Days 6, 7, 8: Budapest, Paris of Eastern Europe

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Geo: 47.4984, 19.0408

Szia (Hello) from Budapest!

Waiting for our ride to the train station for our overnight train ride to Krakow, Poland after three wonderful and activity-packed days in Budapest. While our time in Prague was great, we loved Budapest even more.

We'll try to tell most of our Budapest story in pictures attached to this blog entry, but here's a summary of our time here:

Arrived in Budapest the morning of Saturday, October 1 rummy as all get-out after the all-night train ride from Prague. Couldn't check into our hotel room yet, so we dumped the bags and staggered out into the bright sunshine, heading over to the Absolute Budapest walking tour company (founded and owned by an Oregonian, by the way). We were signed up for the 3 1/2 hour walking tour of Budapest the next day, but decided to just throw sleeplessness to the wind and head out with Saturday's 10:00am group.

It was a struggle and challenge fighting train fatigue, but ended up being a great overview of the entire city (actually, two -- Buda, the old historic city on the west of the Danube River, and Pest, the home of many of the city's major attractions, on the east side of the river). We traveled by foot, Metro, genuine strudel, a lot more walking and hiking, and city bus, covering just about every major sight, at least as a walk-by. Gave us a great orientation for future outings and adventures. Ended the day with a great meal at Stone Soup restaurant in the Jewish Quarter close to our hotel.

Sunday, we caught a mass (in Hungarian, of course!) at St. Stephen's Basilica, then walked through the Jewish Quarter, dined at Soul Food Budapest, cleaned up, attended a Hungarian Folklore performance, then set out on a Danube River cruise to see the sights from the river. Discovered that the Metro had shut down for the night, so hoofed it all the way back to the hotel at midnight.

Today is Monday, October 3, and we're a week into this Eastern Europe trip. Mike splurged and had his t-shirts and underwear laundered -- everything had been worn and stunk, even after hand-washing in sinks and showers. Spent most of the day at the Great Market Hall, via Metro and trolley, came back to do a walk-through of the Opera House a block from the hotel, and now we await the next leg.

Viszontlátásra (good-bye), Budapest! We fell in love with you and will remember you always.

We awake in Krakow!

Mike and Sharon /  Dad and Mom

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