Day 80, Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Yesterday was a quiet stay at home day.  I didn’t even take one photo!

Today we are going to the Citadella which is the fortification located upon the top of Gellért Hill in Budapest.  On our way there many of the store windows have Christmas displays. I laugh watching these two guys.  They are dressed the same, stand the same and both are smoking and looking at their cellphones.  They even both take a drag on their cigarettes at the same time! Budapest has very pretty manhole covers. Bob tells me we are going to the top of that hill across the Danube River on the Buda side of the city.  I am quite happy to hear there is a bus that will take us most of the way. The metro stations in Budapest are very deep underground.  They were built so that they could be used as bomb shelters.  I wonder what would happen if a bomb fell above a station full of people.  How would they get out…would they be trapped by all the rubble?  Then I decide that they could walk down the tracks and maybe get out at another spot.  Bob says I think too much! We are on top of Gelléert Hill and it was only a short climb from the bus stop.  There are great views of Budapest looking to the East… and the West.

The Statue of Liberty on Gellert Hill was a communist statue erected in 1947 to commemorate the liberation of Budapest and Hungary from the Nazi rule and to celebrate Hungary’s being part of the Soviet Union.  Hungarians liked the statue enough not to remove it in 1989 when Hungary became a democratic country, so they added the inscription to read “To the memory of those all who sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom, and prosperity of Hungary.”  Bob called me over to watch an older man operating a shell game near here. He had a cardboard box and three shells, and people bet on which shell a pea was under after they were shuffled.  We were astounded that he was able to convince people to bet 400 or 500 euros.  Of course once they made such a large bet they always lost!  500 euros is $750!  It was crazy!  Once he made a couple big scores he got up and left.  Not a bad day’s pay!  I can’t believe how gullible and arrogant people are.  Of course they neverstood a chance…they were going to lose their money. It is getting windy so we start down the hill.  We are walking down…
through a park with lots of trees… and a couple playgrounds.  This one takes advantage of the hillside.  We tried this slide too. This cross is about halfway down the hillside and marks the location of the Cave Church directly below it. This statue of St. Stephen is near the entrance to the Cave Church. For more information and photos about this curious church check out this link. A bit further down the hill we peek inside the Gellért Hotel… which houses one of Budapest’s thermal bath houses.  It looks very fancy. Here is a view of the cave entrance from the street below…  and the Liberty Statue at the top of the hill. We walked back across the bridge to the Pest side of the river… and visit the Indoor market. I thought these kohlrabi were huge but the radishes were enormous, about the size of an egg!  I’ve never seen radishes that big!  We have supper here but unfortunately the food wasn’t really all that great.  On our walk back home we pass through the Christmas Market and I notice these teapots.  I would have loved to have bought one but worried about getting it home in one piece.
These necklaces are made with seed beads!  Imagine how long it would take to make each one.