Just got back from Fidelio at the Opera. Very interesting watching a loose interpretation of an opera sung in German and translated into Hungarian!
The Opera House is beautiful inside. We were in the second row of a box. Before the opera we had dinner at Callas across the street from the Opera House and our hotel. Carrie tells me that much of the movie Munich was actually shot there. I will have to watch it again to see if I recognize anything.
Yesterday we -- well now I know why I need to do this everyday! I am having trouble remembering what we did before we met the women who knit! Oh! How could I forget! We went to the House of Terror! I guess I was trying to block it out of my mind. It is also hard to think of something so depressing after having had a wonderful evening at dinner and Opera!
The House of Terror is something. You enter a floor that is even with a tank and the tank has water dripping down the marble stand it is on. The walls are covered with pictures of the over 3,000 people who were killed in that building by the Nazis and the Soviets.
The exhibits are well done. We did not purchase the audio guide -- just as uncle Rick Steves advised. We read his one or two paragraphs for each of the rooms and watched many of the videos of interviews with survivors. In the "Room of Clothes" they had a somewhat tongue in cheek video of people changing from one type of clothing to the other as the control changed from Nazi to communist.
The basement was prison rooms. The dripping water from the tank took on more meaning as there was a room of water where you had to be in water 24/7. There was also a standing room where you could do nothing but stand!
After that we went to the most expensive lunch I have had
in a long time. Lukacs Cukraszda is about a block away from the House of Terror. Between the 2 of us we spend 50 DOLLARS! We had a Ceaser salad (no chicken -- too early) a drink (non-alcoholic) and dessert. The dessert was the cheapest part.
We then came back to the hotel,
showered and gathered up our crocheting -- I have made a shawl and scarf all since we lifted off in Seattle! We met the women at the California Coffee Company -- 
the same spot Carrie, Carmen and I stopped at after we had toured St. Stephens. They were a great group of women.
One of them is from New Mexico, she has been here for 2 years and is waiting for all the paperwork to go through so she can marry her fiance. She met him when he did a year abroad and ended up at Trinity College in Hartford,
Conneticut where she was attending school.
One of the other women is getting her Phd in Comparative
Linguistics at the same school Carmen is attending. She is from Switzerland and was excited because her boyfriend is coming to visit her this weekend. One is a legal secretary so we had that in common and Anett, the women who I had connected with, has an 8 year old son, has recently started spinning her own yarn and knits and crochets. They were all great women and I so happy I 
got a chance to meet them.
Carmen joined us and met them as well. Anett said I could give
Carmen her cell phone number and she could call her any time. That made me feel good. If Carmen should need something during the 5 minutes one of her family is not visiting, she has a local number she can use.
Carmen also mentioned it to some of the women in her program who knit and crochet so they may join them on Wednesday nights at 5:45! We are trying to get Carment to crochet. Her classes are 4 hours long and it is a great way to fill the time without playing games or surfing the web on her computer.
Carmen, Carrie and I then went to an Italian restaurant there in the square. It is so strange to be drinking wine with my youngest niece!
Today, Carrie and I went back up to the Castle District. It takes us about two days to do some of these "walks". We went to St. Matthias Church and the Fisherman's Bastion. The church is beautiful and very ornate. But the best thing is the view of Pest from the bastion. We had a water (me) and Coke light (Carrie) in the cafe -- no tour bus people that Rick has warned us about! So we got to sit -- something important to us! and take in the view.
We then went to Ruszwurm Cukraszda. It is a coffee house my book and Rick's book mentioned. But we are learning we passed on real food and just had dessert!
We had an apple pie/turnover thing and an ice cream sundae of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream with a berry sauce, whipped cream dusted with chocolate and a Cinnamon cookie on top. The strawberry ice cream was amazing. I would eat more strawberry ice cream if it tasted this good in the US!
Anett had told us where the public library was located -- but we could not find it! We did find a paper store however. Carrie got an eraser and found a small notebook with an orange cat named Molly on it -- she has an orange cat named Molly. So of course, she had to buy it! There were tons of products with Disney characters on them. I bought Laura Jean some Winni the Pooh stickers. The only way she will know they are from Budapest will the the writing!
When we were at the great market hall, they had some Winnie the Pooh character t-shirts that had the normal front but on the back was the back of the character along with it's tail.
Another item I have been surprised to find are Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts with Budapest underneath the logo but there is NO Hard Rock Cafe in Budapest! Marketing is alive and well!
Carmen brought her computer with her to the hotel but we were not able to upload my pictures. I would have to save them to iPhoto first and THEN upload them. We didn't have time to do that so you will just have to wait a few more days for me to come home and upload them!
We had dinner at Callas on the sidewalk. The food was really good and the items we ordered were within reason.
The weather has been incredible. It has been in the 70's or 80's every day. There are supposed to be some clouds coming in today but gone by Saturday.
So far the only plan we have is to visit Carmen's dorm tomorrow. I think we may try to find the FolkArt Centrium before that. Carmen leaves for Munich tomorrow for the weekend for Oktoberfest. Yes, we asked the same question -- Octoberfest in September??? We will hopefully connect with her on Sunday when she gets back since we leave on Monday...
