Day 90, Saturday, November 23, 2019
I go to one last drawing session this afternoon. It is in a huge gorgeous apartment, with four large rooms used for an art school and three more rooms marked private. I can only wonder how much an apartment like this would cost! We had a great model, and snacks and drinks were provided, all for 7 euros. I am going to miss Vienna’s life drawing sessions. There is an opportunity to draw every day of the week.
After a few shorter ‘warm up’ poses there is one pose for the rest of the session. I struggled a bit today, but the model liked the drawing, which is always nice.
Bob comes to meet me after my drawing and we head downtown to the Opera House. I thought the building where we saw the performers from Tibet was the Opera House, but I was wrong. We are hoping to get last minute standing room tickets for a ballet tonight. We had tickets booked for an opera tomorrow but got an email that it was cancelled so we are going to try this instead. It is impossible to get regular tickets at this late date but we are hoping we might get these.
Success, we got our tickets! Here is the inside of the Opera House. 
A view of the stage, orchestra pit and some of the seating.
This is where we will be standing, at the very back right up under the ceiling!
The ballet is Peter Gynt. This is a short four minute video of the ballet we saw. Here is a brief synopsis of the ballet, from the Vienna Opera House site. It was certainly a very convoluted story!
“After being banished from his village for stealing a bride on her wedding day, Gynt encounters the Mountain King, a troll. He offers Gynt the chance to become a troll himself – an opportunity to live by his own rules – but he can’t face up to the responsibilities doing so would entail (including fathering the Mountain King’s daughter’s child).
Gynt leads a dissolute existence before returning to find Solveig, the woman who has awaited his return since the moment he was exiled. Bewildered by her reaction to his reappearance – happy and thankful rather than angry and resentful – Gynt is left in purgatory, still unable to resolve what he should have done with his life.”
I did a bit of drawing in the dark during the second act of the opera. Not easy as the dancers were almost constantly moving. I would try to fix a pose in my mind and then transfer it to the page, without being able to see what I was drawing. There was just enough light to figure out where I had placed a figure but not enough to see what I was drawing. Lots of fun! If you watch the video maybe these scribbles will make some sense.
It was a long time to stand but there was a railing to lean on and the ballet was interesting so the time went by fairly quickly. When I draw I tend to lose track of the time anyway. 
At the first intermission a lot of people standing in the two rows in front of us left. We were able to move to the front of the standing section and had a clear view of the stage, instead of looking between the shoulders of the people in front of us.
Bob’s assessment at the end of the evening was “Well, it only took 2 1/2 hours for them (the two lead characters) to die!” When we went to an opera in Barcelona he commented “It took 3 hours for her (the heroine) to die!
Of course no photos during the performance, but I did take this one during the curtain call.
By the time we get down to the main lobby there is just time for a quick photo of the grand entrance staircase…
and one of us, reflected in a mirror. Everyone is chased out of the building fairly quickly after the performance. 
There are lots of lights on the street outside the Opera House where we catch the metro home.
It clears up for a bit but then we drive back into the band of smog that stretches across the countryside. We have never seen anything quite like this before.
One of the many small villages in Croatia. Most of these villages only have one row of houses along the highway, no side streets at all. Notice the pretty yellow and purple chrysanthemums growing along the fence. We saw lots of these flowers along the way.
One fairly long stretch of the road has a shrine every 300 to 500 metres, and each one had fresh flowers placed in front of it.
Another little village. We don’t see many people about and think that they probably have a hard time keeping people from moving to bigger urban centres.
The highway mainly passes through farmland, and I quite like all the trees along the side of the road.
We finally get a bit of sunshine. There are winter crops planted which are just beginning to grow that are many different shades of green.
We get to Bratislava about 3:00 pm, return our rental car and catch the Flixbus one last time back to our apartment in Vienna. We are surprised how quickly it gets dark now. This is photo taken on the bus just after 4:30pm.
