egész este - all evening (hungarian)

our morning surroundings.

our evening surroundings.

day 2: marathon of music

day 2 in budapest started with a trip to one of europe's finest patisseries, the most famous in budapest, cafe gerbeaud. we figured on a saturday morning it would be crowded - perhaps reminiscent of our breakfast in florence - but it was almost entirely empty. after the awkward moment in every international trip where you establish that you have not actually taken time to learn basic words in their language, we ordered a couple of pastries. i had a traditional crescent shaped roll of sorts filled with poppyseeds. it was excellent. i was tempted to buy an entire dobostorta, but there was no good way to get it home to california.

after our breakfast we headed for castle hill. this is where the entire town of buda once was located. the royal palace sits off to one side and the old town with 4 narrow main streets, the fisherman's bastion, and the mattias church. and, as you may have guessed, it all lies on top of a hill. we chose to walk the steps, not a bad little hike, and check out the church. there i saw a sign promoting the choir from my childhood church in colorado. small world. the church had an intricate and colorful mosaic roof that was really dazzling for the 5 minutes the sun came out. and the interior was equally dazzling. we even got to see the saint crown which is very special to hungarians. it was originally made in the 3rd century or something crazy like that. very cool.

next we walked up and around the fisherman's bastion, which is almost like a fortress wall without a fort behind it. it is made of giant limestone slabs and has turrets and archways and plenty of little walkways leading to sweeping views of the danube and pest on the other side. we spent a long time lingering and just looking out across the "great plain" of hungary.

we decided to peel ourselves away from the view and walk around the old town. almost every single building in the old town is a historical monument. there is a medieval jewish prayer house we wanted to see, but could never find, and a house of hungarian wines we wanted to try, but first we had to eat or we would never get through the day. so, we searched the little houses and buildings for a less-touristy place to eat. we found a chic little french/hungarian place that looked as though perhaps one or two locals ate there.

the food was good, the service was good, the wine recommendation was good, the dessert was fantastic, but when the bill came i got sick to my stomach. our guide book had said that a routine scam in budapest is to charge tourists for the most expensive bottle of wine instead of the one they had, or charge them for extra spoons for dessert or whatever. since hardly anyone speaks the language, and they wisk away the menus after you order, they can get away with it. but in this place i thought there was no way they would scam us. we had wine and dessert at lunch for crying out loud. how much more could they get from us? but, because i am a worrywort, i checked the bill and, sure enough, there was a charge for an extra glass of wine more expensive than both of our meals. avoiding confrontation, like usual, i pointed out the mistake to dan and promptly went to the bathroom. when i came back everyone in the restaurant was staring and dan and the manager talking over the bill. we didn't pay for it in the end, of course, but i still felt ripped off that they had even tried.

after lunch we wandered, a bit disillusioned, around old town, rode the fanicular back down the hill and headed to the hotel to change for the opera. it started at 5. my original idea was this: see an opera in the beautiful hungarian state opera house then go to dinner nearby. only after we bought the tickets did we realize why the opera started so early. it was 5 hours long.

dan put on a brave face and a sport coat and we headed to the opera. i had wanted good seats, and the hungarian opera is really cheap by american standards, so we ended up on the main floor. we fully intended on leaving early if we were bored. during the second intermission we reached that point, but it was pouring outside so we thought, enh, we have nothing better to do, it's raining, let's stay. two hours into the third and final act, dan was done with singing and there was the final scene - a singing competition - still to come. he entertained himself doing multiplication tables in his head as the 100 cast members marched around the stage singing at full volume. i wasn't quite so bored as i was numb from the waist down. the opera house is beautiful but really old and the seats are too.

my plan for a nice dinner after the opera was definitely not in the cards. our muscles spasmed and our joints creaked as we walked back to the hotel. we ate peanuts and hungarian beer (a lot like rolling rock) from the minibar and dropped into bed, exhausted. it was a full and interesting day, but next time i want to see an opera on vacation i will do some thorough research.

stay tuned for day 3 when, instead of a marathon of music, we stumble upon a real marathon.