Continued from Budapest Day 2 Part 2.

So tired from walking all afternoon yesterday. Woke up late at 9:30. They stop serving breakfast at 10. Ugh, I don’t think I’ll make breakfast. SO was up and about already though, so I asked her if maybe she could bring me some juice and a chocolate croissant.

The hotel did one better. They delivered an entire tray of food to our room!! A plethora of items to choose from! Well, there wasn’t any choosing, because we ate everything. Yum!

During breakfast, the TV was on a Russian news channel. Here’s Putin making a speech, and all I could think about was the Estonians telling me that he’s short at around 5’7″.

It was a very boring speech. I also do not remember ever seeing a video of Putin making a speech on American TV. Granted, I don’t watch a lot of TV, but still. We are so isolated. Go to any hotel room in Europe, and you get channels from all over the world. Go to a hotel room in America, and you get almost all, if not exclusively American channel.

Another beautiful day. It’s warmer today with temperature in the 60s. Again, the blue sky just isn’t quite as blue as Istanbul or Berlin.

Down in the subway, through the ticket inspectors, and into the wobbly escalators on berserk.

I really love these lights fixtures.

The plan today is just to, you guessed it, walk around some more. Budapest feels so much like Vienna to me. The tourist sights here aren’t world renown, and rightfully so. I came to Budapest with very similar expectations that I had for Vienna, and that is just to come here, chill out, eat some food, drink some coffee, and see the city. It has not disappointed at all in those regards. I wish I had arrived in Berlin with this same mentality. I would have loved Berlin from day 1.

Above ground from the subway.

Walked by this beautiful display window. Just had a massive breakfast, but it’s too pretty to refuse.

I had to stop myself from trying one of each.

St. Stephen’s Basilica. This is the giant church that can be seen towering over Budapest from Fisherman’s Bastion. For some reason, seeing it from the street level, it didn’t look quite as big as I thought. It looked much bigger from the vantage point.

I really liked this building. Don’t ask me why.

It’s pretty big if you looked at the size of the people standing under it, but it didn’t feel so big to me. Something is throwing off my size reference points here.

Proof of life.

Hey! It’s the same Scarlett Johansson Moet ad that I saw in St. Mark’s Square in Venice. Her breasts were a lot bigger in St. Mark’s. I think that may mostly be due to the fact that the ad space at St. Mark’s is much bigger…

Sign prior to entering St. Stephen’s basilica.

OK, I think this church has something more to offer us.

I walked in and the first thing I noticed as the massive dome above. All those images are made up of mosaics. This feels like a smaller St. Pieter’s basilica. By all means, this is a Massive church, it’s just that St. Pieter’s is Fucking Massive, so everything seems miniature compared to it. I will say though, St. Stephen’s didn’t have that echoed voice murmur that I heard in St. Pieter’s and Hagia Sophia.

The interior does a 180 from the exterior. It’s ornate, gold, marbles, and mosaics everywhere. The interior is what makes St. Stephen’s shine.

I’ve always wondering how often little pieces of mosaic stones fall down and smash into people’s heads. SO said that she was not a huge fan of this church. It’s too flashy, and didn’t feel peaceful inside. I thought about it for a second, and agreed. Both this and St. Pieter’s just blow you away with their ostentatious interiors. You feel impressed in these churches, but none of the calm that you feel in certain other churches could be found here.

This was impressive. I’d love to hear it.

I wanted to ring it so badly…

The Holy Right. This is the real draw of the church.

Nooo. The Holy Right is not available for viewing today. I was disappointed, but for all the blasphemous reasons.

My Christian friends, time to put on your blinders and ear muffs, because it’s about to get offensive. The Holy Right is the mummified right hand of St. Stephen, the first King of Hungary. What a coincidence, the founding father of the country eventually got canonized. What I found particularly interesting is that all these people come here to worship a mummified hand. Seriously? Think about that for a moment. Grown educated adults come here to pray to a mummified hand…

The plaza in front of St. Stephen’s. I think this direction leads all the way down to the Danube River. I shall head that way.

Coffee break. SO likes Costa Coffee, so we made a stop here.

Across the cafe inside the building courtyard, they had these wall graphics with different cities and their famous coffee houses. Damnit! I was in Berlin, I saw Einstein’s Coffee, but I did not go in.

Went to Vienna, but didn’t go to Cafe Sacher. Damnit! I did go to Cafe Des Deux Margots in Paris though! Didn’t go to Cafe Florian in Venice(I just looked it up and wish I had known. I was at St. Mark’s Square, it would have been so easy.) Didn’t know about Cafe Dallmayr in Munich. Wait, I am still in Budapest. I can still go to the New York Cafe!

Reached Danube River, looking over at Buda Castle.

Finally reached the Hungarian Parliament building.

This is the best that I could do for the Parliament building. My lens isn’t wide enough, and I think the best photo spot for it would have been on the Buda side, across the river. Oh well. It’s a magnificent building though.

Down another long wobbly escalator on berserk mode. The subway is so far down underground that they need these air movers just to get circulation.