We catch an Uber from the Main Bus Depot. Twenty euros well spent. We are dropped off at our apartment door, which is the same apartment we had a couple weeks ago in Vienna. It almost feels like coming home. In three more sleeps we will really be home.
It is certainly the tiniest book I have ever seen.
Our apartment is the second from the bottom balcony on the left side of the photo. The end of our street is countryside.
I took a peek into the empty apartment building across the street. One of the empty store fronts on the ground floor looked like someone might have once stayed there. I was startled when a wild cat gave a loud yowl and ran past me to get out the door. I decided maybe I better not explore any further!
We drive and park near the centre of town. Bob shows me the places he explored yesterday. This is the Verazdin Fortress which is now a museum, and the drained moats are now covered with grass. There are workmen constructing a skating rink which uses refrigerated lines to make artificial ice because it doesn’t get cold enough for natural ice. We saw a rink like this in Rome a couple years ago.
Here is a view of the grass covered moat which has a path all along the top.
They are also building a toboggan slide using the same refrigerated plastic tubing.
We walk back towards the centre of the town, looking for a place to have tea.
It is a bit chilly outside so we find this cafe.
In the square outside the cafe workmen are busy getting ready for the Christmas Market and erecting a stage. Festivities here don’t start until Advent on November 29, so unfortunately we miss the festivities. 
Verazdin is called the Vienna of Croatia but we think that is a bit of a stretch. There are many buildings in disrepair and lots of closed shops. There are a few people on the streets but it is pretty quiet.
Notice the bag of oranges Bob is carrying. It was about $4 for a big bag of really yummy Mandarin oranges. Almost everyone we saw on the street was carrying a bag of these oranges so we thought they must be good and we should buy a bag too.
Take look at the abandoned falling down building right next door to a neat and well cared for shop.
This is a main square and the big building on the left of the photo is empty and boarded up. Well, almost boarded up, there is an open door and we peek inside the main floor which is empty except for some piles of junk and garbage.
I saw a really neat way to cut open a pomegranate on the internet. I bought one to give it a try.
Firt cutoff the blossom end by making four cuts and pulling the piece out. I was surprised how easily it came out.
Next slice down the length of the pomegranate wherever there is a membrane.
And presto, pull the pieces apart. It worked really well. This was my big adventure for the day.
with not a lot of room…
but we are soon on some wider roads…
and crossing the Danube as we start a four hour drive to Verazdin, Croatia. 
The Hungarian countryside is much like back home in Alberta.
At the border they checkout our passports and the car registration, then let us pass.
We arrive at 
Here is another view across the street from our apartment . There is a small grocery store on the corner, but not much else close by.
We visit the Buda side of Budapest today. First stop is the Matthias Church, located in the Holy Trinity Square in front of the Fisherman’s Bastion. It has a beautiful tiled roof and a 60 metre tall bell tower. 
There are a lot of people here.
One of the many great views from the Bastion.
We had to wait a bit to find an arch not filled with other tourists. It often takes a while before I can get a decent photo, which involves deciding where I can get the best view and waiting until vehicles and other people are not in my picture frame. Bob is very patient, waiting for me to take photos. I probably take at least 5 or 6 photos for every one I use in this blog.
The Bastion was inspired by the architectural style of the early medieval times. It has many towers and was meant to feel like a fairy tale castle, as it wasn’t built for defence.
I am always happy when I find a dragon!
These medieval church ruins were built into the modern Hilton Budapest Hotel.
The Black Plague caused the death of 30-60% of Europe’s total population in 1691 and 1709. People believed that erecting a column would protect them from the plague. The carving on the top of the column represents the Holy Trinity. Below this the whole column is decorated with smaller statues depicting angels, and saints. The central sculpture shows King David praying to God to let his people avoid the outbreak of a plague. Residents believed the Holy Trinity Column did its job, as the plague never returned after 1709.
On our walk to the nearby Buda Castle we pass these Medieval ruins. Beneath some of the ruins there is a wine cellar which offers wine tastings. It is located below the remains of a 13th century Dominican Cloister, which is part of a huge labyrinth system underneath the Castle Hill. 
