Esztergom

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Friday July 12 – Today I got older. It happens. So I took myself to Esztergom to celebrate. Esztergom is a city outside of Budapest that has the largest church in Hungary, a basilica. I got off the bus and wandered around a bit, and then made my way towards the church. It is really big, and sits on a hill, so you can see it for miles. I walked around some more, taking pictures across the vast space of the basilica, and then bought a ticket to go up to the dome and down to the crypt, as well as to the treasury. The treasury made me realize that no one owns prettier things than the popes. Holy gold. Next I walked so many circular narrow stairs to get to the dome that I was almost dizzy. Down was harder. But the views were great. The crypt was like many others. Cold and dark. I liked it. From here I went to the Christian museum, to see some art work. It talked me that Jesus had a body we should all strive for and Mary was not afraid of breast feeding in public. From there I thought about taking a bus to Visegrad, which I was going to do as a day trip tomorrow but have already decided not to. It would take a couple hours either way and I could not get excited about it enough for that. But if I went now, I would be late for my own birthday dinner. So I went back to Budapest, did a little skyping, and then headed over to my friend David’s place. He lived close, only about 15-20 minute walk. He made me a tomato pie for dinner, with greek yogurt and caramel sauce for dessert. Yum. It was so good. Such a nice treat. After dinner we went for a walk for an hour or two and then he walked me back to my place. It was a really nice evening, and a great birthday.

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