Gastro!

No, it wasn't some fabulous restaurant in the area.  It was my day yesterday.  I was waylaid by a little gastro bug that kept me trapped in the apartment for most of the day.  Thankfully, it was only a 24 hour thing and it seems to have resolved itself.  So while Kohji and the kids took in the zoo, I tested the true comfort level of the bed in our apartment (not bad actually), waking finally around 2:30 in the afternoon to move to the couch.  I finally made it out to join the gang for a tentative dinner at a rather odd ramen restaurant.  It was Chinese food and ramen under a ceiling depicting an austere and very European hunting scene.  More interesting contrasts.

After dinner we strolled towards the Parliament Buildings where Ren was apoplectic about seeing more than 20 trams go by.  Every time he saw one, he ran towards it at full tilt yelling "tram, tram, tram!!!" And waving at the driver.  Needless to say, there were more than a few chuckles from passers by.

We continued our walk down by the Danube watching the sun falling behind the Buda hills.  We came across an exhibit that I had read about of iron cast shoes facing out to the Danube along the edge of the river.  The installation is a memorial to Hungarian Jews shot and thrown into the Danube by the fascist Arrow Cross Party in 1944.  The installation is simple, but poignant, and led to an interesting conversation with the kids about the atrocities of WWII. It's a hard topic to avoid when travelling in most places in Europe.  The legacy of the war is still very palpable in most of Europe, even though most of the locals we pass on the street were born well after the war.  Perhaps it's the historian in me, but I do see a wonderful hope in a generation that moves forward while honouring its past, not matter how difficult that last may be.  

This morning, breakfast was from bakery number 3.  There are acually 4 bakeries within a 30 second walk of our front door.  This location was indeed all we could possibly want - very central, quiet, quaint, but really, it had us at hook, line and sinker at bakeries (plural!). 

After breakfast, we wandered along Vasi Utca - a popular shopping pedestrian street (Utca from what we can tell means street or avenue).  It was on this street that Ren finally was able to get a coveted souvenir - a full soccer uniform for one of the local teams, Ferencvaros.  The team is actually playing a friendly against Chelsea here in August so there are signs up all over the city for the match.  Football is ubiquitous here as it is in most European cities.  Kids playing in the local playground already have impressive ball handling skills, ones that would certainly put me to shame.  This has fed Ren's recent soccer obsession, and he is now daily reminding us that we promised to get him shin pads in Italy.  He walks the streets of Budapest wearing either his France or Italy jersey and drawing curious stares as this non-British, but English speaking Chinese kid prattles on about Lionel Messi.

For lunch we hit the Central Market Hall at the end of Vasi Utca, and gazed at the produce and meat spilling out of the counters.  We squeezed into a market stall restaurant for lunch and watched the tourists all around.  I watched as an older couple of gentlemen sat on a bench near us and pulled out apples.  They offered to split the apples with a young British couple sitting beside them, who declined politely owing to what the young Brit referred to as a "monster hangover".  Ahhh youth...

After lunch, we bathed!  Budapest is world famous for its Roman style thermal baths and the city has several varieties to choose from.  For our first foray, we went to the Gellert Baths, in part because of the promise of a wave pool, but also because it has been likened to bathing in a Cathedral.  

It certainly had an inspiring and impressive feel about it, which lasted right up until I caught the first sight of a pair of speedos - a rather common sight in European swimming areas.   Cathedral vibe ... gone.  It was nonetheless a pretty cool place to spend the afternoon.  Soaking in healing waters - apparently good for joints and circulation - listening to the dozens of language being spoken all around and guessing at the stories of other travellers. 

After a thorough dunking at the baths, we headed back to the market to pick up some dinner fare.  Other than watching as a shop keeper not so surreptitiously added a weight to the scale with my tomatoes (she removed it after I asked her what that was for) and coming away with way too much Hungarian salami (much better here than at home, but really oily), the market was a more pleasant affair at dinner time with fewer tourists and more locals picking up dinner fixins'. 

A few points of note about Budapest: They are, by far, the most courteous drivers I've seen in any city.  Drivers here are very much conscious, and conscientious, of pedestrians and will patiently wait while a stream of meandering tourists cross the road.  Bicycles are common, but do not swam the city like in many other European centres of similar size.  Perhaps the Buda hills are the deterrent, but there are definitely fewer cyclists.  Lastly, much of the nightlife is outdoors (not that I've been out much after dark), but it seems Budapesti love their summer nights.

 

The final shot tonight shows a sight we've walked by multiple time in our few days here, so I thought it worth including.  Good night from Budapest.