Day 5 was a major tourist day. First stop, the parliament. You remember the outside, right? Well, here's what it looks like inside. Like any good tour, ours started at the entry.
Those of you who have made the trek to my pad will know that this entryway is only slightly nicer than mine. Their roof, however, is way cooler.
This is the inside of the main dome and it's absolutely gorgeous. I suppose it's fitting that they keep the crown jewels underneath it.
True fact: the cross on the crown used to be straight, but it got bent in the 17th century and no one has bothered to fix it yet. Here's one of the two rooms where business gets done. This one's red and apparently, the other one is blue. Looks pretty gold to me.
Here's another look at the ceiling, courtesy of Alpna.
She also caught a pretty nice view of the hallways.
This is what a 100-year-old air conditioning system looks like.
Turns out, this building was pretty ahead of it's time. During the summers, large blocks of ice were lowered into these pits and air passed over them and into the building. Remember that room where the business gets done? Under each seat there is a grate where the cold air would escape. Pretty clever. As we left, I snagged this photo of kids playing outside the parliament.
From there we moved to St. Stephen's Basilica. I tried taking photos of the outside, but all the good ones I got came on my last day in town, so I'll show you those then. For now, here's the inside.
Next stop: the Párisi udvar. This place looked a lot cooler in the guide book. So much cooler, that we walked right past it. Turns out it's pretty much a poorly lit alleyway with a small little closet of a jewlery store and and a fantastic looking roof. So, while Alpna got busy shopping, I took some photos.
All this sightseeing requires energy, so on our way between the Párisi udvar and our Opera House tour, we sopped at the Gerloczy cafe, where my sanity was once again called into question by a waiter after ordering goulash. Yes folks, I know it's soup.
The wait staff's foray into psychology aside, this place won me over. Unlike too many places I've eaten at in New York, this place was not trying to prove anything - probably because they proved themselves decades ago. The food was good (excellent pastries), the wait staff was perfect and the inside was lovely. I know this might sound silly, but this place really highlights the differences between what I know of Europe and the US, and is the reason I don't hope to ever find anything but a european style cafe here. Enough editorializing. On to more photos.
As I mentioned earlier, our next stop was the Opera House. I had to pay extra to take photos inside, but the place is beautiful, and the fee was only 50 Forint, so, money well spent.
The main hall is breathtaking, and I had really hoped to see an opera there. However, we arrived shortly before the season was to start, so we missed out. Next time, I guess. Anway, they had lowered the chandelier for cleaning, allowing me to get the shot you see above.Last stop of the day was this marketplace down by the river (name escapes me at the moment). It's was pretty huge, and was my final stop for knick-knack purchases.
I passed on the many jars of paprika and finally bought a wooden bowl, which I'd be happy to show you next time you visit.
Can anyone explain this sign to me? We saw this all over town, including ones without the stripe. My best guess is that there are all kinds of "no old men in hats walking children" zones. Must be a hold over from communism.
Somewhere along the line we had returned to the hotel to pick up my tripod, and as we left the market and walked along the river, I gave Alpna some much needed rest time, while we waited for the sun to set. I grabbed this one of the castle in Buda,
and Alpna grabbed this one of the Elizabeth Bridge.
Finally, after about 40 minutes of forced waiting, I felt the time was right to begin setting up my equipment and getting a few shots off.
After a bit of shooting around a traffic island on the Pest side of the Chain Bridge, I moved us down the bank to get another shot.
I wan't the only one there, though, and this is where I get to tell the story about the biggest jerk in all of Budapest. As you can see below, there were some Asian tourists doing the same thing we were, sharing the same space between two parked cars. Then, along comes this rather pissed-off looking Hungarian in a white Ford Focus, who decides it's in his best interest to park halfway between said cars. Sounds pretty normal until you see the space:White Ford Focus rear...
... and front.
All I can say is this man was acting like an incredible tool. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt though and say he was having an off night. Turns out he left us plenty of room (though by the look on his face he would have stretched his car then and there if he could) and I still got some good shots.
Turns out that's all we did that day, so we decided to go back to the hotel. I'm guessing you feel pretty worn out reading all that drivel, and I sure am from typing it. Get some rest and head back tomorrow. There's still plenty of Budapest to see.
