Day 12: July 19, 2025

 Today we got off the boat. Sorting everyone was complicated task, so things were done by color. All the VBTers had orange luggage tags even though we already had luggage tags. The orange tagged bags went to one pile on shore where they got loaded onto our bus. All the other colors got off the boat at other times, and who knows where they went from there.

There was no exercise class and there was time to kill after breakfast.

We boarded the same coach with the same driver for a three-hour bus tour of Budapest. Our first stop was a fort on a hill in Buda.

Here we are climbing the hill.

That's Buda on the left of the Danube and Pest (pronounced "pesh") on the right. And Walter's hat.

These Bolt scooters got used a lot.

Our next stop was a plaza that I didn't find interesting. There were a lot of statues of past leaders and for me, the take-away, was the Hungary has a tumultuous past, they generally picked the wrong side during wars, and they lost a lot of territory over the years.

Our third stop was a park dominated by a castle that was a replica of multiple buildings and styles of architecture in Budapest. It felt like being in Disney.

Bela Lugosi was a popular character in the history of Hungarian art. Here he is.

Here's a performing arts center on the campus that was designed by a Japanese architect.

We got dropped off at the hotel, and at this point we were on our own for meals and entertainment.

It was a pretty snazzy place.

The receptionist was pretty snotty, though.

We got a recommendation from the tour guide for lunch, and here is Walter pretending to be a tour guide.

We finally found the place - it was in a plaza, a nice location, but really pricey, like thre equivalent of $9 for a beer. So, we bailed and walked around the plaza. We ended up at a place called Marty's. No discount.

The food was OK and there was music by a live DJ, mostly EDM. 

Here was another homeless person with the weight of his world in his hands.

After lunch, the boys went walking. I went back to the room to sleep off a headache. When we reconvened at 4:30, we wandered to St. Stephen's Basilica. Thanks for Mike who sprung the 8400 Fornit to get us in.

Here's the inside and as Walter said, "I thought Hungary was a poor country?"

We wandered around for a place to get drinks and sit on a plaza to watch the world go by. And then we got up and walked around some more to find another place for food.

We ended up at a place with live music.

I ordered a Hungarian flatbread (Langos) with garlic. 

It was yummy, but I no longer need to go to the state fair to get my annual allotment of grease.

This is probably the last post for this trip. Tomorrow we head home with three flights and layovers totaling about 17 hours: Budapest-Amsterdam-JFK-SYR. We arrive after midnight Monday.

Thanks for reading!