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.

 

Hungary Day 4

On Wednesday, we went together on a walk through central Pest. We started at the upper end of Vaci Utca, walked a bit along the Danube, wandered down and around Vaci Utca, saw City Hall, saw a nice park, and ended up in the main market. The highlight of the walk, at least for me, was the Parisian Gallery. It's an abandoned shopping center with ornate woodwork and stained glass that seems to be pretty much forgotten in a really bustling part of the city. Tim says he read somewhere that it's fallen into disrepair and is too costly to maintain. After the walk, we went back up to the beginning and had some coffee/hot chocolate at Cafe Geraud before I took my leave of Tim and Maya to head back to the conference. The two of them went to a little cafe tucked in behind city hall (Cafe Gerloczy). Maya ordered goulash again, which she liked, but when she caught a glimpse of Tim's pasta with salmon, she insisted on a trade. After lunch, they headed to the art museum housed in Buda castle. Surprisingly, they *both* enjoyed that. They came back to the hotel in the late afternoon because I had fortuitously come across two additional free invitations to the conference banquet, which was dinner on a boat ride down the Danube, complete with folk music and dancing. It was a blast.

Hungary Day 3

On Tuesday, Tim and Maya started the day by visiting the baths (pools) here in the hotel. There are three pools, each successively warmer than the previous. While they liked them all, I understand that the warmest one was the favorite overall. The showered up and headed out to City Park. They found a (pretty touristy) restaurant where they had some crepes and fanta for lunch, then they went to the zoo. I hear that the zoo was surprisingly nice, and they had a good time. They played around in a park a little, then visited Heroes Square and other outdoor sites in city park before having some Italian food for dinner and heading back to the hotel.