Churches and Statues

So this morning I started out at the Basilica and saw the mummified hand of St Stephan. Then attempted the Budapest transit system for the first time. I miss Vienna it was a lot more straightforward. Eventually I figured it out and headed out to monument park. This is the park where they put all the statues that were unsuitable after the fall of communism and socialism. They obviously don't like them because they are way out in the middle of nowhere outside the city, I knew it was going to be far but wow. It was mostly Stalin and some other guys from around that time. I was following an English tour around the park and we were all pretty much convinced by the end that the tour guide was an ex communist. It was actually quite interesting to listen to as he was in Budapest for numerous different governments and policies. I think my favorite comment was - And now to this handsome fellow, we wernt allowed to talk about him for a while, but he was a good guy! He also talked about when Stalin died that everyone was sad and if you wernt they just put you in jail. After that I went on the tour of the opera house. It is modeled after Vienna's but smaller because that was the only way the emperor would pay for it. The inside of the hall I think I like better than Vienna though, I bought a book on it because the pictures wernt turning out well. But the intermission rooms and the entrance I liked better in Vienna, at least the original parts of viennas. there was a fire in Viennas that ruined a lot of the original parts which is why the Budapest one now has an iron curtain on the stage that they can close and contain a backstage fire. Then after the tour I went to the music store not nearly as good as Doblingers in Vienna - my new favorite place in the world - but they did carry middle key which is more than i can say for Canada. After that I went down to the river and read until the sun went behind the hill and castle on the other side, it was pretty cool.