We woke up this morning and Tim cooked a big North American style breakfast with eggs, sausage hash-browns, toast and a garnish of tomato cheese and pesto. It was quite filling but today was the Hungarian National holiday so we would need the energy.
After we packed our bags we headed to the parliament building; but not without stopping for some sandwiches at the local bakery.
We noticed that because of the holiday, there was an abundance of toilets, even if they were blue rockets. Also, all the museums were free!
We found the parliament, check out the guards in their ceremonial outfits and contemplated a tour; too bad there was about 1000 people in line.
We made our ways across the Margit hid bridge and looked for the Tomb of Gul Baba monument; turned out it was off limits for construction. While we missed that event, we stumbled over a 'bread breaking' community party. We crashed the party, ate some really good and fresh sourdough bread that pushes San Francisco to second best. Cost: free! Music: awesome!
We climbed the hill to the Castle District and ate lunch at an old bombed out church; awesome place for some awesome sandwich, maybe a beer too.
Touring the national war museum was a bit strange because the Austria-Hungary alliance was Canada's enemy during the first world war. Passing almost 2 hours, we enjoyed viewing all the swords, uniforms and colonial memorabilia. We certainly do not get a lot of Hungarian history in Canadian schools.
The Matthias Church was incredible but we were all too tired to walk the 200 plus steps to the peak, so we enjoyed the Fisherman’s Bastion and the spectacular views from 'ground level'.
Our dinner was an amazing gyros sandwich which Tim took an extra, just in case. We found a spot near the water front, enjoyed talking to a couple of Romanians and Canadians.
The fireworks were intense! They were set off in multiple locations; Gellert hill, the Elizabeth and Chain bridges and from multiple barges on the river. It was a panoramic display that was visually intoxicating; about a mile of explosions for 30 minutes. The cacophony of explosions added to the enjoyment and loud speakers played a variety of Hungarian traditional music. The experience was simply beyond description, best fireworks display any of us have ever experienced.
