First of all, which I didn't know and don't mind saying so, is that Budapest is actually two separate city parts. Buda, where our hotel is, is on one side of the Danube River and Pest is on the other. They are connected by 9 bridges.
The Hungarians, a very reserved and proud people who voted the end of communism only in 1989. They were the first country to open their borders to the west. There are only 10 million people in all of Hungary and now only 2 million in Budapest and is only 202 sq kilometers in size. There is a natural hot spring running through the city and so they have a huge baths' park for public use- at a cost, but the city got part of it's name from Buda- which means water.
As we rolled into the city we noticed that there were beautiful and huge buildings that resemble castles and royal palaces. We took an evening cruise along the Danube and found it lovely to see all the lights on the bridges and all those beautiful bldgs lit up. Of course they played the Blue Danube Waltz and G and I danced to it on deck.
The history of Hungary is just as convoluted as every other place we have been but they seem to have had the $&@/ kicked out of them by more nations, kings and governments than any other place.
1st the Romans - probably where the crazy language came from, then the Huns, then there was a short 133 day dictatorship by a communist leader, then a right-wing Governor took over and signed treaties with the Germans, the Turks who built the castle and palaces, then the Nazi's and then, as if things couldn't get any worse, after WWII the Soviets took over. It was at that time that 200 000 people left Hungary for the Free World fearing that things would never get better.
For our little Rose, the lady who took care of G's father, life did get better.
We landed here in the middle of St. Stephan's celebration - where the life of H's first king is a big thing and deserves a party. No stores open - which really ticked off the shoppers on our bus. We did a lot of walking - or jostling, in the midst of 100 000 people jammed onto the two banks and small streets of the city. For a break, we had to keep sitting in one of the cafes or restaurants and have ice cream or wine. We had to plead with the cops to get back across the long bridge that had been open only for people today but at 3, it was closed again to everything. I whined and pleaded to just quickly get over cause our hotel was just at the end of the bridge. This wonderful Hungarian women saw me and then asked what was wrong and after telling her, she immediately went to the cops and convinced them to let me go. See, whining still works.
It is 38 here today- our first hot day since we left home and the two of us have had lots of showers and water. With no air conditioning, well, air conditioning in some places is just a grate in the wall that sucks air in and pushes warmer air out - it's hard to stay cool.
We head out to Austria tomorrow and then to Prague.
