Well I arrived happily in Budapest after a very smooth trip to Geneve airport and flight with EasyJet. We even arrived 15 minutes early! I managed to spend my spare time waiting for the flight using the free wifi - so everyone is a winner!
I caught the minibus from the airport straight to my apartment - very convenient and was met there by my friend. He took me for a traditional hungarian lunch - neither of us knew what it was but we ordered the set menu which turned out to be delicious onion soup, veal and rice with peas, followed by an interesting dessert made with pasta and grapes! tasty, filling and only a few Euros each. He took me to the metro station to buy my one week pass for the metro, tram and bus, and I was set to explore.
I headed first for the State Opera house, built in about 1870 something. I was keen to find out what operas were on so I could buy a ticket and go along. Sadly, the first opera of the season is on the 9th of September, the day I fly out... Its Tosca, and the next day is Carmen.... booo!!
As it is, I have bought a ticket to a Gustav Mahler symphony, and I am quietly expecting it to be fantastic!
I walked to the Duna River (Danube) and caught the number 2 tram a couple of stops in one direction - to the Parliament house - and then a few stops back in the other direction. I got off and wandered back in a zig zag fashion towards the opera house where I was booked on the afternoon guided tour. Its an interesting old city - everyone has been very friendly despite the fact that I speak absolutely no Hungarian (I can't even get the words for hello or thankyou to stick in my head).
As I wandered along, I saw a queue of people lining up beside a small hole in the wall. As I drew closer, it appeared that it was beside a bakery. I then realised with glee, that the man inside the wall was cooking fresh waffles to order!! I joined the queue! I purchased a fresh, hot waffle which was filled with a chocolate custard - oh yeah!!
I arrived back at the opera house in time for the tour and I met a couple of american guys who were in town for that day only and were trying to fit in as much as they could... I tagged along! The guided tour was interesting, the opera house is very opulent and has special entrances, and staircases and box seats for royalty - used by the heads of state now. The tour finished with a few excerpts of some arias from various operas sung by a tenor who was actually quite good.... so annoying I will miss them!!
At this point the americans thought they needed to leave to run to parliament for their guided tour twenty minutes later. I stayed for the mini concert, headed for the metro and met them there!! they were puffing and I was totally relaxed! hee hee. Sadly, it seemed that there were no tickets left for that afternoon's tour... The boys who had purchased theirs that morning encouraged me to use some 'Aussie charm' with the guard to see if I could still buy a ticket... Amazingly, it worked!! I think it also helped that he spoke French, and so did I so I got onto the tour, and headed inside.
The parliament is a huge building, somewhat modelled on the British Parliament buildings from the outside and is very opulent, with gold leaf everywhere on the inside. They have the Hungarian crown jewels in there, parts of which date back to the 1100's - impressive!
One thing I found a little amusing, was that there was a brass cigar holder on each of the window sills outside the main room. Basically they weren't allowed to smoke inside so they would leave their cigars in the numbered slots and return to them during or after session. Apparently you could tell how good the speeches were by how much the cigars had burnt down!
After parliament we walked over the chain bridge and up about a million steps to the top of the hill on the Buda side of the river where there is a castle. We were searching for some wine tasting but ended up disappointed. We did, however find a guy selling people turns at bow and arrow - which was great fun, and better still we found some people selling hungarian funnel cakes... yum!!! I had cinnamon - just like donuts!
The americans headed for the thermal baths, but I decided to leave this for another day - I was exhausted by day one!!
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