Day 9: The second half of Budapest starts the second half of our trip

The agenda for today was a tour of Buda in the morning and a free afternoon before we head to Croatia tomorrow. Since it is Sunday and the final destination, St. Mathias Church, is closed to tourists until after mass (1 p.m.), we had the opportunity to sleep in as our scheduled meeting time with local guide, Monika, was at 10 a.m. We walked over towards the Danube to catch the #2 tram to the Chain Bridge. This bridge was originally built in the 19th century because a rich nobleman could not cross the river to attend a funeral as there were no bridges over the Danube. This one as well as all the other main bridges spanning the Danube underwent reconstruction as they were all bombed in WW2. We walked over the bridge to the funicular that climbs Castle Hill. The floral display next to the incline, in Communist era, was planted with exclusively red flowers. During the Hungarian uprising, a group of students under cover of night rearranged the design. Since no flowers were damaged, they could not be charged with vandalism. We rode up the incline to the top of the hill/mountain that overlooks the Danube and the bustling (and flat) city center of Pest.

This is the site of the Royal Palace (now converted to an art museum) and the current seat of government. Monika enlightened us about the current political situation in Hungary. Viktor Orban was recently elected to a third term as prime minister. His right wing political platform was anti- immigrant and Monika described how he “won” the vote by essentially buying the support of ethnic Hungarians living in neighboring countries. Prban is an authoritarian figure – basically acting as a dictator – and there are no term limits for his political position. The parallels of the Hungarian political situation to what is happening now in the United States is frightening.

As we walked around the area, the excavations of the medieval portion of the city were seen. As in many other European cities, Budapest has been built up on several levels over the centuries. Our final destination was St. Mathias, the 13th century church with a mixture of gothic, renaissance and art nouveau styles and a stunning tile roof. This church is also known as the Coronation Church, as this was where kings were crowned. The interior has a Moorish look and around the 15th century Ottoman invaders had transformed it into a Mosque. The interior has colorfully designed motif of the indigenous Magyars.

After a tour of the church, our afternoon was free. We took a bus down to Pest and decided to partake in a typical Hungarian experience, takin the thermal baths. There are several pools of water of varying temperatures, with bubbling jets to soothe sore muscles. It was crowded to capacity and we had to wait around 15 minutes for others to leave so we could enter . Despite reading that all the men would be wearing Speedos, I was quite disappointed to see that very few were to be seen.