Day 4 - more Budapest, leaving Hungary

6-1 Saturday

from the OAT itinerary:

Day 4:

Spend the day enjoying the wonders of Budapest on your own. Or, join an optional tour exploring Hungarian Jewish Heritage. You'll visit the Great Synagogue, the largest in Europe, designed in a Moorish style but with Byzantine, Romantic, and Gothic elements. Then you'll see the Kazinczy Street Orthodox Synagogue, the center of traditional orthodox Jewish life here; the Emanuel Memorial Tree, a memorial to Hungarian victims of the Holocaust; and the Jewish Museum.

After lunch onboard, the remainder of the afternoon is at leisure to make further discoveries on your own in Budapest. Then this evening, begin cruising along the Danube from Hungary to Croatia.

Please note: The Hungarian Jewish Heritage optional tour is not available Saturdays and on regional holidays including 4/3, 5/29, 8/21, 9/16, 10/6, and 10/14. The Hungarian Jewish Association also reserves the right of changing the opening hours.   

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After another good night’s sleep we are ready to explore the city again. We really like Budapest. The location of the ship is very convenient too. And … the sun is shining too.

Breakfast starts at 7 am. At 9 am we are supposed to be in the lounge with our life-vests. The safety drill. Of course. The captain is very serious about it. I like the captain. He has great humor but he can be serious too.

At 9:30 am we are outside and assemble in our golden, blue and red groups. Days before those who wanted to do this could get tickets for the streetcar. We are supposed to experience public transportation. Well, of course it is nothing new for James and me but it is fun. 

It is 4 stops but Monika says that we are going from Chain Bridge to the green bridge. When you see that get out! We are at the Covered Market which everybody talked about. It’s stalls of fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh meats, paprika spices and liquor (mainly downstairs) and souvenirs (mainly upstairs) AND an Aldi supermarket in the basement. 

Monika gives us a talk about everything at the beginning and wants us to have a taste of Pogácsa, a Hungarian specialty. Here she is third standing in line. 

Everybody gets one of the little filo balls filled with cheese. Just put your hand into the white bag and find one. Very nice.

Then we are let loose to explore on our own. Forgot to take a photo upstairs.

We can take the streetcar back or walk. James and I decide to walk. It is so nice. We stop halfway for a beer at a pub where we can sit outside. So nice. The restaurant has free WiFi. Most of my photos finally get uploaded but I still can’t finish even my first blog which I have already written because I can’t even open blogger on the computer. But … it is what it is. When you can read this it might be 1 or 2 weeks later.

We make it back in time to go into the lounge for the 12:30 pm “ Learning & Discovery Lecture”. Professor Tomas Lederer speaks about the refugee crisis in Hungary. James and I think he was great. No doubt that his heart was in the volunteer work he did since 2015. In the evening we talked with some other travelers which were somewhat scornful about immigrants saying that those people should defend their own country instead of fleeing. Of course it was a different situation when their ancestors came to America (really?). 

Afterwards everybody hurried to lunch at 1:30 pm. As always we are served or you can also go to the salad bar. I can’t resist and have the “Paprika Toltott” (half bell pepper stuffed with minced meat served with rice pilaf, broccoli florets and tomato sauce).

We have to leave before the dessert (thank goodness or my pants won't fit soon) to walk to the Opera House. Two days ago when we wanted to go for the tour it had been sold out but we were able to buy tickets for 3 pm today when we knew we would have free time. We were a bit nervous because we had told the salesperson then that we wanted them for Saturday and she wrote 06-02 (Sunday) on the ticket which we had only noticed this morning. But there was no problem. She even remembered us saying it.

Since we didn’t know how long it would take to walk and sorting out the tickets we were a bit early. Time to walk across the street and have a cup of coffee. Ah, everything is good.

The tour started promptly. There are so many people. First we are divided into different language groups. English is so large that we are divided again into two. Our guide Veronika is excellent. Kaiser Franz Josef and Queen Sisi had sponsored the Opera (as long as it was not going to be larger or better than the Vienna one) and she talked about them first. The opera house was incredible and such a shame that we could not see everything since it was under renovation. 

She talked about that going to the opera was really more a social thing than about the music which made the intermission an hourlong event … which meant that the bar was a very important place.

Right next to it was a very long hall which was for the smokers. It meant that the textile wall covering was not original. She pointed out though that the gold looking design was made by two threads of yellow and silver. Interesting.

We went down the stairs for the royalty. Never understood what she said about the mirrors on top and bottom of it. 

Then we went up to the stairs again were we enjoyed a taste of music. A gentleman first sang an aria, then a lady and then they both sang two duets. Everybody was sitting on the stairs or standing along the railings. Very informal. We enjoyed the whole thing very much.

And yes, had to take some videos.

VIDEO 1!     (0:45)

VIDEO 2!     (1:29)

VIDEO 3!     (1:20)

VIDEO 4!     (1:04)

Since we could not take a proper photo of the opera house because it was renovated I took a photo of the picture on the ticket.

We walked back to the ship and decided that we still had time to go a little further to the monument of the shoes. Just before the end of the war in December Jews were not transported to concentration camps but just led to the river and pushed in or shot. It breaks your heart when you think how cruel people can be. We had also been told that in Hungary the Jews were not killed by the German Nazis but Hungarian Nazis. So sad.

We had been told “All aboard!” at 5:45 pm because the MS River Concerto (our ship) would leave for Vukovar. James and I were on the sundeck. Passing under bridges it felt like that you should duck, especially James. There is very high water due to the recent rain but our ship is able to get under the bridges (just).

Port Talk (information about tomorrow) at 6:45 pm and dinner at 7 pm. Tonight I opted for the “Mushroom Risotto”. 

There was nice music in the lounge. The Onboard Musician Krassy is quite good. It was too early to go to bed so we had a night cup.

I was able to download the maps.me up. If you download things when you have WiFi you can find ways and see where you are when you are offline. It’s a free app. Fun.