Hungary Day 5

In the morning on Thursday, Jamie and I went along with Tim and Maya to see the Parliament building. It was built around the turn of the 20th century, and is a beautiful gothic style building. We had a guided tour (in English!) of the interior, which included seeing the very impressive main staircase, the crown jewels of Hungary, and the over-gilded parliament meeting room. After the tour, we walked along the Danube to see the shoes monument. I'm sure it has an actual name, but the gist is that there are life-sized bronze shoes lining the river wall to represent the Jewish people who were forced into the river. At the time, shoes were expensive, so the people were asked to remove them before being murdered. After walking along the monument, we visited Liberty Square before heading to Raday Utca for some lunch. After lunch, we went back to check out Heroes Square (since Jamie and I hadn't seen it yet). Maya and I (and eventually Jamie) then went back to the hotel for another swim in the thermal pools. While we were chillaxing, Tim took the tram to Gellert Hill and climbed up for some impressive views back over Budapest. Maya and I cleaned up and met Tim for dinner on Andrassy street at a cute 70s soviet kitsch restaurant. As we wandered back down Andrassy street, we stopped into a fancy chocolate dessert shop for some desserts and hot chocolate.