Are you HUNGARY for Budapest?

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May 21st 2007

Published: August 8th 2007

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Kerlyn

Is this the "Pest" view or what?

of the House of Parliament

A sightseeing city tour of Budapest included HERO'S SQUARE, but only driving by House of Parliament and the Royal Palace. Hero's Square is next to City Park and in the center is Millennium Memorial. The statues are leaders of seven tribes that founded Hungary in the 9th century. There are also statues of important men in Hungarian history behind the memorial. The Museum of Fine Arts and Palace of Art are beside it. From here we passed the sights of Parliament, the Danube and Margaret's Island, and many different buildings. We walked up Castle Hill and viewed Monastery of War with its' numerous bullet holes and then to FISHERMEN'S BASTION and MATTHIAS CHURCH. This is on the hilly buda side of the Danube and was built between 1895-1902. The 7 towers represent 7 Magyar tribes that settled in 896. Matthias Church is also here and had scaffolding over the front that made for "zoom in on certain areas" pictures! There was a man sitting with a bird who was charging people about $10 to get their picture with it. No thanks. The area was crowded but still pretty and had lovely views of the Danube and pest side.

We were

New friends

Ying, me, our wonderful Hungarian guide; Tunde, Suzi and Sharon

later dropped of on VACI UTCA which is a large shopping area for tourists. We couldn't decide where to eat so we opted for Burger King. Yes I know, sometimes you just crave food from back home. Plus, we didn't have to pay for the bathroom and we would be having traditional Hungarian food later. It was really hot and about 90 degrees! There was more scaffolding over many buildings. What a disappointment! On the bus coming back from Szentendre, Suzi, Sharon from Australia and Ling from England bought Hungarian shirts and Suzi convinced them to wear the new purchases to our Hungarian folklore dinner excursion tonight. Back at the hotel I purchased a white shirt with red trim because I didn't want to feel left out. I was very happy with it; so comfortable!

When we got on the bus, we were met with cheers and woos from the crowd and were told how nice we looked! Suzi and I sat with Mick, Kerry, Paul and Sharon from Adelaide, Australia and we had a blast! We were greeted with a strong welcome drink in a green little man. GOULASH was the aperitif and of course was tasty. A

Hero's Square

looking to the left

man came around with 2 long glass tubes that held red and white wine and he never missed the glass, no matter how far away it was! 😊 Next came the huge traditional plate of turkey, beef, pork, pasta and cole slaw that the 6 of us shared. While we ate, we were entertained by Hungarian dancers with colorful costumes. As promised, Tunde, our guide danced for us on the stage in which she got a big applause from the entire audience.

The 4 of us got our pictures taken together in our shirts and then Tunde joined us. Our evening ended at 11pm which was one of our later nights! haha To top the night off, Franco our bus driver played DISCO music on the way back! Thanks, Franco! 😊 This ended up being one of my favorite dinners and excursion!

Money paid for the Bathroom today- 0

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