Two Days' Account

June 26, 2009:

We were hoping to do the Great Synagogue and Aquincum but poor weather changed those plans. Instead we took a full tour of the synagogue, which included the prayer hall itself (which is beautiful and is easily the nicest synagogue I've ever been in), the Memorial Tree, and the small museum. The Memorial Tree is really nice, it looks like a sort of metal weeping willow, and the leaves are inscribed with the names of those lost in the Holocaust - people could make a donation in order to have the name of a family member put on the tree. We also learned about Raoul Wallenberg and some others who made great efforts to facilitate the escapes of thousands of Jews during that time. As Val says, the Museum really was a crash course in Jewish history and religion, it had all the major items associated with each holiday, like the Torah, menorahs, shabbat candles, passover plates, marriage contracts and funerary objects, as well as an extra room devoted to events of World War II in Hungary.

After the synagogue, the weather was still very ugly, so we went back to the hostel so I could pick up my rain coat, and headed back out. We hopped the Metro across the river and wandered the Castle District. We managed to see the Royal Palace, Matthias Church (part of which was under construction), Fishermans' Bastion and the underground Labryrinth. The maze was easily the best part of the day, as it had rooms with various themes and lots of wondrous strange statues, carvings and paintings.

That was pretty much all we did for the day. We made a quick shopping trip at the grocery store next door and picked up pasta and sauce for dinner. We also fulfilled our new tradition of sharing a bottle of wine (a tradition we started last tear in Bucharest), which was really very good.

June 27, 2009:

It was a nice morning as we made our way to Aquincum, the ancient Roman town located just outside of Budapest. We found it to be more spread out than Ostia Antica in Italy, but just as impressive. They had uncovered various houses, shops, and other buildings; lots of monuments and engravings were out for exhibition. A really neat feature was something called a Chronoscope, which you could look through like a telescope, rotate it around to look out at the reconstructed ruins, and it would show you what that place would have looked like in the past, complete walls, roofs, windows and all. We took a quick look through the museum as well, and they had uncovered some amazing artifacts, things we could only hope to uncover at Porolissum.

As soon as we left Aquincum, these ugly clouds rolled in and it began raining on us. We took up a brisk walk back to the train station. Happily, the rain had stopped when we returned downtown, and the sun came back out occasionally. We changed into our swimsuits and packed up towels for the trip to Gellert Baths. It was such a relaxing experience. The men and women had separate rooms, which was small and enclosed, and very quiet. The room had two baths of different temperatures, one which was 36C and the other was 38C. You'd go into the cooler one first (which was still very warm), then switch to the other and it would feel so hot. When you switched back, the pool felt cooler and so soothing, but still a lovely warm temperature. We stayed for a good hour and a half, just going back and forth.

After the baths we returned and dropped off our wet things. Next was the search for a nice restaurant to finish off our stay in Budapest. It took some time but we found a good spot nearby called Bali Caffe. I had the breaded turkey with mushrooms and gratinated cheese on top, and Val had Pasta Carbonara. We each had a glass of this sweet, fruity wine, and overall, it was just a very nice dinner. We had expressed the hope of having a shot of palinka while in Hungary, because it seemed proper, but it would've been too expensive at that restaurant. So we were resigned to go without, but the waiter surprised us with free shots! It was a flavoured palinka, with honey and while it was really strong (Val kept making faces, it was hilarious), it was also tasty. Needless to say, we were feeling pretty good when we were walking back to the hostel.

We ended the night - after a quick break in our room - with a last-minute stroll up to the chain bridge, because it was recommended that we see it at night. It really is a beautiful sight, and we didn't realize until we crossed it that it was lined with all these stalls selling various products. It would be a great opportunity for trinket-shopping. We walked further up on the Buda side so we could also take a picture of Parliament at night. Power-walked back to the hostel and we have a final night in the city.

Tomorrow we get up early for a morning train to Cluj-Napoca in Romania, where we'll have to hop a bus to Zalau and then another ride (probably by taxi) to Porolissum. It will be a fun day of travelling tomorrow!

From here on in, the updates will become more infrequent as we'll only make it into town about once a week for Internet updates.