This is the main metro station where all three lines connect.

I loved these mushroom lights. Maybe I should start a side photo blog for subway light fixtures around the world. I’ve seen some really cool lights inside subway stations.

Transformers, robots in disguise.

A different kind of train on this line.

Classy, leather straps.

I thought it was a cool idea for a shot, but the end result was kind of disappointing.

I like this old school looking subway station.

Hungarian State Opera House. I literally emerged from the subway, took a couple of photos, and started walking away. I didn’t know what else I was supposed to do with it.

Right next to the opera house. This is on Andrássy út, one of the main shopping streets of Budapest. This is a very nice wealthy area.

Ah yeah, the world’s most expensive phones.

It’s about 227 Hungarian florin to 1 USD today. You do the math. If you lose your phone…well…shit, that really sucks. But, if you have one of these, it’s probably chump change.

I was in the episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares in Austin. Yes, did you know that I am famous? I also saw We Bought a Zoo on the flight from Istanbul to Berlin. They didn’t have individual screens for my plane, so it was the only movie choice shown on the big(medium) common screen. It was nothing special, don’t pay money to watch it.

I like the contrast between the black building and the white building.

Even their construction scaffolding makes for an interesting picture.

SO, the fashion designer, wants to check out this fabric shop.

And there any such stores in Austin? They seem to be everywhere in Europe.

That’s not real!!! It’s interesting to see how certain countries are really into fake Burberry patterns, and I’d see it everywhere. Saw it everywhere in Istanbul. But then one hop on a flight to other countries, and you’d see no Burberry at all.

Our next stop.

Heroes’ Square. Andrássy út ends over here. The transformer yellow metro line that I was on also runs right along Andrássy út.

SO and I were both drawn to this green patina roof. It was such an usual green patina.

Oh, breasts. Good way to advertise the Museum of Fine Arts that overlooks Heroes’ Square. Got my attention, and also SO’s for that matter. She really wants to see this Birth of Art Photography exhibit. I hear they have nudie photos, don’t have to twist my arm.

Looking down Andrássy út from Heroes’ Square.

Fine Arts Museum from Heroes’ Square.

Up the stairs to the museum to see said black and white nudie photo. Oh no, the last tickets are sold at 4:30. It’s 4:45. We just missed it. Tomorrow!

Furry dog!

Look at the cool color of that roof. What would you even call that color? It almost looks like moss.

Look down the pedestrian walkway of Andrássy út.

I noticed the cool wear patterns of the hand rails lead down into the metro. On the left side you can see the primer, the top side is worn mirror smooth, and the right side still has the yellow paint. I am intrigued by this wear pattern.

Took a metro, and now we are connecting to the tram system. You can barely see the approaching yellow tram.

Very popular. These are the longest passenger trams in the world.

Our stop. I think I like the trams better than the metro. No stairs, and you get to see the city at the same time.

Go underground to cross a street intersection.

This is what the world’s longest passenger tram looks like. Not a great photo as there is another tram going the other direction so the tram looks longer than it is. The trams are only 6 car sections long.

The first kebab place that we’ve seen in the 3 days here! Crazy how the Turks have such a heavy influence in Germany, and almost nothing here. I have to eat kebab. It’s my destiny.

They had this mural inside and instantly, I recognized the Blue Mosque! How could I forget my love. The building on the island is Maiden’s Tower, which I didn’t see because I didn’t get a chance to take the Bosphorus cruise. Next time.

Chow time! Ahhhhh, always good, but the best was still that one beef doner kebab from Adenauerplatz Station in Berlin.

More Istanbul references. I actually saw this, Ortaköy Mosque.

Found Boscolo Budapest Hotel, and therefore, Cafe New York!

Ohhhhhh….Ahhhhhhh. Reminds me of the fancy coffee houses in Vienna. Budapest and Vienna are twins.

Melange! The best! Where can I get Melange in Austin?

Yes to expensive desserts.

Now, I feel better about myself. I’ve knocked out another one of the cafe on that wall graphics list we saw earlier. I feel like I accomplished something today.

Back on the tram, and this is the tram station close by our hotel.

I wish I had known earlier about the nice trams. I would have taken more tram and less Metro. This tram stop is literally a block away from our hotel. We’ve been walking the other way from our hotel to the Metro station that’s a much longer walk away. No more! We make trams priority from now on.

Chilled out at the hotel for a bit, and then it was time to eat dinner. We had discovered the tram station close to our hotel, and where there is a tram station, there are food choices. I can’t believe it took us two days to discover a busy lively area so close to our hotel.

Dinner spot.

In a fancy glass bottle. Go ahead, rip me off on the price.

Yes! Assortment of meats. I could never be a vegetarian.

To the left, our hotel is about a 20 second walk away. Down this block, it’s the tram station. We’ve always walked out to this street, and instead of looking and walking left, we’ve always just looked and walked right, so that’s why we’ve never realized that there was a bustling area really close to us. So glad that we know better now.

To be continued at Budapest Day 4.