Budapest2

We're keeping up a cracking pace here - so much for being on holidays! Wake up call 6.15am, breakfast any time after 6.30am, then on the bus by 7.45am. It's all in a good cause though!

Today I took another optional extra, and we went to the Parliament House, St Stephen's Cathedral, then to Gundel's restaurant.

Parliament House is such an impressive building. It's the second biggest Parliament in Europe (literally!) The guide told us that Vienna decided to build a Parliament House, so Budapest decided to build a bigger one. the same with the Cathedral - Vienna built a Cathedral so Budapest built a bigger one. The history of this place is amazing. There is so much to learn about the various Kings and conquerors of this land. Hungary has been conquered by the Romans, the Huns, the Turks, and by the habsburg Empire. And more recently of course, by the Nazis and the Russians, with the Hungarian Republic only proclaimed in 1989.



The Parliament building was absolutely magnificent. Apparently they had lots of money when it was built, and used actual gold and pure marble in its construction. The inside is just so oppulent - we can;t imagine today ever building anything so grand.


We were shown into the actual House where parliament sits. When the building was constructed there were 2 Houses - Lords and Commons - same as the British system. But now they are a republic, there is only one house.

Next we went to St Stephen's Cathedral which is built to house 6000 people. Unlike Vienna, this is free to enter, and still maintains a "Church" feel. Mass is celebrated there daily and apparently gets a full house every Sunday for Mass. St Elizabeth is big here, as is St Stephen, who was the first King of Hungary, but also a Saint.




We then went off to this Gundell cafe / restaurant where we were given these chocolate pancakes. No good for my interior so I passed on that! They looked lovely though.

After that we set off for Szentendre (St Andrews) which is about 30 mins outside Budapest. It's a quaint little village which obviously caters for tourists, as the buses were all lined up! It's a little village with cobblestone streets which has heaps of shops with beautiful Hungarian lace and of course all the usual temptations for tourists! I have to admit I succumbed! I bought a water colour painting of Budapest and a lace doiley for keepsakes! And a book about Budapest to remind me of all the things I'll forget as I move on to the next town.




Tonight I am going out with two attractive young men! For those from Mt Lawley, you might remember I taught Abel in my first year there, and also Marton Eder. Abel had come over from Hungary for one year to learn English, and I taught him in Year 6 in 1993. He didn't speak a word of English when he arrived, but he was a lovely boy and we had a good year together. Marton is his cousin and I taught him and his brother Zsolt in later years. Zsolt is now studying the violin in New York.
I think I have a date with them tonight after dinner. More news on that in the next Bulletin!

It's been wonderful having this Internet access in my room at the hotel - for free! Highly unusual. And I've even been able to keep up with the AFL trade week. (I see we got Josh Gibson!)

Thanks for all those adding comments, or sending emails. I love to hear from you. Keep them coming!