Budapest, Hungary

I had the fortunate opportunity to spend the weekend in Budapest with Suzie, Sandra, Rachel, and Tracy. We had a great time. The city is gorgeous and the weather was unbelievable!!! We flew EasyJet and I realized that maybe you get what you pay for sometimes. The flights were late by an hour both leaving and coming back, but other than that it was a decent airline. The Budapest airport was a riot. No passport control....meaning no stamp in my passport....whah! Oh well.

So Friday night we arrived and headed next door to the State Opera House to see Mozart's Don Giovanni. I had never been to an opera before so I was excited. The opera house is beautful and the music was amazing. However....we had Uecker seats on the side and I could see maybe 3 feet of the stage. Meaning....I saw nothing!!! So we left at intermission or as Suzie would say, "halftime". It was ok though, we only paid like 2 dollars for the tickets! We then went to a really nice restaurant for some authentic Hungarian food. Lots of fun!

Saturday morning we headed to the Szechenyi Baths. WOW! Amazing is all I can say. The baths were beautiful and hot! The sun was shining. The people watching was priceless. LOTS of beer belly, gold chain wearing, speedo clan, Hungarian men. Priceless. We stayed there for over two hours and all felt like jelly when we left. We dropped off our stuff back at the hotel and headed out for lunch. We dined el fresco outside St. Stephen's Basilica. We skipped viewing the mummified hand of St. Stephen...sorry Ann Marie, I know you'll be disappointed. (My cousin and her husband lived in Budapest for a year). After lunch we walked across the Chain Bridge and wandered up to the Castle District where we strolled for a few hours. In the evening we stumbled upon an outdoor market where we dined on sausage and goulash and drank Hungarian beer.

Sunday we headed out early to see the Great Synagogue. It is the largest synagogue in Europe and the 2nd largest in the world. We took the English speaking tour which was very informative. Hungarian history is a tragic one and the history of the Jews in Hungary...well I just can't quite capture it in words. The tour included a museum and memorial to Holocaust victims. The synagogue itself was beautiful and has unique architectual elements. It is not designed like a traditional synagogue.

We left the synagogue and headed to the Parliament Building. Unfortunately the tickets were already sold out and we couldn't go inside. We then made our way to the banks of the Danube to the shoes on the Danube memorial which is a memorial to a tragic historical event. It was an emotionally heavy morning and we walked quietly back towards the market we had found the night before. We stopped at the famous Gerbeaud cafe for their well known cakes and then headed down the main shopping area until we needed to head back to the hotel to catch our shuttle.

It was a very full weekend and very enjoyable. I am very grateful to Dan for watching the kids so I could get away with friends. We are already wondering where we'll go next....