This morning we did a bus and walking tour of Budapest with Tamas, since he was born and lives here. We drove to Heroes Square first and were told of the significance of the many statues here:
Next stop was St Stephen's Basilica. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good photo of the outside since we were too rushed. The inside was very nice though and I was even able to photograph the relic of St Stephen - his right hand. A bit grotesque, really...
Then we drove up to the top of the hill of Buda Old Town which also has the palace and Coronation Church and Fishermens. Bastion. It’s possible to get the cog railway to the top as well. This railway used to be used to get goods up to the kitchen. Now it’s used to get the tourists up the hill. The palace itself is mostly reconstructed and not very authentically at that. Therefore, I didn't bother taking many photos of it here. The views from here across to Pest were pretty amazing though:
After this we walked through the Old Town (or at least a very small part of it):
towards the Coronation Church and the Fishermen’s Bastion just beyond it. The church has a beautifully tiled roof:
And is very richly decorated inside (as well as still being renovated on one wing of it):
Just behind the church is a statue of St Stephen (who was also the King). There were a couple of falconers hanging about there too.
Behind this, facing the Danube, is the Fishermen’s Bastion. This was built by the fishermen guild to provide a lovely view across to the Pest side of the river. I think the Fishermen’s Bastion is a worthy view itself:
We went up on that to get some nice photos,
And then walked down the many steps to meet the bus:
The tour bus then passed through the old Jewish quarter on the way back to the hotel:
I teamed up with Frank and Bridget for lunch at Liszt Square:
We chose a place that was quite full, thinking the food must be good. They had a two course special for about $A4, consisting of a lovely vegetable soup, followed with a pea soup with rissoles. To be honest, the peas tasted like they came out of a can, but it was still nice. I ate the lot anyway! Frank ate most of his, but Bridget didn’t like hers much at all. Unfortunately, Frank was ill that evening. I maintain it wasn’t the soup, though! :
We then parted ways and I headed off to the Jewish Quarter with its mixture of old and freshly-renovated facades:
I stopped at the Kazinczy Synagogue which is an orthodox Synagogue. It cost about $A3 admission, including a tour, but was worth it. It's very pretty inside, and the guide was very informative:
I continued further on through courtyards and side streets:
Until I reached Doharty Synagogue. Admission here was over $A5 for one Synagogue and the Museum, but again included a guided tour. This is the biggest Synagogue in Europe, and second biggest in the world. But there aren't very many members with the tiny Jewish population in Budapest now. There were a lot of tourists, however! The funny thing was that the Synagogue looked like it was a converted church in its form and setup, but apparently it was just designed by a Christian.
There are a few monuments in the garden, including some to non-Jews who have done some good deeds for the Jews:
Each of the 'leaves' on this 'tree' has a name engraved on it.
I then went through the Jewish Museum, though I was quite rushed by this time, since I needed to be back at the hotel for 6.30pm:
I hurried on past some more nice buildings:
towards New York Cafe, which is quite famous. I had intended to have a coffee there, but felt quite inadequately dressed and short on time, so only took a quick snap (ignoring the no photos sign):
Then I really had to get a move on to make it back to the hotel and get ready for the Folklore night. This was a 20 or 30 minute drive through Buda into a wildlife park where there was a huge tavern to receive tourists. We were greeted at the entrance with a bun and some sort of peach liqueur to drink. It was very nice. The tavern was beautifully decorated too:
Their method of pouring white wine was interesting:
Then there was dancing and music while we ate our goulash soup and other yummy Hungarian specialties and as much wine and beer as we wanted:
After dinner we headed up the hill to Gellert Citadel for views over the city and river. This view is a listed UNESCO World Heritage site. Definitely worth coming up here. I was even able to take a couple of shots with slow shutter speed by resting my camera on the ground (even though it had been raining...). You'll have to wait for this until I get home, though, because it will be a panorama. The photo below is not one of those, but gives you an idea of what the view was like:
Another late night, especially since I’d taken quite a lot of photos today and they had to be captioned…
