so i'm really digging budapest. it's a very cool city, and i now have 3 favorites that i really can't choose between. and there's still germany - oh man. anyway, we have free internet at the hostel i'm staying at, so i'm taking advantage of it and writing another post. 2 posts in just a couple days.. wow!we've been quite busy since we've arrived. there is just a ton to see (as in every major city), and luckily for us, a lot of sites are free or cheap. definitely under budget here, which is nice because it will allow us to splurge a bit. like good meals. and like getting a massage in an hungarian spa/bath. that hasn't happened yet, but it will this wednesday. a little indulgence is a good thing.
anyway, day two of budapest was actually quite a lot of walking. almost too much, but oh well. i guess when the book recommends taking public transport to get somewhere, you should listen to it. anyway, we started out by venturing to a flea market that was a bit out of town. walked
there which took an hour, and walked around the market. a bunch of vendors were not set up, i guess because it wasn't saturday, so there wasn't a ton to see. still interesting. lots of paintings and furniture and knick-knacks that would have been potential purchases, had i not been in budapest and backpacking.from there we took the bus back (thankfully) and walked (again, should have used the transport) up to a cave called szemlo-hegy, it was interesting. and definitely something different. by the time we walked back (ugh, my feet..) it was too late to go to the statue park as planned, so instead we went up to castle hill again, bought our cheap postcards and headed for the national gallery, which was inside the royal palace. and free - whoo.
had another gelati and wandered back to the hostel to eat our leftovers for dinner. one of our roommates, carol, mentioned that she was going to a hungarian folk dance with our host's girlfriend and her friend, and asked if anyone wanted to join. i was definitely interested because - how cool is that?! so after we ate, we were getting ready to head out when sylvie (the friend)
said we couldn't wear our jeans and capris, we had to wear skirts. we kinda laughed, until she went into her bag and brought out 3 skirts for us each to wear. one was plain green, one was plain brown, and one had dangling sequins that jingled. i called "no beads!" first before anyone. guess which one i was handed to wear.yes, i jingled as i walked through the streets of budapest. and you know how much i like to wear skirts..
but the folk dancing was a blast, unlike anything i've tried. i got the basic steps down, but then they'd add all these extra stomps and lots of spinning and jumps, and i was lost. i'm sure there were some out of towners there like us, but my goodness, these people are for real and very good at what they do. it was just awesome to see young and old all gathering on a thursday night at this club. great times and a totally unique experience, wish it could have been caught on tape.
today we walked over to parliament, but couldn't get in because of all the security (we just missed the riots by less than a week). there were still some people camping outside of the building, but none were confrontational, at
least not in the daytime. next was over to st. stephen's basilica, where they have his right hand on display. it's almost 1000 years old, but it's preserved. very bizarre. made it over to statue park today, where they have a few of the old communist statues on display that were not distroyed after the soviets moved out. next it was a walking tour through pest that took us to the terror haza, which was the headquarters for the secret police under both the nazis and the soviets. crazy stuff. AND craziest of all - there was a room filled with postcards from people that emigrated from hungary. so i glanced around and my eyes drifted to one that said - no joke - manasquan, nj... what in the world?! i wanted so badly to sneak a picture of it. i think it was st. dennis church on the card, but the town was so under developed that it was hard to really tell. funny stuff, of all places to see a postcard of your home town..were going to try to make it to a bath today as well, but we spent too much time in the terror house. so tomorrow it's off to lake balaton for 3 nights, before we come back to budapest on wednesday. we will definitely do the baths and massages then. it'll be a nice ending to the trip for theresa, and a nice rest before i start germany for me.
til next time kids..
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