Pest, Retro Museum, Goulash Soup, and Organ Recital

 The buffet breakfast was abundant. Hungarian and German sausages, crispy potatoes, baked beans,  small Brötchen, yogurt with fruit, and wide choice of coffee preparations.   Tomorrow the choices will be fewer and the tummy happier.

  From 8-9 we met with Agi and Agnes for suggestions for shaping our free time. They were most helpful.  Four of us purchased tickets for an organ recital at the Franz Liszt Academy Concert Hall. Three of us purchased tickets for a jazz concert and supper tomorrow, Wednesday.  Thursday we will attend a solo vocal concert by a Roma singer in the city park, equivalent to NYC Central Park.  We have yet to purchase tickets - all on line.  Then another participant and J walked to a nearby hotel with a bank ATM in order to obtain Hungarian Forints. In one US dollar there are 350-370. I obtained several thousand Forints.

We met Peter, our Budapest coach driver, and rode around central Pest, the flat part of the city with Agnes guiding our eyes and relating history and telling interesting stories. Traffic was heavy and fog heavy over the Danube River so that our view to the castle on the hill in Buda was blocked. After exiting the coach we walked along the Danube to see the sixty- six pair of shoes of persons, Jewish, shot there by the Nazis, a d thrown into the river. This is a sobering site. Along with the permanent display of shoes were posters picturing of children kidnapped by Hamas - even more sobering.

 We walked around the Parliament building and government buildings and viewed  any statues, so removed and changed or replaced by the current government opinions, The Parliament building rivals that in London with a dome instead of a Big Ben.

  We lunched together at a Folk Restaurant with a museum of artifacts of daily life in Hungary several hundred years ago. Vegetable soup, duck leg, Rot kohl and mashed potatoes followed by a sweet cake with fruit imbedded. Yes, I am taking photos of the food. It was all very good.

  We walked to a museum of life under the Soviet Regime. Our two guides wore their red Young Pioneer scarves and described their lives growing up during that time. We saw medals and cars and ID  cards, and a typical kitchen and living room, one of 6 options available  I tall buildings of apartments. We saw cameras, irons, radios, and TVs, clothing books, and cars, and we learned about an Hungarian astronaut who was treated royally upon his return  to earth after traveling in space with his new Russian friend. We learned the story of an Hungarian water polo champion who, with jis team defected from the Sydney games. He was later a trainer of Mark Spitz. This visit to the new Retro  Museum was memorable. 

  We continued walking and walked around St. Istvan's Basillica which is the largest church in Budapest. We were told that it contains the mummified hand of St. Istvan, once deposed, exiled, and executed and later exhumed from an unmarked grave and elevated to sainthood.

  Back in the coach Peter drove us to the Great Market. Under one roof and on two levels we looked at vegetables and meats snd cheeses as well as leather products and hand embroidery.  Agi then made certain that we knew how to make our way to the Franz Liszt Academy concert hall. 

A tram ride with a jerking fall of another of our fall, a challenging process of validating our transportation ticket, and a walk in light rain brought us to a lovely local pastry Cafe. We relaxed, and I ate the last serving of goulash soup available. It was a friendly atmosphere; we joined others singing Happy Birthday to a a gentleman  who received a cake with two tall sparklers, much to the delight of small children in his party.

  We walked to the Franz Liszt Academy concert hall for an organ recital by a British organist. We sat in the third row and before the music began we marveled at the ornate designs around the pipes and on the walls and ceiling. The music was varied, and the recital was a perfect way to end a day full of sights, experiences, and learnings. We returned to the hotel through the damp streets and cool air and still lively atmosphere sharing our observations about the organ and its computer controls and wide variety of orchestral sounds.





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