Budapest, Hungary

Today the family took a guided tour of the city, learning that Buda was the hilly part of the city and Pest was the flat part. Our tour guide was Daniel. On out little tour we saw:

-the second largest synagogue.
-Szent Istvan Bazilika-St. Stephen's Basilica
-Orszaghaz-The Parliament House
-Budai Var- Castle Hill
-Gellert-Hegy(Citadella)-Freedom Bridge
-Hakasz Bastya-Fisherman's Fortress
-Hosoktere-Heroes' Square
-Matyas Templom-Matthia Church
-passed by Varosliget-City Part.

We also crossed the Danube via the Chain Bridge and saw the 0 stone. That is what the tour entailed. After the family was a bit wiped out due to jet lag and the fact that it had been a three hour tour so we headed back to the hotel to relax, eat, and freshen up for the dinner at Pertu Station where Mom and Dad were looking to try Hungarian Goulash. Sadly though it wasn't what they had expected though they weren't completely sure what the criteria was for good Hungarian Goulash soup. Now this was a restaurant that was more than determined to make sure that when you went to the washroom that you didn't walk into the wrong restroom. There were at least six different means of indicating which restroom depending on your gender you were supposed to use.

The following morning was used as a means of doing all that everyone still wanted to do before we trekked onto Vienna at 4:10 that afternoon. With all four of us moving at about nine that morning we headed out to the Vaserley Museum. It was where one would consider the middle of nowhere leaving the taxi driver none to happy at the fact that he now had to go back into town without a fare. It was also where were failed to have shall we say the ability to convey meanings for we spoke no Hungarian and they spoke no English when it came down to buying tickets for the museum. Eventually though we managed to at least pay something and receive tickets in exchange but for all we know they could have jipped us horribly. As Dad would say well fine.

After the Vaserely Museum we headed back to Buda and the the Budai Veri Labyrinth. That was and interesting experience. Supposedly throughout the years it had been torture chambers, arsenal storage, etc. Indicating that over the years it have served many different and not always related purposes. That didn't always seem to come across though. Every once in awhile you would find yourself staring at statues wondering there meaning or you were flat out staring at a brick wall questioning the same thing.

The most interesting part of being down there had to have the been the Labyrinth of Courage. It is called that on the basis that it the labyrinth that is in complete darkness. Now the family had not intention nor desire to go through this, but quickly came to the conclusion that we must in order to get to the exit. We had two gos at it. The first time we were unsuccessful and came back out trying once more for a less darkness filled exit. Once more we seemed to have come to the conclusion that it was the only way to go so with some guidance and studying of the map we managed to make it out only to find once we were out that the doors which we made the assumption of being locked were actually the more lighted way out.

After that little adventure we headed back to the hotel to retrieve our luggage and hop onto our 4:10 train to Vienna, Austria.