EUROPE BLOG April 7th, 2023 - BUDAPEST

4/7/23- Another cloudy day is upon us so we decide to hit the museums. We have timed-tickets already purchased for an 11:45am tour of Parliament, but I find that I actually need to present printed tickets to get in. We take a ride, arriving fifteen minutes early, and were able to have them printed at the ticket counter. We’re also made aware that this is a Hungarian speaking only tour and English is not available for audio. We’re fine with that as we mainly are here for the pictures and experience.

We follow our guide as he climbs several flights of stairs, which is not a good start but we power through. He’s very tall and slow moving, and in the dim-lit halls resembles Lurch from the Adam’s Family. Finally, we reach the top and walk down a long, palace like hallway until we get to the grand staircase. This view is the highlight of the tour as it’s absolutely beautiful.

The next room has a sign reading “no photography” which makes me wonder if this is for the rest of the tour. Turns out it’s for the palace crown, which is heavily guarded and enclosed in glass in the middle of the large, domed atrium. Apparently, too many people kept using flash on their photos (damaging the crown over time) so they banned photos all-together.

There are only a few more rooms left in the 45 minute tour (actually it was 30 after the extensive security check), before heading down the waterfront. A ten minute walk brings us to group of bronzed shoes sculptures that symbolize Jews in World War II ordered to take their shoes off before they were shot, falling into the Danube river. It was a moving piece that brought reality to our present era. Apparently shoes were very valuable during that time and could be resold.

Shortly after, I realize I don’t have my phone and find it near a statue I was posing next to a few minutes earlier. Sharece can’t believe nobody took it, but I’m sure the tourists were not looking for an opportunity within five minutes. Either way, I do feel lucky.

Contemplating going back to the apartment, we continue toward the Underground Railway Museum we tried to hit yesterday. It’s tucked inside the Metro station, making it a bit hard to find, and once we did I purchase tickets only to realize they were for the actual Metro and not the museum. He refunded me no problem and told me the museum tickets were next door. We’ve found English is not one of the primary languages around, as evident at Parliament, so some things appear to be lost in translation.

The Railway Museum was actually very short (one hallway long with an old train from the 1890s and a few artifacts). Still not ready to retreat, we continue another 12 minutes to the Hungarian National Museum. It’s a hard walk around the multiple floors of the museum as our legs are now feeling the brunt of the day, but we make it worth our while.

I’m approached about taking photos and asked to see my “photo ticket”, which I didn’t know I needed. I quickly run downstairs to the ticket booth, pay the 1000 Foints (equal to less than $3 US) and get a nice nod from the gentleman who asked earlier knowing I’m photo-legal now.

This pretty much frees up our last day tomorrow to further research our trip. There have been some developments recently that have allowed us to expand on it and we’re considering our options on what to do.