Budapest, Day 5

Today was our last day in Budapest. We had seen pretty much everything we really wanted to see, except for the Memento Park. But, we decided to go up Gellert Hill in the morning, and do Memento Park in the afternoon.

On the map, it looked like bus #27 went up the hill, but I couldn’t figure out how to get to bus #27. So, we asked the guy at the hotel. He said that 27 didn’t really do what it looked like it did. He said the best way to go was to take Tram 2 to the bridge, and walk across the bridge. Then, we could see Gellert Baths and the Cave Church. Then, he said we can just walk up the hill.  He said “It is lots of steps, but it is a nice walk.” Off we went.

I was excited about the cave church. It’s just what it sounds like – a church in a cave.  It turns out they were having mass, though, so we could only go in the anteroom.  Ah, well.

Then, it was up the hill. As he said, it was lots of steps. But, it was also a nice walk.

We got up to the top of the hill and saw the Liberation Monument. It used to have a communist soldier on it, but he was removed. You can see this statue (at least the top part with the lady) from all over the city.

Here’s a panorama to show you how high we climbed.

We thought about going back down the way we came, to see if mass was over, but I wanted to see the statues of St. Gellert & Empress Sisi, too, and they were on the other side. So, we gave up on the church. On the way down the hill, we saw a woman working on embroidery and selling her wares. I bought a small table runner that I think will look nice on the wall.

In 1046, the “heathen citizens” tossed Gellert off the hill in a sealed barrel, because he was trying to convert them. So, he was martyred and got a statue.

Empress Sisi was the wife of Franz Josef, and was popular with the Hungarians. You’ll see more of her when we go to Vienna tomorrow.

Here’s another picture, so you can see how high that hill is.

We decided that it wasn’t that far to walk back to the hotel from that side of the hill, so that’s what we did. Along the way, we got some pictures with The Little Princess.

We came back to the hotel for a bit of rest. We tried the swimming pool, but it was meant for fitness. It was pretty small, and there were two people doing laps, and two more about to get in. I had already gotten buzzed by the old guy next to us, so we only stayed for a few minutes.

Then it was lunch time. We had seen lots of food stands at the Market Hall yesterday, and I had seen some food that I wanted to try – Langos, a fried bread that looks like a mini pizza, but it’s brushed with garlic and covered with toppings. Traditional ones include sour cream and cheese. I actually saw a picture of it when we first got here, but I didn’t know where to get it until yesterday. We didn’t have an open meal yesterday, so we went back for lunch today. It was really yummy. We also got fried onions on top. Em got hers without sour cream, but with bacon. We also got one of the pickles stuffed with pickled garlic that I had liked the day before, but we were too full from lunch to eat it, so it went into my bag.

After lunch, it was time for Memento Park. When communism fell in Hungary, instead of breaking all of their statues, they moved them to a park outside town made for that very purpose. It’s quite a trek to get there, though.  Tram #4 to the end, and then Bus 150 for half an hour. It was CROWDED! Luckily, the stop is called “Memento Park,” so we didn’t have the problem we did with the Open Air Museum.

We had a lot of fun with the statues. Em & I took pictures of one guy with our feet in front, like the pictures that people posted all through the summer with their bare feet in front of pools or whatnot.

There were two guys doing what looked a whole lot like Y and M, so we completed the picture. A note – the guys were actually standing so they spelled MY, but we did a backwards C and flipped the photo.

Then, we went into the “barracks”, where they had a montage from soviet-era spy-training videos. We got to see how to conduct secret home searches, how to recruit agents by blackmail, and how to carry out surveillance. It was pretty fun. 

The way home was just as crowded, and I discovered that the pickle leaked in my bag. 

Now, we’re back in the hotel, getting ready for dinner.  Then it will be packing and bed, so we can get out early tomorrow morning for Bratislava and Vienna. 

Emma says - The hill -  it would be an understatement to say there were a million steps.  At the statue park, we got lots of funny pictures.