Big Beautiful Day in Budapest

Warning! alliteration with B's coming.

It was a busy day with a bus ride in Budapest today.

Weather: when we got around to go out for the day it was 69.  For you foreigners, that's 20 in dog years.  It got up to around 80...with bright sun (as you'll see from the pics) -- warm.

To begin: we started the day non-too early, except for vacationers, as no site opened till 10.

Here's a pic of breakfast:

EH tells me (there's a reason why she's "Encyclopedia Hicks," EH) that Hungarians love their donuts.  There's actually a listing of top 13 donut shops in Budapest.  NS!

The one in 2nd row down, center right, pink with black center, if you can read the label, is "Happy Poo."

And, Mrs H rightly reminded me of the Jim Gaffigan rift from his new Netflix special about getting caught bringing donuts into the country.  "You know you can get them here, right?" :)

Then to the bottom of the hill in Buda (we are on the Pest side) and the ride of the funicular.  Here's my video -- it would have been better if we'd gotten in the first car instead of the second.  But fun, nonetheless. 

From the top of Castle Hill, the views are amazing.  Here's one.  And here's the link the photo album for the first two days (link):

 We spent a bunch of time in the Hungarian Historical Museum, based around the ruins and not-so-ruins of Buda [not Pest] Castle.  What we learned (adding to EH status): Hungary has spent most of its known history being someone else's b***h.  :).  They even credit the HUNS!  NS!  Then to the Angevins for a few centuries.  There was a Luxemborg prince.  A whole line of Polish kings.  And we shouldn't forget either a century under the Ottomans, another under the Hapsburgs, the Soviets...bleep, I could go on and on.

That they have any real history left is kinda amazing.   And, on top of that, the dumbasses tried to blow up and destroy part of the castle foundation during a construction project in the 50s!  Sheesh.

But our favorite line went something like this about the Soviet era: "the design of this space was bleak and soulless."  Uh huh.  Proud of THAT heritage, say what.

Then we went for a Hop On/Hop Off bus.

This led to today's "can't you be more stupid" tourist "moment."  We were told by a cashier who spoke something like English (we neither speak anything like Magyar, the language here, so she was WAY ahead of us :)) that the stop was down the hill.  We found the stop and the sign had a 3 on the poster.  Stop #3.  Got it.

We waited over half an hour, and we thought the buses were half an hour apart.  After some thinking and wondering, I finally figured out that the 3 was in a black circle and the black circle meant the black line, which, LO AND BEHOLD!  was the NIGHT line!  It wasn't coming for hours.

We walked down to the base of the hill, found sign #20, had "lunch" (I had apple strudel, EH had some green s**t on a pastry, seasoned, I was told, with paprika (wait for it -- this will become a thing soon).

We then rode for an hour.

Two things worth mentioning we saw on the ride: the St. Margrit's Bridge takes an 150 degree turn in the middle of the river (on St. Margrit's Island).   I've never seen such a thing.  Bizarre.

And there are parts of Pest, designed by a Frenchman in the 19th century, that remind you of the boulevards like Hauptmann in Paris.  Unlike the Parisians, they allow gaudy signs and wires for things like street lights and public transport, but the broad avenues with those design buildings have that feel.

Then off, near the hotel.  We then stopped for official lunch, which avid readers will remember from last summer's California trip.  That's EH with her mango strawberry ice cream.  Lunch of the gods.  Okay, in chocolate, it's lunch of the gods.  Mango.  Yuck.

 Not far from the ice cream we found!  this is the Michael memorial picture -- "oh, s**t! there's a Starbucks here."  Wait till you see the picture of the Hard Rock (there was one on Grand Place yesterday in Brussels and there's one somewhere here -- we've decided where 5 Americans are gathered there has to be a Hard Rock.  And where's there's 5 wannabe Irish Americans, there's an Irish Pub (there's one on the main drag here...sigh).

 Now, to the Budapest Eye.  For those of you who don't know, I don't *DO* heights.  EH was amazed I willingly paid and went up.   I was only a little sick. :). But got those great photos, including this one, which is of our hotel (it's right across the street).  The entrance is in that shadow on the left side, but that's it.  We have an inner facing room, so you can't see me standing at the window.  Nevermind.

And, then, after a nap (I have a rule about naps in the vacation agenda, which has been violated constantly since 2002), to dinner.

Another Hungarian place.  This one is small and busy -- the only table we needed to sit down and be done in less than two hours.  Here' the amuse bouche, which had garlic sour cream on top.  ICYMI that orange colored powder on top is...wait for it...paprika!  Who knew?

 Meg had the prix fixe, which included this goulash soup.

 I had the vegetarian option, which was mushroom paprishka (see the orange powder on top?) with dumplings.

 You can see the other items in the link -- Meg had duck over cabbage and we had dessert, mine the chocolate sauce (terrible idea!) slathered sponge cake and Meg the apple torte with custard sauce.

Then we went to St. Stephen's Basilica for a concert.  The organist was quite good (duh).  What I found amazing was the place echoed so much from the dome that I didn't know how the singers didn't just stop to let it roll by -- it was like the echo sometimes stepped on the next line.  I will spare you my "comic" asides ("she's good with that fiddle") and say that Meg's takeaway was that they claim to have St. Stephen's mummified hand in the crypt.  He's only been dead a thousand years!  Gee, I don't get why she questions this.

And, to come full circle (pun intended), here's the Budapest Eye, after the concert, from our hotel entranceway.  Nice, eh?

Great day.  Tomorrow, some Budapest, then off to Vienna (we have hotel reservations there tomorrow night).  Don't count on a blog.  Just sayin'