This basilica was stunning! And I only walked around the outside! It is difficult to see from pictures alone, but it is massive in size! PS… I had no desire to see anybody’s right hand! 😂😂
Simply stunning from every angle! And I wonder why they kept just St. Stephen’s right hand 🤔…
So much beauty here in Budapest!
😂😂😂 The photo of Google Maps above is a screenshot of the extent of what I could see when I my hotel into the search bar. The little blue dot is where I was at the moment. I would occasionally step aside to check the map to make sure I was walking in the right direction while searching for my landmarks.😂
On my way back to the hotel, I was looking for just the right restaurant to stop in to have my last meal in Hungary before heading home in the morning. I found the historic Astoria hotel, designed and built after the famed Waldorf Astoria in New York City. I chose the chicken paprikash with potato dumplings, as it is a traditional Hungarian meal. It came with a lovely cucumber salad, and I was finally able to check off the last thing to try on my list…Palinka. A local liquor made with pears. 😊
Needless to say, it was delicious. 😊
When I am without Google Maps, I have to be sure to identify landmarks so I remember what street I should be walking on. The streets here are similar to Paris in that they radiate out from the center, and it’s like walking through an Old Town (which technically it is 😂). Lots of curves and twists and turns! And then sometimes you disappear beneath the street because the crossing is too expansive to put crosswalks in. Then I need my UNDERGROUND landmarks as well.😂
My above ground landmarks…
And the below. I numbered them, and there were two in total, so I knew if I came to a third, I had wandered onto the wrong street. The sign I had to follow… always at a bi-section of stairways. My exit was to the right.
And lastly, the ‘I am getting close’ landmark, also above ground. 😂
I had gotten lost in town a couple of times today, but I came across some very special things that I would have missed otherwise! And to make a correction from yesterday… I was in the historic Jewish temple, and today I ended up at the new Jewish temple quite by accident. So I took a stroll through there as well. It was vast and beautiful. Again, this is the second largest synagogue in the world!
I found a second memorial in the basement of this synagogue for the Hungarian Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazi regime during World War II. Even though Hungary wasn’t occupied by the Germans until March of 1944, the atrocities were many. Several thousand Jewish people in Hungary were killed. This common courtyard shown above is a site of mass graves for the people who lived in Budapest, and most likely near the former synagogue, which is very close in proximity to the new one.
You can see at the top (on the roof) the two tablets representing those which had been carried down the mountain by Moses. 💕
After the Germans arrived in Hungary, they began forcing the Jewish population into a Jewish Ghetto, and then attempting to deport them to the death camps. Hungary decided to withdraw their willingness to let the Jewish citizens be sent to their deaths after a time (roughly 4 months), even though by now there were several rules and regulations that had literally taken away their livelihoods and had forced many (all) into starvation and poverty. Sadly, a short time after Hungary put a halt to the deportations, a second, antisemitic group came in, ‘Arrow’ something or other, (I apologize…I am dealing with information overload today) and they went on a rampage and killed several hundred more Jewish citizens in the streets of Budapest, in spite of Hungary’s efforts to stop the senseless deaths of the innocent. One of the worst of these mass killings took place in ‘The Square’ shown below, and I happened upon it, again by accident, this afternoon. They have a beautiful ‘living memorial’ to many of the people that were brutally murdered right here in this place.
A sad, sad period in our history. 😔
I forgot I hadn’t told you anything about Central market! It was crazy, huge, and packed with people! Still, I enjoyed walking through and seeing the various items for sale, along with fresh meats, sausages, cheeses, and breads. I can’t imagine the locals shopping here often because of the heavy tourist traffic, but it sure seemed like they were! Amazing to sit back and watch people walking around. I enjoyed some local cheese strudel while I did just that. 😊
For lunch, I stopped for a bit and ordered the “Taste of Hungry”. It had some sort of layered potato casserole, a stuffed cabbage roll, the popular Hungarian goulash soup, and the infamous shredded cabbage salad. The only two worth eating entirely were the cabbage roll and the fresh cabbage slaw. Both were delicious! I have yet to find cabbage slaw in these Slavic countries that I dislike!
I’ve done a fantastic job of checking off the things I had put on my itinerary before leaving for Europe. Today I will visit St. Stephen’s Basilica, and then find the funicular that will take me back up to the castle district on the Pest side. My Google maps is easily accessible within Wifi range of the hotel, so I’m taking screenshots of the streets I’ll need to watch for during my travel down and back again. It will be fairly straightforward today, as St. Stephens is on the way to the funicular. A double plus! And I’ve got my ride pre-booked to the airport early tomorrow morning, so all that is left beyond having one, last adventure filled day in Budapest is packing up! And I’ve still got a glass of wine to enjoy while I do that. 😃HAPSBURG wine 😂😂👏👏! Marie Antoinette was a Hapsburg 😃😱!
My breakfast fare has typically been half protein and half carb…energy and stamina! 👏👏👏🤣
I will miss these lovely breakfast buffets when I leave. I wonder if I can convince Dean to start cooking breakfast for me…🤭
And in going through my pictures, I can’t remember if I posted this lovely one from yesterday…
