Day 64 Budapest

We hadn't joined a walking tour until now because as there were so many people in Budapest for the weekend we thought waiting until Monday would be better. We arrived at the meeting point with about 200 other tourists, the most we have seen on a walking tour anywhere, we were divided into groups of about 50. Our guide taught us a few Hungarian words, the word for goodbye sounds like hello!

By the time we had crossed the Chain Bridge to the other side of the Danube we decided we had had enough of the tour. Although the guide was great it was lacking any substance and history, we really hadn't learnt anything about Budapest or Hungary.

We walked along the river until in front of Parliament we found the sobering Danube Shoe Memorial. Along the edge of the river were brass shoes of different styles and sizes as a memorial to the 20,000 Jews who were lined up at the bank in 1945 and told to remove their shoes and were then shot so they would fall straight into the river.

For the afternoon we had planned to visit the famous Budapest Szechenyi Spa, so after going home to collect our bathers we caught the train to the beautiful deep yellow building, buying a Hungarian cinnamon chimney cake on the way ... yum, these countries make nice cakes. There was a long line to get in so while we were waiting our turn we looked through the large window overlooking the pools and had a change of mind. There were heaps of people either standing in swimming pools or lying on sun lounges (it wasn't warm) watching the soccer on the large screen with large drinks of beer in their hands. It really didn't look like our scene at all especially as K had gone to Peninsula Hot Springs on the Mornington Peninsula the week before we went on holidays and to her this wasn't a patch on that place!

Instead we walked to the Hero's Park with its beautiful statues and arches, though unfortunately it was blocked off and difficult to see because they were setting up for a concert, it would be an awesome setting for an outdoor concert.

At this stage M decided to walk home while K opted to take the train. When M got home and K hadn't arrived he  knew something had to have gone wrong. As it turns out K had taken a wrong turn after leaving the train and also hadn't saved the apartment's address to her maps, so she was a bit lost! A couple of WhatsApp messages and "find my phone" traces and M tracked her down. 

The guide from the morning had recommended that we visit a ruin bar, which is where they have converted derelict areas of the city into trendy eating and drinking areas. We chose the one closest to home and the drinks were cheap, though we had the distinct feeling we were back home hanging out at a bar in Collingwood. When we finished the evening with Indian take away in our apartment we felt that we almost could have been at home!