After a trek back to the inner city of Pest we grabbed a lovely breakfast at a small cafe in the central square. A few observations: (1) Hungarians know their meats, and (2) coffee melange with honey in it is simply brilliant.
Great time and a strong way to start the morning. Also - iced green tea with some fruit flavors are much easier to get here than back in the states. Perfect for warm weather!
As I commented the other night, the whole city seemed to have a very aromatic and floral scent. In the daylight I could tell that the trees were beginning to bloom, and it really contributed to the visual and overall feeling of uniqueness in this city. The daytime was also a great chance to walk along the Danube River, take some great photos of old Buda from across the water, and explore places like the Parliament building and St. Stephens basilica up close. We didn't have time to do more than a cursory walk around some of the old synagogues we found, but there were far more than I would have thought. Budapest has its own historical and cultural identity that I'd love to learn more about before coming back ... Hopefully in slightly cooler weather. There just didn't feel like there was the same kind of air flow or circulation as there is in Vienna, which is a strange observation. Shout out to REI for having ripstop nylon cargo pants that can zip off into shirts in my size!
Budapest also has a reputation for having a much greater criminal presence; so, maybe that romantic vibe from the previous night could stand to be updated just a tad. With so much to see and so much to do, however, its worth noting that Budapest has a lot more English than Vienna in general. Many restaurants had either English translations or the entire listing was in English. Many shops had signs and notices in English. I didn't think that we were spending all of our time in very tourist-centric places, although some was unavoidable of course.
Anyways, its been a fun and tiring 24 hours. We got to the bus station too early due to a mix up with our departure time (half hour later than we thought), but on the plus side its less likely we'll miss the bus and be stranded or something like that.
All of my photos are on my Nikon, so I can't post any until I offload them; but, I'll try to do that today or tomorrow and post them here with comments. Stay tuned!
