Budapest

Today has been a crazy day. I started in Poland, went through Slovakia, and now I am in Hungary. Another way to say it: Breakfast in Poland, Lunch in Slovakia, and dinner in Hungary. I will actually return to Slovakia on Wednesday (Halloween) to spend time in their capital.

To journey to Hungary we went through the Carpathian Mountains. This was very funny to me because Alice introduced me to a series by Christine Feehan where the male lead characters are from the Carpathian Mountains. The premise of the books is they are a race of immortals. The men must find their life mates or they risk becoming the undead (vampires) who must then be hunted and killed. The women in the race are few but there are a few human women who are true psychics who can be converted. They are my smut fiction easy reading choices. Today was the perfect day to picture a scene in the book as it was foggy and raining. It sprinkled a little yesterday, but today was full on rain in the morning. By the time we got to Budapest, it was quite nice. So nice in fact that I had to take my coat off while walking.

Before leaving Poland, we stopped by this city called Orawka to visit St. John the Baptist church. It was built in 1650 and looks quite rustic. The paintings are all old. The church is quite beautiful. The woman who showed us around was quite proud of their church.

Based on the crazy Hungarian Forint, I am a millionaire.

As we crossed the border of Slovakia and then Hungary, I thought how arbitrary these invisible borders that separate countries are. You cross a line and all of a sudden you are a foreigner. How totally crazy!

The hotel we are staying at is on the Pest side of the city. Another great location.

Once we hit the hotel, and I got settled, I walked to Heroes' Square. Around there is a great City Park. There are also two museums that flank the square. It was filled with people. My favorite spot was the Vajdahunyad Castle. It is so magical!  It looks like the type of castle I can imagine Prince Charming taking me to one of these days. It has four parts: a Romanesque Chapel, Gothic Gate, Renaissance castle and Baroque palace. The grounds were amazing. I also went to see the Szechenly Baths. It was quite a lovely building, but I didn't go in. I just kept picturing Mrs. Bennett talking about her nerves and Lizzie and Jane rolling their eyes. I don't think it will ever come down to that. LOL!

If you go to this main street and turn left you hit all of the above. So I went back and overshot my street because if you turn right, you hit the opera house. It was very nice. There was a group outside their Moulin Rouge who were singing some opera. The sopranos were amazing. I am not planning on attending an opera here, but I will go to a Mozart concert in Vienna.

I really like the buildings here. They are so big that you have to be across the street to fit the entire building in the picture, but then there are all of these trees ruining the picture. It's strange but I already feel like I know my way around here. I feel very at home here!