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DOCKERS are champions!!!!! 124 to Eagles 97!!!))))) What heros!!!!! hehehe
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Chain Bridge, Budapest
Day 158
Budapest, Hungary
Weve been in Vienna for 3 days now..
We ended up getting to see Freuds House which was as revealing as i thought it would be! Certainly learned a lot of history and info about him and his also psychoanalst daughter Anna...was great!
We saw the Palace, cathedrals (of course, they feature in every European city!!!) Parliament House..and all those things...
And have just generally enjoyed this casual, relaxed town. There seems to be an acceptance of gays and everyone really...
Talking about that...we had two jewish gays sharing our apartment.....was funny really. Scullcapped lovers. Ok...enough said. Our apartment consists of 3 rooms with a shared kitchen..and its really cosy. We love it...but unfortunately, it was booked out so weve had to book into another place for 3 more nights...
Anyway, back to Budapest..and ive got to be quick because after travelling 3 hours there and having the day there..and travelling 3 hours back..and it being 8.30pm now and next to me i have someone with a grumblinlg tummy!!!!!! (And scowling face!) haha
Budapest was interesting.
We went in a little mini bus with 2 other couples, a Romanian couple who live in Israel, and a couple from Lisboa, Portugal and a girl from Hong Kong. Eclectic bunch again. And fun.
We also had a driver who went 150km an hour there and back!!! NO KIDDING! We all wore seatbelts! And the guy next to me was gripping the front seat when the driver was skidding behind the vehicles in front. We didnt tip him.
We had to show our passports (and get them stamped) at the Austrian Hungarian border..and wait for an hour in the line up (another good reason to make it a long day...before we finally got there.
Now the most interesting thing about it, is that it used to be called Buda and Pest. Two separate cities!!! Buda is the old part of the city. And Pest is the new part. In 1849 a bridge called the Chain Bridge which is quite a spectacular chain bridge joined the old Buda to the new Pest and together the cities united and became Budapest. It is now the most famous bridge in Hungary and represents its freedom.
Apparently the Nazis blew it up during the WW2 war to stop the Russians and they had to rebuild it later!
We learned that the Russians occupied Hungary until 1989 when the last soldiers left. After this the society became more democratic with the socialist democrats being in power now. Very much better than the communist takeover we were told. And now they can have freedom of speech. Wasnt that long ago hey..that they were still controlled by communism.
Learn something new everyday huh?
Another thing too...was the Turkish influence. Apparently when the Turks took over, centuries before..they bowled over all the buildings..and never really rebuilt any..so theres only a bit of a Turkish influence. More history. Interesting to us, but could be a bit boring to you, unless you love history! (which we are more and more and more.........................).
There were so many coffee houses in Budapest as well...which sell the famous goulash, which Greg and i tried in the way of a soup! With paprika...very nice, but not exactly what we thought the traditional goulash was! (meat stew) And we were told Goulash is really a beef and potato and paprika stew so us feeling ripped off by being served a soup was justified!
Went into St Stevens Byzantine Cathedral and...saw his HAND. It was actually encased in a shrine......i dunno, i just cant work out the reverence towards a hand..but i hope im not being sacriligious or anything but i guess him being a saint made it a godly hand? Or the hand of God? Or Gods right hand man...or maybe, as Greg says, it puts a whole new meaning to talk to the hand...?
In Instanbul they had John the Baptists hand encased there too...
Anyway enough of that..! Handy as it was.....hehe
Oh yeah..and this is HUGE.
When you enter Budapest.....and go into the old part...Buda.....there is a MASSIVE WALL surrounding the whole old town. Its amazing. We had to actually go up to the wall, and climb up stairs to get into the town!!! Greg says theres probably a roman fort underneath it!!!! As there has been in every other old city that was formerly part of the Roman Empire!!!!!
But that was awesome. Ive never seen such a wall. Completely surrounded it..and the palace. And it was about 15m high. Amazing really.
We bought our customery post card, and took our million pics! Gosh i hope we know whats what when we get home, weve been taking about 2000 pics a month!!!
We thought of an idea!
Inviting you guys to come and see our pics...
But then we thought youd be there for a year looking at them all..and you know what its like when people go on holiday and want to show you their pics..and youre thinking...ok but lets just get to the drinking and eating part of the night! haha
Thats an idea. Well bribe you with drink and food so we can carry on about our pics.
No, we wont put you through that!
Time to go, were famished.
Ciao xo