The Opera House is beautiful inside. We were in the second row of a box. Before the opera we had dinner at Callas across the street from the Opera House and our hotel. Carrie tells me that much of the movie Munich was actually shot there. I will have to watch it again to see if I recognize anything.
Yesterday we -- well now I know why I need to do this everyday! I am having trouble remembering what we did before we met the women who knit! Oh! How could I forget! We went to the House of Terror! I guess I was trying to block it out of my mind. It is also hard to think of something so depressing after having had a wonderful evening at dinner and Opera!
The House of Terror is something. You enter a floor that is even with a tank and the tank has water dripping down the marble stand it is on. The walls are covered with pictures of the over 3,000 people who were killed in that building by the Nazis and the Soviets.
The exhibits are well done. We did not purchase the audio guide -- just as uncle Rick Steves advised. We read his one or two paragraphs for each of the rooms and watched many of the videos of interviews with survivors. In the "Room of Clothes" they had a somewhat tongue in cheek video of people changing from one type of clothing to the other as the control changed from Nazi to communist.
The basement was prison rooms. The dripping water from the tank took on more meaning as there was a room of water where you had to be in water 24/7. There was also a standing room where you could do nothing but stand!
After that we went to the most expensive lunch I have had
in a long time. Lukacs Cukraszda is about a block away from the House of Terror. Between the 2 of us we spend 50 DOLLARS! We had a Ceaser salad (no chicken -- too early) a drink (non-alcoholic) and dessert. The dessert was the cheapest part.We then came back to the hotel,
showered and gathered up our crocheting -- I have made a shawl and scarf all since we lifted off in Seattle! We met the women at the California Coffee Company -- 
the same spot Carrie, Carmen and I stopped at after we had toured St. Stephens. They were a great group of women.One of them is from New Mexico, she has been here for 2 years and is waiting for all the paperwork to go through so she can marry her fiance. She met him when he did a year abroad and ended up at Trinity College in Hartford,
Conneticut where she was attending school.One of the other women is getting her Phd in Comparative
Linguistics at the same school Carmen is attending. She is from Switzerland and was excited because her boyfriend is coming to visit her this weekend. One is a legal secretary so we had that in common and Anett, the women who I had connected with, has an 8 year old son, has recently started spinning her own yarn and knits and crochets. They were all great women and I so happy I 
got a chance to meet them.Carmen joined us and met them as well. Anett said I could give
Carmen her cell phone number and she could call her any time. That made me feel good. If Carmen should need something during the 5 minutes one of her family is not visiting, she has a local number she can use.Carmen also mentioned it to some of the women in her program who knit and crochet so they may join them on Wednesday nights at 5:45! We are trying to get Carment to crochet. Her classes are 4 hours long and it is a great way to fill the time without playing games or surfing the web on her computer.
Carmen, Carrie and I then went to an Italian restaurant there in the square. It is so strange to be drinking wine with my youngest niece!
Today, Carrie and I went back up to the Castle District. It takes us about two days to do some of these "walks". We went to St. Matthias Church and the Fisherman's Bastion. The church is beautiful and very ornate. But the best thing is the view of Pest from the bastion. We had a water (me) and Coke light (Carrie) in the cafe -- no tour bus people that Rick has warned us about! So we got to sit -- something important to us! and take in the view.
We then went to Ruszwurm Cukraszda. It is a coffee house my book and Rick's book mentioned. But we are learning we passed on real food and just had dessert!
We had an apple pie/turnover thing and an ice cream sundae of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream with a berry sauce, whipped cream dusted with chocolate and a Cinnamon cookie on top. The strawberry ice cream was amazing. I would eat more strawberry ice cream if it tasted this good in the US!
Anett had told us where the public library was located -- but we could not find it! We did find a paper store however. Carrie got an eraser and found a small notebook with an orange cat named Molly on it -- she has an orange cat named Molly. So of course, she had to buy it! There were tons of products with Disney characters on them. I bought Laura Jean some Winni the Pooh stickers. The only way she will know they are from Budapest will the the writing!
When we were at the great market hall, they had some Winnie the Pooh character t-shirts that had the normal front but on the back was the back of the character along with it's tail.
Another item I have been surprised to find are Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts with Budapest underneath the logo but there is NO Hard Rock Cafe in Budapest! Marketing is alive and well!
Carmen brought her computer with her to the hotel but we were not able to upload my pictures. I would have to save them to iPhoto first and THEN upload them. We didn't have time to do that so you will just have to wait a few more days for me to come home and upload them!
We had dinner at Callas on the sidewalk. The food was really good and the items we ordered were within reason.
The weather has been incredible. It has been in the 70's or 80's every day. There are supposed to be some clouds coming in today but gone by Saturday.
So far the only plan we have is to visit Carmen's dorm tomorrow. I think we may try to find the FolkArt Centrium before that. Carmen leaves for Munich tomorrow for the weekend for Oktoberfest. Yes, we asked the same question -- Octoberfest in September??? We will hopefully connect with her on Sunday when she gets back since we leave on Monday...
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