Another day, another humongous breakfast.
The restaurant staff are getting to know me quite well now as my plates get ever bigger. I am conscious of a comment that Michael made the other day, that I am looking pretty thin and I need to make sure I am putting enough away.
Weather looked to be perfect, clear and sunny for my sightseeing day. The tour was set for 10.00AM so I set off early and watched the sunrise sitting on the riverbank overlooking Buda with its impressive array of monuments, palaces and iconic buildings. A visual feast starting off with the iconic Liberty Statue high on Gellért Hill, with her hands raised high and holding a palm leaf as a celebration of the Soviet liberation of Hungary.
Moving right is Buda Palace, the Presidential Palace, Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion with its 7 turrets representing 7 Hungarian chieftains who had led their tribes to the present day Hungary.
An eye popping, skyline defining glorious romp through Hungary's history. A moment of calm reflection before I shot off to meet Auden, my super enthusiastic and engaging Spanish guide in front of the Parliament Building. Wow, it just looked so damn amazing in the morning light.
I really lucked out with Auden as he was able to present the history on Hungary with a view that I suspect may not be shared with many of his Hungarian colleagues, although subsequent fact checking suggests he played a little fast and loose on some of the detail.
No problemo, I would much prefer his entertaining interpretations over granular historical accuracy any day. I can always find that out myself afterwards and sometimes you just need the spirit of a place conveyed in a way that sits with you.
As ever, the rise of the all powerful Ottoman Empire was a key time period and all seemed to kick off, with respect to Hungary anyway, with the Battle of Mohács in 1526 which paved the way for Habsburg and Turkish domination in Hungary with perpetual warfare for the next couple of hundred years or so.
Interesting factoids included that 96m was the height of both the Parliament Building and St Stephen Basilica, apparently in reference to the formation of Hungary in 896. Also, housed within the reliquary of St Stephen's Basilica was the incorruptible withered right hand of Stephen I of Hungary, the first King of Hungary as well as the tombs of various famous football players.
I will never get enough of trams running on overhead powerlines in front of iconic buildings.
Auden went onto give a great historical overview of main events and in particular, two monuments to note.
The first is the Memorial for Victims of the German Occupation erected by the current, popular PM Viktor Orbán as a way of whitewashing the Hungarian government's complicit murder of Jews by shooting them into the Danube, often tying them together with barbed wire and killing only one with a bullet to head and the others would then be pulled into the freezing river.
The monument consists of a black eagle for Nazi hovering over the representation of Hungary with broken Doric columns representing the death of democracy.
It was erected secretly, during the course of one night in July 2014 and Jewish community members subsequently put up images of Jews murdered along the bottom of the memorial, held up by barbed wire.
This is taken down every time there is a neo-Nazi gathering which happens fairly regularly, but then Jewish community put them all back up again.
The second monument to note is the Soviet Heroic Memorial in Liberty Square, referencing the Soviet liberation of Hungary in World War II from Nazi German occupation.
Unlike the majority of statues relating to the Communist dictatorship which had been moved to Memento Park in the south of the city following the fall of communism, the Soviet Heroic Memorial stayed put largely due to the threat by the Soviet Union saying that they would dig up or build over all of the graves of the Hungarians buried in Russia.
It is continually being defaced and has now got a big fence around it.
I felt energised after hearing about key significant events, the 1956 uprising and subsequent overthrow by the Russians, the reasons how the Soviets gained such a stronghold in Hungary over time and generally the views held by Hungarians on the Russians. Fascinating stuff.
Turns out that there was due to be a papal visit next week, so I shot up to Heroes Square to take a look at the preparations.
There was a great sounding restaurant recommended by Auden, but as per usual, they were not keen on a solo diner for lunch in such a busy time. Grrr.
Next stop, the famous Szechenyi Thermal Baths which were just fantastic.
Could not have chosen a better afternoon, with the sun blazing and although full, still plenty of room. Different temperatures of water, inside and outside with sauna and hammam. Spent over two hours and met loads of Brits over for a weekend break.
I fleetingly wondered about Covid and how clearly it did not seem an issue in this particular place, although there was one lady by the changing rooms who was wearing a mask.
Good luck to her, I say.
Took a random bus, one of those that runs with cables above it down to the main area. I wanted to get over to Bud hill to watch the sunset over Pest and especially the Parliament Building from Fisherman Bastion.
I definitely didn't want to go hungry again so stopped off at Thai restaurant and got chatting to an English guy who had moved over to Hungary to be with his Hungarian girlfriend. Wow, so great to be speaking to so many English people these past few days.
After hoofing it back to the hotel, I made it over to Buda and was rewarded with one of the most spectacular sunsets from Fisherman's Bastion overlooking all of the amazing buildings I had been touring earlier that day.
Yet another brilliant day in my big brilliant journey.
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