Budapest Day Four

Today Helen is in bed unwell. It made for a quite day in the hotel room, and an opportunity to catch up on some of the blog.

Late morning I went out in search of something to eat and found a small cafe nearly that sold pizza by the slice, so I ate in. While I was there, it started to snow outside. Initially sleet but then the flakes started to fall. It was light so there was not a ground covering, and the snow was melting as it landed.

Once back at the room I watched some Netflix before deciding to venture out again. We still had not seen the Christmas Markets at the Basilica so I made that my mission. Our public transport passes had expired and I decided to walk across town rather than buy a new pass.

The route I walked was the most direct but took me down a narrow street with little in the way of shops of restaurants, mainly just housing I guess. Anyhow I happened across a Big & Tall mens clothing store, so stepped in and found a few items of clothing averaging NZ$50 each. Only problem, they didn't take credit card, the first time this has happened to me on this trip. I had no local currency on me. They kindly walked me to a local ATM but I could not make it work, we walked to another and again no good. Obviously Westpac don't deal with Hungarian ATMs. Besides, the exchange rates on those machines are awful. So I was looking like I couldn't buy the clothes when as a last resort I asked if they take Euro cash. They happily accepted that, the exchange rate they used was OK, so I left happy.

I eventually ended up passing a written memorial to the Budepest Ghetto where in 1944 70,000 Jews were moved into a 0,26 square kilometre fenced zone making for horrible conditions.

I then passed the Synagogue again, and other sights we had seen, before finding the Basilica Christmas Markets. According to the web, "for the fourth time in a row, this festive event has been voted Europe’s most beautiful Christmas market". It wasn't dark when I arrived, but started to get dark before I left, so maybe I didn't get to see the full effect of the lights.

What I do know is the Basilica made a beautiful backdrop. The food was still expensive and I didn't buy anything.

Eventually I made my way back to the hotel. By now it was dark but thankfully no wind or rain. I captured a night shot of the Synagogue on my way past.

Also the Budapest Ghetto memorial was lit up making it easier to read.

I picked up more pizza slices for Helen and I on the way back to the hotel.

Today was our last day in Budapest, tomorrow we are out the door at 9am to fly to Warsaw.