COUPLE OF DAYS IN BUDAPEST

Budapest is the most comfortable city so far, I think.  It has such a wonderful lived in feeling about it. Sure there are tourists galore, but nowhere near as crowded as some of the other places we have been where we seemed to be walking round groups with matching headsets in following someone with a folded umbrella or equiv held aloft. Of course we are a small group following our leader, small enough not to require a marker.

The castle looms large on the horizon overlooking the river.  It is impossible to imagine the cities on either side not being connected by a bridge, as it is to imagine the loony king jumping on his horse from one ice block to another to cross.  Today the grounds are being filled with small wooden stalls as there is a festival of bread there this weekend.

Bogata, our cycling leader, is very informative and very generously takes her time with us.  We took a while longer than we anticipated,  having a great time cruising along, stopping at various sites and learning not just the physical history but also the background and political history. Those experiences so very very far removed from not just mine, but Australian experience at large.  We finish in a very cool retro beer garden in the city park, which we enjoy so well that Bogata gives us an encore in a second one. Great trip all round.

This building is the former Hungarian  NazI headquarters during WWII which then became the headquarters of the Hungarian secret police under Communist rule.  It is known as the House of Terror and now houses a very moving museum remembering those regimes and what went on in the building. Rob and I are very glad we followed up on the advice that we should not miss it.

Friday night, our last night with the current tour group, we head up to Gellert Hill after dinner. The view is wonderful, the city laid out like fairyland below us. A fitting end - L taking night shots, having a drink, seeing a wild hedgehog, walking down through the hill park by the light of our phones,  back across the river, through the city to fall into bed worn out.

Saturday at breakfast we farewell our fellow travellers and have a very cruisy day drifting around town, seeing the city market and a marvellous building Mai Mano Haz.  This housed a nightclub in the past and is one of the most beautiful buildings I have seen. Today it houses a stunning photographic exhibition by a photographer neither of us knew by name..Sylvia Plachy.  She had a column in the Village Voice for many years which was an uncaptioned photograph chronicling life in New York.  Every picture in this exhibition contains an entire story. We are so glad we saw it.  And it led us to a dance festival in a nearby square where everyone was having a great time. That is always infectious so we obviously did too.

More pictures to see at my Flickr photos