Hungary

This morning I went to the Church in the rock, it is built in a cave where a saint lived and healed people with the spring waters. I went for a walk to find the caves you can go on tours through but I gave up walking because my feet were sore and went to the Hungarian folk museum instead. It wasn't great but ok. Now Im back early to pack and get ready for Salzburg in the morning where I will have my own room for the first time in like 7 weeks! Also I have been guessing the temperatures wrong, i guessed high 20s but i saw a thermometer today that said 33 and today was better that it has been the last few days. And I did not watch the opening ceremonies today which is probably a good thing when i think about it, im still a bit frustrated about the whole womans spot thing and about not shooting now but oh well, if you haven't heard than just google it and go through the articles.

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.

I spent most of today on Castle hill. I went to the Hungarian national gallery, it was interesting as pretty much all of the works were by Hungarian artists with the exception of a few cross overs during the Hapsburg era. Then I sat and read and ate fruit looking over the Buda hills for a few hours. Then I went to the Castle Labyrinth, under the hill are a series of tunnels that you can walk through, they have a bunch of weird stuff in them to make them more interesting i think but it was weird. It would be the perfect place for a Halloween party though, it was pretty creepy and damp and low ceiling and dark. Then the last section of the tunnels is called the labyrinth of courage. It is pitch black and you have to follow a chord on the wall and try not to run into the stranger in front of you and not knowing when you will change direction or altitude. It was creepy.

Today I walked around another park and went to heros square. Then to the fine art museum, i liked the ones in vienna better but it was ok, it was more religous scene based. I found a used english book store today and traded mine in for news ones so thats good. Then I walked up to castle hill and went through the fishermans bastilion and one of the old churches up there. It was very different archetchture from austrian churches. Then I walked around through the opld town and castle grounds for a whole before going home.

So i pretty much just spent today doing nothing, i was going to go to the art gallery but it is closed on Mondays so i just went and walked around and sat in the park on the Island. Its a pretty big park the river is quite wide here and the park is on an island in the middle, there are some ruins of an early monestary there, so i just sat and read all day. im just really tired still, kind of wish i had booked a hotel for the first couple nights so i could have caught up on sleep, maybe i will do that in prague.