King Matthias (1457-1458) adopted the crow as his heraldic emblem after catching one of them stealing a ring, and killing it to get his ring back. These gates are topped with a crow with a ring in its mouth. The gates are very bizarre, almost creepy looking.
This is the back side of the Buda Castle…
and here is a close up of its fountain. Too bad the water in all the fountains in Budapest has already been turned off for the winter.
The front of the Buda Castle with lots of tourists…
and a bride and groom taking their wedding photos. I wonder if the photographer has to photoshop out all the tourists?
We see a large river cruise ship o the Danube.
There are walkways high above Medieval walls.
We walk down a flight of stairs below a statue of the Madonna and baby Jesus.
When we walk across this bridge we can see these same stairs on the far left side of this photo.
We are walking to this little bookstore that sells handmade journals. Bomo Art is a tiny store, less than 2 metres wide! It didn’t have any larger sketchbooks with good paper for drawing. Too bad, or maybe it was good. My suitcase is already pretty heavy with the two sketchbooks I bought in Linz, and the huge Dürer book I got in Vienna.
We watched this street performer for a while and wondered how he was able to hold this difficult pose. We later saw him in a different position but when we walk by again we see a guy lean heavily on him and to our surprise he crumples! Turns out he is a mechanical man! People were putting lots of coins into his can, trying to get him to move. They had no idea they were being tricked into thinking this was a man in costume. 
It is quite cool at night but it doesn’t stop people from sitting outside drinking beer. 
One last walk down the decorated street towards the Christmas Market. There are so many more people out on the streets tonight.
We stop at one of the stalls and I buy a couple small gifts I have been eyeing every time we walk by. 
I also took photos of the food stands. Pork hocks are a big item here! We were going to buy a meal here a few days ago but quickly changed our minds when we discovered that one cabbage roll, albeit a big one, would cost us 5,000 Forints, the equivalent of $25 Canadian! A small plate with a sausage and two small helpings of side dishes was $35.00! We were rather shocked at how expensive it was. We saw other tourists change their mind and refuse to purchase what they had ordered when they realized the price.
I saw lots of these sparkling balloons and thought they were so pretty. They were even nicer in person than in the photo. We spend the rest of the evening tidying the apartment and packing for our drive to Croatia tomorrow. Oh, and the puppet show we saw ws ‘Coraline’.
Many of the buildings in this neighbourhood are old and in need of repair but the murals do brighten up the neighbourhood.
Bob tells me to look inside this little blue van…
It is set up as a little dining room! It is kind of cute, except I look in the front seat and it is dirty and cluttered with junk. Not very appetizing, 
There are many shops and workshops tucked into the buildings on narrow streets, sometimes even in the basements, like this bike shop. I think my bike riding daughter will appreciate the sentiment of the sign above this door.
This is probably one of the most colourful doors I have ever seen.
The buildings here have very interesting architectural details.
Seems every city we have ever been in has an Astoria Hotel!
Loved the room at the top of this white building. Imagine living there.
The Holocaust Tree of Life Memorial was funded by the late American actor Tony Curtis in memory of his Hungarian-born father. The names of 30,000 Holocaust victims are engraved on the leaves of the metal tree. The tree resembles an upside down menorah and is located on top of the mass graves of thousands of murdered Jews.
The tree is located behind The Dohány Street Synagogue which is also known as the Great Synagogue. It seats 3,000 people and is the largest synagogue in Europe and the third largest in the world. We didn’t have time to go inside because we want to go to a thermal bath today.
One more interesting building on our way back to our apartment. The top doesn’t seem to belong to the bottom.
The Széchenyi Spa Bath in Budapest
This pools for lane swimming, not for us today.
We like this pool as it is warmer than the first one. 
Inside there are fifteen more pools. This is one of the warmer ones and the only one that has comfy lounge chairs, so we stay here for a while. I sit beside Bob, in the corner and do some drawings of the bathers. Budapest didn’t have any life drawing classes, or at least none that I could find, so this will do instead. 
