Budapest: Day 4

Day 4 - Finally some real sightseeing

For better or worse, the last day of our conference was canceled, so that meant we got to get out a little sooner and see some sights. First off was a trip up the Andrassy to Heroes' Square.
Here's the obligatory travel snapshot of the place.
And that's the Archangel Gabriel up there saying hello to all the Hungarians as they walk by. Personally, I was a big fan of the statues in the semicircular colonnades. Each one represents an important figure in Hungarian history. This one is of the Burger King, who first declared that Hungarians could "have it their way" in 1342.
Behind the square is the entrance to City Park. Our first stop was the completely unpronounceable Vajdahunyad Castle. I guess this thing was originally built out of cardboard for some sort of exhibition and then rebuilt in stone. There's always time to do things twice, but never time to do it right the first time is what my Dad would say. Well, he doesn't speak Hungarian so it doesn't matter.
Alpna snapped these next two of the church at the castle. As I got closer to the door, I began to hear some singing. An angel perhaps? No, probably just an opera mad Hungarian practicing. Apparently Hungarians are big fans of the opera, but more on that later.

The park was really beautiful, and I particularly liked this little bridge across the central pond.
Here's the entrance to the Szechenyi baths.
Budapestians (?) are nuts about bathing with each other. The plan was to do as the Romans (literally, since they were among the first to build baths here) and spend a day hanging in the baths. Turns out we're both too self-concious to hang out with geriatric Hungarians in Speedos. In retrospect, I should have done it.
On our way out, we passed this pond, which was steaming. Turns out there's all kinds of thermal springs all over the city, which is why there's all the bath houses. The water was really warm, which I bet these ducks love.
That night I kept vetoing every restaurant we passed, which didn't make Alpna very happy (in her defense, she wasn't really mad either). The biggest reason I kept giving her was that they were empty. Seemed pretty petty in the moment, I'll admit. Finally we (I) settled on a place called Cafe Vian, which was packed full of all kinds of people, mainly Hungarians. Turns out my pickiness paid off since both of us agree that this was the best food we had all trip. Alpna is a vegetarian (much, much more about that during the Africa trip), so she had some fruit soup, but I had something much meatier - steak topped with grilled goose liver served with a paprika stew and these perfectly fried potato wedges. Probably shortened my lifespan a few days, but highly worth it. Things started getting really good on day 5, so stay tuned.