Day 3 - Budapest, Hungary

Before we get to the cool things we saw today, I have to disclose our very rocky hotel check in. I made all the reservations and split them between Martha’s Marriott account and mine, to keep them active and earning points. Martha is checking us in and the guy says “Four nights?” I’m doing hard math in my head and thinking Friday to Wednesday is five nights. Welp, my bad, I had only booked four nights. Ok so not a big problem, there are plenty of hotels in a Budapest if we cannot extend at our current hotel. Then after Martha signs on the dotted line, the guys says, “Oh, we’re having problems with the air conditioning, but your room is cooler than most.” Uh oh! He does tell us there are fans in the rooms. We are pretty tired and hungry and not inclined to find another hotel on Friday night, so we let it go. Well, fans are fans and not AC for a reason. They cannot keep up with the heat of the room. We were both awake at 4:30 and confirmed we’re changing hotels.

Another small misstep from last night: Before each trip, Martha always visits Bank of America to buy currency for each country we visit. This task has become much easier with advent of the Euro. But there are still some counties which have not opted in. Hungary is one of those countries with their Florint. She even prints a conversion cheat sheet for the wallet (laminated, of course). 1,000 HUF = $2.91. So basically multiply the thousands by 3. She thought she was getting a deal when the bottle of wine she bought was 70.600 (periods generally mean commas in prices). But she learned too late that everything here is quoted in Euros. “People! Pick a lane!” It better be a good bottle as that is not “Tuesday wine.”

On to today…

Saturday morning, pack everything up, check out, walk to the new hotel, and happily have AC. Also, another poor money conversion and way over tipped the bellman. Oh well, it’s the only tip so far today so in US terms, we’re definitely ahead. I love the no tip world of Europe. The new hotel is on Vorosmarty Square, near the main touresty/shopping streets of Budapest.

We are all over the Hop On / Hop Off experiences. It’s an easy way to see the sites and decide if you want to see more.

We started with the river tour - boating on the Danube, which flows through 10 countries. Is that cool or what?

First, at little background on Budapest: Germany invaded Hungary in 1943-1944 and occupied the country in March 1944. You know what happened to German territory in WWII, it got the sh&$ bombed out of it by the Allies. Budapest was no different. Buildings, bridges, streets that had been around for years, maybe centuries, no longer existed. The Soviet and Romanian armies launched an offensive against Hungary on October 29, 1944. This offensive, known as the Budapest offensive, lasted until the fall of Budapest on February 13, 1945. The siege of Budapest was a strategic victory for the Allies in their advance towards Berlin.

The Danube has a number of bridges that will get you from Buda to Pest. You knew they were once separate cities, correct? In 1837, they became Budapest. There are seven bridges crossing the Danube. I’m a little partial to the Margaret Bridge, built in 1876 and rebuilt in 1948.

There is the Chain Bridge, built in 1884 and rebuilt in 1949, the first permanent bridge across the Danube.

The absolute best view on the river is the Parliament building. We’ve been told we need to see it at night. We’re going to try, but the sunsets at 9:00 PM. Were usually back in the room by then. The building is on the Pest side of the river and opened in 1902. The building, like the bridges, was damaged in the Siege of Budapest in WWII.

Lastly, you cannot miss all the people here to board river cruises. From the airport to the city center to the water, it is a thriving business. Viking is ready for their passengers.