Rested from Romania on to a Sprint thru Budapest

After four long nights of uninterrupted sleep and lazy days of laying around on the beach in Romania I was once again rested and ready for the road. I had three days to see everything there was to see in Budapest and I crammed all that I could into them. On the afternoon I arrived I purchased a two day Big Bus Tour pass that gave me 48 hours of hop on hop off rights on their site seeing buses and river cruises.

The first thing I relearned upon returning to Budapest is that their money is worthless. One U.S. dollar is worth about 250 Hungarian Florets. Using the Airport ATM to obtain Hungarian Currency was a little bit of a shock. My choices were 100,000, 250,000, 500,000, and 1,000,000 florets. Thought I was quite the high roller until I found out my taxi fare from the airport was 70,000 florets. A simple breakfast was 6,000 florets – its like spending Monopoly money.

I think the Hungarians have developed this whacky money system to fleece tourists. Who knew that the gypsies ran Hungary!

I began my tour of Budapest aimlessly walking the isles of the 1890’s Budapest Central Market Hall. This huge cavernous building houses three floors of vendor stalls selling everything from vegetables to spices to fruits to meats to locally produced wines to souvenirs. I’ve provided photos that can provide a much better description of the scene than simple words could ever convey.

After soaking in the scene in the market I hopped on one of the double decker buses for a quick one and half hour bus tour of the major sites and to get my bearings for the next three days. I had forgotten how damn hot it is sitting in the sun on those buses and how uninclined Europeans are to wear deodorant. Talk about the unwashed masses! You would think we were still back in the Middle Ages – Where was my nosegay filter?

Next morning I was up early to walk across the Chain Bridge an up Buda Hill before the sun got to hot. Once on top I spent most of the day walking the grounds of the Buda Castle, touring the National Gallery, History Museum, Matthias Church, and the Fisherman’s Bastion. After wearing myself out I marched back down Buda Hill and headed straight for the Central Market Hall to buy some fresh fruit. I loaded up on cherries, strawberries, peaches and plums and headed back to my hotel to wash and enjoy my fruit.

After a quick fruit break I headed out again to catch a Danube Folk Dinner Cruise and to take some night photos of both the Buda and Pest skylines. I think I may have been spoiled in Georgia because I thought the Hungarian dancers were just Ho Hum. Georgia folk dances are dramatic and action packed. Hungarian folk dances consists mainly of guys stomping their feet and slapping their hands on their boots, knees thighs and asses. Okay for the first 30 seconds but after that I was ready to move on. I did get some great night shots of Buda Castle, Matthias Church, Parliament Building and the Chain Bridge though.

I will break this blog off at this point and post a separate blog on my visit to Gellert Hill, Photos of the first two days are attached