We had reservations at the Marble Bride, a Hungarian restaurant that had a show.  We took the subway to Buda and walked the rest of the way to the restaurant.  Food was great- naturally and the entertainment was really good.  The dancers not only put on a good show but engaged the audience and had a bit of comedy.

After breakfast we decided to go to the Grand Market.  All kinds of food- fruit, vegetables, meats and arts and crafts.  This took most of the morning and early afternoon. There was also a lot of prepared food in the market.  Unfortunately we weren’t hungry because it looked and smelled delicious, especially langos and kalice.

The group decided to take a 2 1/2 hour walking tour in the afternoon.  I decided to stay by the hotel since my hip was really becoming painful.  I did go out and walk across one of the bridges to take scenic pictures of Budapest.

We got up, had breakfast and prepared to go to the train station.  Decal took a taxi and some of us walked.  We arrived early so we could purchase our tickets.  However, the train was about a half hour late do we spent a lot of time waiting at the crowded train station.  The train came and 7 of us wound up in a compartment with all the luggage.  Then a man came along and he had a reservation for one of the seats.  We made room-some of us went to the dining car.  After a few stops the train was less crowded so everyone found a seat. The man in our compartment was going to go to Budapest but he was going to get off at the wrong stop. We prevented him from doing this and then he became more friendly. He is from Argentina and could not speak any English.  We can’t speak Spanish but some how we were able to communicate a little.  In fact we saw him in center city Budapest.

After we checked into our hotel we went out to see the sites.  We are staying on the Pest side of the river.  We went to the main area of the city that has many shops and restaurants.  We were site seeing for a while and then decided on a restaurant that had Hungarian food.  It was almost 7:30pm so fear not that we were eating the early bird special.  Lori and I ordered a Hungarian meal of pork goulash stew, chicken paprikash, potatoes, and something like stewed tomatoes.  It was a ton of food for a reasonable price. After we couldn’t eat any more we learned dessert was included.  We were able to get dessert to go but sorry no pics since it is still in the to go box.  It was getting cold sitting in the outside cafe so we headed back to the hotel.  An early night for us.

It was hot here today- at least 102 degrees. We had a private tour of Budapest in an air conditioned car the entire morning so we got to see all the sights. We then went to the hotel to decided what we would do the rest of the day. We decided we would have to do something indoors since it was just too hot to walk around. We decided on the Terror Museum. This is a museum about the Hungarian version of the KGB in the actual building where they were housed and held prisoners. There was a ton of information and we were there until it closed at 6pm. It was a little cooler by then so we walked a few blocks to downtown Pest. We had taken the subway to the Museum. Then it was time to check for dinner. We all agreed on a restaurant that had a menu of tastes of Hungarian food. The small portions gave us a chance to sample a lot of different things. Appetizers- I had palacintas with chicken filling, Marsha had an eggplant cream with toast points and Stephanie had 1/2 pepper stuffed with cottage cheese and paprika. For dinner Stephanie and I had stuffed cabbage and Marsha had goat cheese with grilled mixed peppers. Dessert – I had palacintas with apricot jam and Marsha and Stephanie had palacintas with nut filling and chocolate sauce and whipped cream. As we were walking toward the subway we came upon a rock concert. It was an Irish Band and they were good. I told Marsha I was going back a few steps to take a picture and when I went back I couldn’t find them. I looked for about a half hour and decided just to walk back to the hotel. I wasn’t in the room 5 minutes when Stephanie and Marsha came in. They said they looked for me for about a half hour and thought I would return to the hotel. When we were comparing notes we figured we must have passed each other several times, but it was very crowded in that area plus it is nighttime. Well we are all safe at home. Tomorrow is supposed to be hotter than today. But we leave for Belgrade, Serbia tomorrow and hopefully things will cool off a little bit.

We got up and breakfast was included with our room. The following is a list of what is included on the buffet: hot fried peppers, scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs, smoked turkey breast, horseradish, sausages, raw red onions, dill pickles, hot pickled peppers, rice pudding, waffles, syrup and assorted jams, chocolate syrup and chocolate powder, dark and light honey, Danish, chocolate, whole wheat and regular croissants, 8 assorted types of breads and rolls, onion and pepper goulash, pickled herring, Brie cheese, assorted salamis, assorted hams, assorted sliced cheeses, spring mix lettuce salad, tomato, sliced cucumber, pears, fruit cocktail, cooked tart cherries, plain yogurt, peach yogurt, strawberry yogurt (these yogurts were in a bowl) assorted packaged yogurt, dried fruits, whole peaches and apples, apricots, watermelon. 3 kinds of cereal, assorted coffees, teas and hot chocolate, orange, apple and peach juice. This was breakfast! I decided to go with Marsha to the airport to pick up her daughter. It was only 2 subways and a bus ride. But we thought it would much harder than it was to get to the airport. We picked up Stephanie and came back to the hotel so she could drop off her luggage. We then went to the Spy Museum ( it had an enigma machine) and then went to the building on the top of the hill (bunch of stairs). See pics

We then went back to the hotel for a little while and Marsha’s friend Janos came and took us to a Hungarian restaurant. They had original Hungarian musicians and they were wonderful. The food was terrific. Stephanie had goulash soup and Marsha and I had paprika cream soup. Then for dinner Stephanie and I had chicken paprigash and Marsha had grilled veggies and cheese. We wanted dessert , but we were too full.

We cam back to the hotel so Stephanie could get some sleep. We are touring Buda tomorrow morning. It is supposed to be at least 100 degrees here for the next couple of days. Just way to hot!