Day 41: Kecskemet and Photo Museum

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Today is July 4^th: Happy Birthday USA!



There are 3 train stations in Budapest: Deli (we arrived there from Croatia); Keleci (more international traffic; we traveled to and from Bratislava and will go to Salzburg); and Nyugati (inland/national trains). We took a tram and the metro to get to the Nyugati station. We were headed to see the Hungarian Photography Museum in Kecskemet.



This morning, we had breakfast in the Gellert Hotel, and left around 8:00 am. We found the ticket office and got round trip, 2^nd class, for approximately $25.00 USD each round trip. 2^nd class was nice: we had assigned seats in a clean, comfortable, air conditioned car…SO nice!!!! The trip was 1 hour 15 minutes.



Kecskemet was unexpectedly DELIGHTFUL! We walked out of the train station, through a park, and followed (really) a yellow brick road into the town center. There were beautiful squares with fountains and statues, churches, fountains, museums, theatres, town hall, art gallery. There were several examples of Art Nouveau architecture including the town hall and the local art gallery. It was a little cooler in Kecskemet than in Budapest, lots of shady streets, and a nice breeze. This was my favorite place in Hungary!



We went through the photography museum, which had a nice collection of old cameras, and an exhibit of Hungarian photographers from the first half of the 20^th century. I didn’t see any contemporary work, as I’d hoped, but really enjoyed what I did see.



We ate our picnic lunch in one of the shady parks, and stopped for a Borsodi beer (Hungarian) in one of the bars along the main square. We left on the 1:47pm train and got back to Budapest around 3:00pm. The AC did not work well on this train, and the conductor was frustrated; he brought all of us large bottles of water near the end of the trip!



We hit the Baths again. It felt so good to be in the cool water outside, as well as the thermal baths inside. We spent several hours relaxing. Gary even used the sauna, although we both have felt like we have been in a sauna for several days.



Finally I am becoming comfortable in Budapest. I can maneuver through the city on a tram, bus, metro and on foot. I have been to all 3 train stations and across many bridges. I am liking it better, and now wish I had a couple of more weeks to know the city better.



We went back to the “Nevada” Restaurant, with the mural scenes from the New Mexico desert, and had a great pork dish, French fries, goulosh soup and Greek salad for dinner.



We went back to the hotel but it was so hot that it was hard to sleep. We had iced wine sitting in the large window/balcony, watching the traffic on the bridge. We ended up sleeping half on the balcony and half in the room on improvised bedrolls! Nice breeze outside.



More Photos Below.

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