Heroes (Budapest)

Good morning, dear reader. An early reveal of today's title, a David Bowie classic from 1977. Sing it with me, "If I were king ...". Good times. The reason will be become clear shortly. You will also be relieved to know that this post is relatively brief in comparison to what you've endured to date. We spent the day, well, part of it, on the Hop-on-hop-off bus and the rest relaxing and catching up on processing my photos.

You may recall in my last post, I challenged my children to be the first one to respond. The first to do so would have the title of "favourite child" bestowed upon them. Two of our three offspring replied in a timely fashion. One is yet to acknowledge my request. As is often the case with siblings, there is a dispute as to the actual winner. The decision has been referred to the bunker, NRL style, and the ultimate winner will be revealed throughout the course of this post. To more important matters.

We walked through the Castle District to the funicular this morning and travelled very sedately down the hill to the Danube to catch the Big Bus. We caught a similar contraption in Wellington, New Zealand, some years back. It is certainly a mode of travel from yesteryear and relies on the weight balance of one car going up the hill as the other travels down. Quaint would be the description. This morning's descent was uncrowded and smooth.

Old world charm

The Big Bus was waiting patiently for our arrival at the funicular stop. We presented our pre-purchased tickets and were waved inside by a disinterested staffer. Apparently the concept of service in Hungary is different to that of the western world. We should be grateful the staff are favouring us with their attention. It is most certainly not a case of the customer is always right - and to be honest, I'm OK with that. Anyway, no one checked our tickets which meant they weren't activated, not Pete Evans style, but on the computer that registers we have commenced our 24 hour ride period.

The ubiquitous Parliament

The first two stops were not particularly populated although the bus became very crowded at Parliament. We had chosen to sit upstairs in the open air, well, for COVID risk management, (and also because it brought back childhood memories of travelling with my grandfather in Sydney, as I always made him sit upstairs). As we pulled out from Parliament, the women behind us began to cough. No masks. Not happy. Having come this far, we don't want to catch the plague right before we go on the cruise. The coughing continued intermittently until our stop, Heroes Square in the City Park. Now you understand the title for this post.

On the way to the Park, we stopped outside the Opera House. The one that doesn't appear in the Lonely Planet Guide. We did not alight from the bus. I guess the reality of seeing more golden, over the top decadence was, well, too much. Maybe next time. With a recital.

The Heroes Square is a massive open paved area. In its centre is a 36m tall obelisk topped by the Archangel Gabriel holding the crown of Hungary he/she (do angels have gender? oh, yeah, Catholic church) allegedly offered to St Stephen. Behind it, on both sides are two arced structures, each bearing 7 statues of some of the Kings of Hungary. Very Romanesque, in fact it reminded me of the forecourt at the Vatican. Before the obelisk lies the tomb of the Unknown Soldier (minus any bodies as no one is actually buried there).

From the "Park", we walked to one of the hidden treasures of Budapest, the Vajdahunyad Castle, modelled on Dracula's castle in Transylvania. This had been recommended by Emoke, our tour guide on day 1. We didn't go inside. It was all rather crowded, so we walked the paths outside and photographed statues, as you do. One particular statue, named, wait for it, Anonymous - yeah, I don't get it either, was supposed to be some charm for writers. If you rub the nib of the pen in the statue's hand it improves your prowess as a writer. So, my dear reader, you have noticed the difference in my prose? I rubbed his nib. It's size and shape felt strangely familiar and it all felt wrong somehow.

Nice view with the light poles

Anonymous

The hidden gem castle has the most pathetic moat I've ever seen.  No, seriously, it's dodgy. I could walk through it. And, in a way that even the French would be impressed by, they destroyed the best photographic opportunities by placing large poles in the middle of the vista. We have since learnt that these light poles are there in the middle of the water because the manmade lake becomes a winter time skating rink.

There were still things to explore in this area, but we decided to head back to the bus stop and onto our next destination: the most beautiful café in the world. Allegedly (I don't want to offend anyone).

The New York Café. Special. Cool. Whatever. We made it inside. Just. The waiting area was woefully inadequate for the volume of trade they were doing. There was a mass of people, mostly seated. We weren't seated and weren't likely to be before the coming of the Messiah. First or second coming, depending on your religion. So, like the Australians we are, we left. It's a special space, but really, you're just having coffee. Or worse, tea.

I always look at the ceiling while drinking coffee, generally when it's bad...

Whatever. Hot and tired, we returned to the Big Bus and headed back across the river to Buda and the funicular. There was a queue here as well but it moved at reasonable speed and, given we had tickets from the morning, we were able to skip ahead of a few people who needed to buy theirs.

The plan, when we got to the top, was to head to a bar and have a beer. That was the plan. Reality had other ideas. Every bar was packed. There were tour groups everywhere. OK then, let's head to the Hotel. The Rooftop bar doesn't open until 4pm, so that was out. The downstairs bar, yep, it was also full. There was no room at the inn. The only option was lunch. We repaired to the restaurant and had a typical tourist lunch, the signature burger and a bottle of Hungarian red wine. The view from the restaurant is stunning. It looks across Fisherman's Bastion to the Parliament. It is a vista I never tire of, with the added bonus of people watching.

They serve McGuigan's wine! That was unexpected.

Post lunch it was time to blog and process some photos. Then happy hour in the Executive Lounge. Sadly the children had departed and it was much quieter and more enjoyable without them. 

The following morning was breakfast and packing. We left the hotel to transfer to the AMA Venita that was waiting for us on the Pest side of the Danube. We checked in, left our bags and walked along the river bank towards Parliament. About 300 metres south of the Parliament, there is a memorial to the Jewish people who were shot and thrown into the river during the Second World War. It is a series of period shoes, cast in iron and attached to the promenade. They depict the fact that, before they were shot, the victims were instructed to remove their shoes as these were a valuable commodity in wartime and could be resold. 

Memorials are one of those things. There were people taking selfies or having their photo taken with the shoes. One child had his foot a shoe and was photographed by his mother. All entirely inappropriate. We witnessed similar disrespectful behaviour at the 9/11 memorial in New York.

We then headed back to Duncorso for a lunchtime beer and some people watching before we eventually walked back to the ship. The Venita has a capacity of 164. There are only 71 passengers on this journey so there were plenty of people opting for a cabin upgrade. Having already unpacked, we were not interested.

The 300 year old acacia. The oldest tree in Budapest we are told.

We have met many people already and we were invited to the smaller dining room for dinner to get to know some other passengers. The food was lovely as was the accompanying wine. It was a later night than anticipated which is why this post has now combined two days and is still a day late.

Getting back to the favourite child situation ... the bunker has just made a decision ... it's coming through now ... it's Caitlin.

Until tomorrow.