21 April 2018

Hello from Budapest! Or Szia in Hungarian. It is 8 p.m. on Saturday as I write this. Hôtel wifi is too slow to load photos at this point, so will try later. Those are the Parliament chambers above. 

We left Portland around 3 p.m. Thursday, and after 3 plane rides totaling over 14 hours, we got to our hotel about 8 p.m. last night. Great flights. Hairy connection in Istanbul where we had about 45 minutes to make our connection,  which was what seemed a mile from where we arrived. But we made it! Turkish Air has great food, by the way!

Great hotel in Budapest, the Hotel Corinthia, where we booked the Uniworld Cruise extension so that we would have a couple of recovery days. We go to the ship on Sunday, 22 April.

Budapest (and Hungary) has been controlled by many regimes, so there is much sad history here. They are now led by a Prime Minister, with a President as the figurehead.

Breakfast was a beautiful buffet in the hotel. I had porridge, probably the best yogurt (in a small jar) I have ever had, many pastries, fruit, etc.

We did a walking tour with a Uniworld guide named Romulus Varga, who was born in Transylvania, formerly a part of Hungary. He had much cultural and political knowledge to share as we did a walking tour of the Parliament and Liberty Square. One of his more humorous stories was about the first McDonald’s that opened in Budapest prior to the fall of communism. It was considered an honor to be invited on a date to McDonald’s! On a more somber note, we walked by the monument of iron shoes which commemorates Jews shot on the edge of the Danube.

The Parliament is a beautiful building that rivals cathedrals and castles we have seen in other places. The Crown Jewels are here, plus a lot of gorgeous architecture, windows, lighting, etc.

Liberty Square contains monuments (Ronald Reagan, General Harry Bandholtz, etc.),  and is fronted by the American Embassy.

We stopped at a cafe for cappuccino, truffle cake and dobosh torte. Yum.

The Hotel Spa was calling, so we both got massages in this beautiful place. Then nap time, trying to get back some of that sleep we missed when we were hurtling nine hours into the future.

We took a walk through the neighboring streets of cafes and shops, with a stop for drinks (booze is very cheap here) before dinner at the hotel. The Chicken Paprikash with Schupfnudel (potato dumplings) was fantastic.

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