My text is below. I always seem to have a little trouble putting the photos into blogger where I want them.
These are Swedish soccer fans who were raising a happy ruckus with some support from police. They were orderly and fun to listen to.
The Basilica which proclaims in gold, Ego Sum Via Veritas Et Vita. Larry, who took Latin at Montgomery Academy, translated to: I am the way to truth and life.
This is the raven or Turul Bird that led the migrating Magyar people into their permanent home in Hungary.
A vista from Buda looking over to where our apartment is on the left side of the bridge.
Lion statues were everywhere. Nice kitty, Paula says.
I loved the fountain of King Mattias at the castle.
The castle was destroyed many times, then rebuilt.
This was taken inside of Matthias Church. It is decorated with a Hungarian twist.
St. Istvan, Hungary's first Christian king who tamed the nomadic, pagan Magyars.
We saw a procession of musicians in folk costumes.
St. Mary Magdalene's church, which was bombed out in WWII. They rebuilt it as a monument.
Buda from the Pest side.
Our apartment courtyard. You can see the old style of architecture. It is an attractive building, which just needs a little sprucing up here and there.
Larry is working on the locks. It takes awhile to master the locking. You can see how bright the sun is.
Yesterday we left Paris and flew to Budapest. We left the comforts of a magnificent city for the adventure of an unknown place. So far it seems like we made a good choice. First, I do want to report the mundane details so we or my readers can recreate our journey. We traveled from our apartment in Paris to Orly Airport by Metro and the Orlybus. That was easy, economical, and only took about 1 hour. There were a few stairs to go up and down, but nothing like we would have had if we had taken Metro all the way, which was a possibility. We flew with EasyJet. We found an inexpensive airfare on the internet and booked the flight before we left. It was in the neighborhood of $100 a person and only took 1 hour and 45 minutes. I was a little apprehensive about flying with EasyJet because I had heard that they were sticklers for carry-on baggage and charged exorbitant fees if you tried to exceed their limit. They do only allow 1 carry-on period, but are very clear about what they allow, so it is not a mystery to anyone. We checked one expandable suitcase for 15 euros, which was comparable to US fees, and each carried on a bag. The flight was comfortable and went smoothly. I would do it again. We looked up how to get from the Budapest airport to our apartment downtown on public transit from information supplied by our host and also in Rick Steves book. It was as straightforward as it sounded. However, Larry was a little shaky about the process. First, we found a cash machine to get the local currency (not Euros). Then we bought our transit passes, then found the bus that would take us to the Metro (underground). A friendly lady helped us find the metro station (blue line). Before we knew it, we were at our stop. It was a little chaotic finding the right direction to walk to the apartment, but we didn't get too lost. Our apartment is right by the Danube, so we just had to head for the river. Why didn't we take a taxi? I had read that scamming by taxi drivers is a huge problem in Budapest, so I didn't want to deal with that. Plus, our directions on public transportation were clear. We are already prepared for our train trip to Prague. We bought our train tickets today at the station, so know the route and how long it will take.
We are staying in a comfortable 1 bedroom apartment near the tourist attractions and the Danube. Here is the website which has some good photos of the apartment: http://www.holidayinbudapest.com/ Unfortunately, the apartment has some challenges. The washer, a newer one, has icons on it. We are just guessing on how to use it until the owner emails the manual to us. The shower diverter is broken, so we are making due with baths. The doors are tricky to lock. Other than these challenges, the apartment is spacious and comfortable with all the modern conveniences we would want. It is just a few minutes' walk to the "food hall", which is similar to Pike Place Market. It has a grocery store in the basement, so it is easy for us to pick up things.
Enough about little details! You are wondering what we did on our first full day in Budapest. We decided to by a comprehensive Legenda Pass that is good for 4 days of transit plus a river cruise and museum discounts. It took us about an hour to trek over to the place that sold them. We then decided to take the transit over to the train depot to check on tickets for Prague. After taking care of that, we wanted to do the walking tour of old Buda, the city on top of the hills on the other side of the Danube. We thought we were on a roll with the transit and hopped on a bus that we thought we could hop off of. Instead, we discovered it was an express bus that didn't stop where we thought it should. When we finally got off of it, we were puzzling over how to get to the right place, when a helpful man directed us to the correct transfer point. Once we made it there, we still wandered around for several minutes before finding the bus up the hill to the castle. We were much relieved when we finally made it there. Larry points out that we don't have as detailed a map of Budapest as we had in Paris. That made it easier to figure out what to do.
My annotated photos above show what we saw on our walking tour. It was very pleasant to go to Bud in mid afternoon. The crowds weren't bad at all and there was enough shade to make the temperatures pleasant. I loved the views across the river into Pest as well as the old, historic buildings. Larry and I walked back. It was mostly downhill, so it wasn't a bad walk. We found a grocery store for a few more supplies, then walked along a tourist area street where we heard some Swedish soccer fans wildly celebrating their team playing tonight. By chance we stumbled upon a nice restaurant that advertised a vegetarian menu as well as Hungarian specialties, Cyrano. Both of us were happy with our selections. We returned home, tired but happy.
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