The building is magnificent but it is starting to show its age here and there. I think it might need a renovation before too long. This is a great place for people watching, and we do come in all shapes and sizes!
By the time we go back outside it is dark, and the steam is rising from the pools. We were thinking of taking a boat ride on the Danube tonight but we decide to stay and enjoy more time here.
There are more people now than when we first arrived, and most of them are much younger than us. We see a few other grey-haired ‘oldies’ but we are few and far between. We spent more than five hours enjoying the baths, and we both feel nice and relaxed.
including very long barges…
river cruise ships, and whatever this ship is.
Our taxi is quite nice, with tables and chairs on the top deck and a dining room on the main deck with white table cloths. Not what we expected for a river taxi. The ride is only four stops in the winter months so we also ride it back to where we started, just to spend a little more time on the river sight-seeing.
There is a great view of the Buda Castle… 
and an interesting row of houses on the Buda side of the river.
We pass right under the Chain Bridge heading back towards the Parliament Building.
The workers washing the sides of this river cruise ship waved to me when they saw I was taking pictures.
The river was very calm and the sun was still low in the morning sky. We could just make out the Liberty Statue we visited yesterday on top of the hill in the distance.
We return to our stop near the Parliament Buildings and I get a great shot of this enormous building. The Budapest Parliament building is the third largest Parliament building in the world. It has 691 rooms, 20 kilometres of stairs and at 96 meters. It is the same height as the St. Stephen’s Basilica. We decided against visiting the interior in favour of spending our time outside. 
This is our water taxi. We saw several others but none of them looked as nice as this one. I think we were just lucky and happened to catch the best one!
The guards in front of the Parliament stand on opposite sides of this big flag pole and then every once in a while they march together round and round the flag pole. We both think it must be quite tedious.
We catch a bus back towards the Indoor Market. I forgot to get a photo yesterday.
We were looking for the ‘For Sale’ Pub, but when we walked in the waitress told us they weren’t open and refused to let me take a photo. So here is one off of Trip Advisor. If you have something for sale you write it on a piece of paper and stick it wherever you can. This started before there was internet and now people pin whatever they want to the walls. There is straw and peanut shells all over the floor and candles on the tables. Seems like an accident waiting to happen to me!
We walk from the market area back towards our apartment passing a variety of interesting buildings. Some of them were in need of restoration…
and others were well cared for.
We stopped to see the University Library. It is in an old palace, and we wandered about checking out the rooms. This was the most interesting one, with its balcony, but I didn’t climb up to it. The stairs were behind the librarian’s desk and I didn’t want to disturb all the people studying.
Take a look at this corner…there are big bean bags for reading, or napping!
We see flower boxes still in bloom in the middle of November, lots of these grey and black birds (they are Hooded Crows), interesting art work in shop windows, and this sign which translates to One Psalm. No idea what that means.
There are so many gorgeous buildings in this city…
it is easy to take too many building photos!
After lunch and a rest we are back on the streets, looking for a puppet theatre. We pass several buildings with wooden scaffolding, made with big timbers. There are a lot of buildings that need work, and we see quite a few that are boarded up along one of Budapest’s main streets.
The puppet show is in Hungarian but we know the story and thought it would be a fun things to see. The theatre was full of school kids who really enjoyed the show. We did too. Here are some fo the cast taking a bow at the end of the play…
and some of the displays in the lobby.
I did some drawing during the play. These drawings were done in the dark so I couldn’t see what I had drawn until the lights came on. Can you figure out what the play was? There is a pretty big clue in my drawings.
These photographs were on the wall outside the House of Terror Museum. According ot Wikipedia “It contains exhibits related to the fascist and communist regimes in 20th-century Hungary and is also a memorial to the victims of these regimes, including those detained, interrogated, tortured or killed in the building.” 
We pass this rather odd couple on our walk home, not far from the House of Terror.
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.
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. 
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
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.
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