Days three and four

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Hi

I haven't been able to get on a computer in a little while. But that is okay.

Day three
Pretty good day. It was Revolution day so there were SO many people in the city. They closed down one of the bridges so it was just for pedestrians. From my room you can see the National museum where they gathered in the morning. There were tons of people and a big screen in the street. We watched from the window. We couldn't understand what they were saying but that's okay... They also had singing and stuff. They dispersed after a while and we went out for lunch. We went to Zoe Cafe and I had the goulash. It was good except the beef was so fatty. We had strudel for dessert and it was really yummy. It had vanilla sauce on it and some kind of.. cheese? in the middle. Yum. After that I had a nap... and then we went for a walk.

We decided to explore the Buda side of the river. We crossed liberty bridge, the one very close to our hostel. We were going to go to the cave church but it was closed I think due to the festivities. We walked along the water on that side of the river. We came to a monument on the same hill we climbed a few days ago, but further down. We went up to it and took pictures. There was a good view of Buda palace. Then, we decided that we would go check it out (the palace that is). The palace is now a history museum and a national gallery. It is very pretty outside and has lots of really nice court yards! It is also up on a hill so there is a wonderful view of Buda on one side (which is more nature and hills and homes) and of the river and Pest on the other side (which is more flat and city-ish) Because of the holiday, entrance into the palace was free. We checked out the gallery. They made us check our coats in the cloakroom.

After that, I had it in my mind that since we were in the vicinity, we should go to Fisherman's Bastion, which I really wanted to see. So we did. We had to walk through streets full of people. They were just pedestrian streets. There were a lot of booths and wagons along the side. Someone was selling these little bird call whistles, and all the children had them. That was annoying. Because the city was so full, there were tonnnnns of people on the Bastion and half of it was closed off for some reason. It was still really neat and had a great view. After that it was started to get dark and we thought we would start heading back. It was soooo pretty when it got dark with the lights and everything. The chain bridge was beautiful, and so was the palace and the castles etc across the water. We got some really good pictures. We had a great walk back.

That night we played cards and with the chess set I bought at the market. We played a couple of games of chess and backgammon. It was fun except I lost really bad.

Day Four
Today was pretty great. We started it off by heading across the bridge to the cave church. Which is just what it sounds like. It is a really neat church in the side of a hill made from a cave.

For lunch we went into the market and got some food. Evan got some rolls and salami (the guy tried to make him buy a whole big stick thing of salami but Evan just wanted some slices). I bought a pastry filled with cheese and bacon. We also got some cake! We came back to the hostel to eat it, and then headed up to Parliament. This time we decided to not walk along the water and walked up pedestrian streets in Pest. It was really cool.
It is modeled after Britain's Parliament, Westminster Palace. It is really beautiful from the outside. However, there were lots of school groups there, so there weren't any tickets left. We'll have to go tomorrow.

After this snag in our plan, we decided to go to Saint Stephen's basilica, and MAN was that cool (and HUGE). First we walked up to the top (half walked up stairs, half went on an elevator). The view was SO amazing. It has a big round top so you can walk all around. Panoramic view! Then we went down into the actual basilica. It was so beautiful. Breath taking. Gorgeous. High, ornate ceilings, paintings, gold... so pretty.Got lots of pics there! After the main part, you can head off to the side. So we did. There was some extra stuff over there which was cool. One of the things was Saint Stephen's hand.. It was preserved or something. I think they found it intact or something like that. Now it is in the basilica. You couldn't really get a good view of it because it was in a glass case which was in another decorative glass case in the middle of a roped off area. It was still neat.

Then we walked back and popped into a few other churches on the way. St. Micheal's was one. A wonderful day.

One of the hostel guys says it is supposed to rain tomorrow. I hope that it doesn't because we do all of our traveling around the city by walking! I don't want to be out in the rain. It takes about 45 mins or so to walk to parliament. We'd show up and be all soggy. Oh well. What can you do? It will be great no matter what. So far we have been blessed with lovely weather.

We are thinking that we will eat at the market for lunch again tomorrow. There is this Hungarian thing that Evan has been really wanting to try called Langos (Lang-Gosh) and we saw it at one of the stalls. We'll probably try that tomorrow! They also had sausages and Evan has been also wanting to try Hungarian sausage. It will be great.

I'm having such a great trip.
Wish us luck with the weather tomorrow!
Love you all and hope that all is well.

Cheers
Beth

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Comments

[Sabrina Burns]

Wow-za!
Hey lady! Your trip sounds amazing! I'm really jealous of all this cool stuff you're seeing but I'm also super happy for you! Such a cool experience! Please put some pictures up; it's difficult to experience this trip vicariously through you without images ;) Take care and I hope the weather is nice! :D