Hungary feels more like what I expected travelling in Europe to feel like! Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Croatia have all been deeply impacted by years of conflict and their economies have not fully recovered. Their citizens remain fiercely local and passionate about their history, but as a tourist spending only a few days, these countries have blended a bit together since they have experienced many of the same challenges with dominating empires, rulers and political entities. However, when we arrived in Hungary things were different. Although we have heard many times from local tour guides that Hungary has always been on the losing team of various wars and alliances over the millennia, they have managed to invest heavily on restoring their buildings and streets to their former glory. We started our visit in the much-restored city of Pécs. Among its many large buildings is the huge Saint Peter and Paul’s Cathedral with its 4 tall towers overlooking the wide central square. The city had a bit of a fairy tale feel to it, and we loved it.
Mom would have loved the Candlemas Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1543) which was converted from Islam to Christian faith and practice (1702). The most interesting thing is that the integral symbols of Islam (crescent) and Christianity (cross) share the place of honour atop the church. Gus and I had some free time so sat in a café in the main city square to enjoy a cup of coffee and cookie. So far, we’ve noticed that European cities value pedestrian spaces, in each city there are several roads inaccessible to cars, with cobbled streets lines by cafés, shops and restaurants.
Next day, on to Budapest. Budapest is a beautiful city and puts on her best for the tourists. The famous night-time lights of the city along the Danube highlight the expansive, ornate neo-gothic parliament buildings and many bridges over the river are a sight not to be missed. Chris, Stephanie, Gus and I went out for a walk after dinner and took too many pictures. The problem is that the sights are so large, that a camera can’t adequately capture them, but still we try. Both David and Gus (the fitness enthusiasts) ventured out very early in the morning for a jog across the Margaret Bridge and around the Margaret Island Park. Gus made it back in time for the ship’s departure, but David did not, so had to jog a bit further to our ship’s next destination about 4 km away.
Dad was not feeling great for a couple days, so he opted out of the tours in Pecs – probably too dang hot and too much food - there is soooo much food and it is soooo delicious. But on day 9, he rallied. The temperatures turned much more comfortable so the tour to the beautifully restored Buda Castle was a popular tourist choice. Dad and I shared a warm chimney cake (classic Hungarian treat)– while walking around the castle district.
Today’s challenge revolved around rooms. As a reminder to you readers, David and I were late additions to the cruise, so the rooms were already assigned and Gus was to room with Dad. Once David and I joined the trip, obviously the room assignments needed to be changed, but since the cost to do so was very high we didn’t tell Ama and David and I were roomies as far as they were concerned. Needless to say, that has caused some confusion and raised eyebrows. The staff pulled me aside, saying that “Mr. Edwin” was worried as he hadn’t seen Gus (aka David) since 6:00 am and now Dad was locked out of the room. Turns out David had spent the bulk of the day touring around Budapest on a bike and, to make matters more interesting, the cruise staff had decided to re-align the confusing rooms assignment and ended up messing up all the key cards. We all came together as we had each evening for dinner and laughs in our special dining room.
Add comment
Comments