersernerm). It was cold and dark and random stuff kept dripping on me. To make it even creepier the tour guide turned off all the lights and this chanting music started playing which would've been fine if we knew Hungarian because he probably gave warning in Hungarian but as it was, Lindsey and I freaked out more than what was necessary. I was very tempted to scream "What is happening?!" like our tour guide did when the lights went out in the catacombs in Italy, but he turned the lights back on before I had a chance. The I made Lindsey lay down like Chester Copperpot, but there was no treasure to be found in the cave.

Easter Sunday

We got up extra early (8:30AM) to make 10AM mass at St. Stephen's Basilica, but we got there and found out the website lied and that the mass was at 11. So we wrote down a later mass time and decided to go to the free walking tour again, this time though it was all about Budapest. Did you know that the Ottoman Turks razed the city after the Middle Ages and that no buildings in Budapest are older than 200 years? This is an old communist car produced in the 70's. It's made of reinforced cardboard and only has a 2 cylinder engine. It would not have lasted this long in America, the SUVs would have flattened it by now.

There is also a tradition of getting luck from touching statues. The fist is The Little Princess and it is the first non-communist statue in Budapest. Make a wish and touch her knees. The second is an equestrian statue of a Hungarian soldier and you get luck if you climb up like our tour guide is demonstrating and touch it's privates. (The latter tradition was begun by school boys, surprise surprise).


The tour ended in the Castle district in Buda and we wandered around until mass began at St. Matthias at 6PM. It was a gorgeous church with lots of abstarct designes because it was converted into a Mosque under the Turks and then back to Roman Catholic later on. Mass in Hungarian was definitely interesting but I have to say boring. Luckily there was a baptism so I got to focus on cute little kids running around. (I definitely missed old St. Peter's and the bloodbath Easter hunt at 48.)

Do you have a map?

Saturday was our first day in Budapest (which, we found out quickly, is pronounced Bu-da-pesht) We also found out that when the website for the hostel said they had internet access, luggage storage, and a free map, they actually meant they had none of those things. So we went outside and started to explore senza a map, until we happened upon a gas station and bought one. Budapest is quite large because it is 2 cities combined Buda and Pest, mind blown? So we took a metro to a place where our friend told us free walking tours began and there happened to be an Easter Market in the square, similar to Prague's. They had those round pastries and so of course we had to buy one before the tour began. And it was delightful.
We were just in time for the Jewish Quarter and Pubs tour. Budapest has the largest Synagogue in Europe and it was restored after WWII with the help of Tony Curtis. There is also the last piece of the Ghetto wall inside the courtyard of the synagogue.

This is a memorial to those Jews who were made to take off their shoes and then shot into the Danube by the Nazis.

The tour ended in a really cool pub which was a converted municipal building with second hand furniture and plants along the ceiling. We ended up going back after dinner and the place was a hip scene. If I ever go back to Budapest I would love to go back there with a whole group of friends because its one of those places you can sit, talk, and enjoy the quirkiness. Then Lindsey and I walked around the city and came across this fun dancing fountain, and we both agreed that by Italian standards this would not be considered a fountain, more just random water. We dined at what claimed to be Budapest's first Strudel House, and the duck and dumplings I had for an entree were delicious, however the strudel left something to be desired because it contained no sugar. The only thing that saved it was that it was served with a container of powdered sugar and I heaped that stuff on like there was no tomorrow. The strudel I had in Prague was far superior.