egészségére! - cheers!

the super beautiful st. stephan's basilica

too cloudy, too many people

day 3: a day of "super"latives

on day 3 in budapest we slept super late. watching so much opera must have really exhausted us. we got started on our day just before lunchtime.

funny, this is the first place we have been in europe where the main cathedral is actually used for services, so we were a little surprised to start our sightseeing at st. stephan's basilica and find it full of worshipers. we bided our time until they actually opened for tourists by walking down to parliament.

those hungarians who weren't in church were running a race downtown. i have never seen so many fit people in one place. this race was huge! it was a relay race around the parliament area and there were groups from every walk of life in budapest. there was a group dressed like doctors, a group of skinny preteens, groups of men who looked like dads in sweats, and groups wearing crazy specialized running gear. there was a dj keeping people pumped and everywhere we looked there was someone stretching or jogging in place. we felt really lazy having just gotten up when clearly all of these people had been up and exercising for hours.

the line for the english language parliament tour was super long so we decided to do it the next day. we slowly made our way back to the church. the service was still going on, but the let you go up to the top of the dome while everyone below you prays. as we stepped out onto the dome balcony i did a little praying of my own. we were super high and i was getting a little vertigo. but if i didn't look down the views were great. we walked all the way around the dome getting a panoramic view of budapest.

we came down the two elevators and flight of stairs into the church. it is a really opulent cathedral that reminded us of the berliner dom here because it was super clean. we opted not to check out the remains of st. stephan. instead we checked out a restaurant recommendation.

mokka is hungary's top restaurant right now. you would think that would mean we couldn't get in, even for lunch, but it was no problem and didn't even cost a ton. we had a great chardonnay and, by far, the best food we have had in all of europe!

after lunch i decided i wanted to know more about hungary so we went to the hungarian national museum. this giant museum is actually free, and was nearly deserted. it takes you chronologically by major occupation from about the 13th century on. i was surprised to find that it wasn't until 1820 that hungarian became the official language. but my favorite exhibit was one showing all the ways in which hungary lived up to it's reputation as the most "happy-go-lucky" of all the soviet blocks. who knew?

our plan all day had been to hit a traditional roman or turkish bath. i generally agree with our friend brian in his believe that hot tubs and the like are human bacteria frapps, but, hey, when in budapest... . at least that's what i thought. but we got a little sketched out on the metro by a crazy lady giving dan the evil eye. we got to the baths and they were super crowded. one look through the antique leaded windows out to the lovely pool area and we were convinced - our curiosity level was not high enough to sit in sweaty water with every living resident of budapest. we went back to the hotel and swam in their highly chlorinated, nearly empty pool.

dinner time found us at another restaurant recommendation - goa. this was, in my opinion, even better than mokka. we had a duck won ton that was super yummy. and finally we had a hungarian wine worth the hype. mmmm....

i went to bed that night super satisfied that i had seen and eaten some of the best things hungary had to offer. it was a super day.

coming up: day 4 - when we discover why not standing in line for parliament on day 3 was a super stupid idea.