We both slept well the next night, despite the heat, waking only once to the American guy in the bunk above me sleep-talking. Our first stop of the day was the Buda Royal Palace, which was incredibly pretty. We had wondered why we hadn't seen any tourists in the city so far, but we found it was because they were all up there, scores of them! We found a snowstorm (woo!), took some photos for some tourists and ate apple pie ice cream, while enjoying the beautiful views over the Danube. We headed down the hill towards the Fisherman's Bastion and Mathias Church which, as we had been expecting, was covered in scaffolding. I have no idea why the whole of Europe chose summer '08 to do all their renovations, but it is incredibly annoying! We sat on a bench by the river and after seeing all the tramps in the city I was inspired and had a tiny nap. We continued by walking over Széchenyi Iánchid (chain bridge) to Pest and took in the huge parliament building before heading to the south of the city for yet more wandering.
We picnicked on a wall near the National Museum, eating egg sandwiches and crisps which looked and tasted (I imagine) like those packaging foam things you get in parcels that look like Wotsits. On the Metro back we noticed the lovely atmospheric lighting on the trains for the first time, they are so much prettier than London tubes, and saw a teenage boy wearing a backpack saying "100 years of aspirin! The future has just begun!"
While buying postcards, tickets and other things we have found that most people will speak to us in French when it's obvious that we don't speak Hungarian, which we have really appreciated, as it's so much easier to understand! Everyone we have met here has been so helpful; we had read about Hungarians being some of the most helpful people in Europe, but they've gone out of their way to help us out, whether it's letting us in front of them in a queue or helping us buy tickets, they've all been lovely!
On our way to town later that evening we saw some note-worthy t-shirts:
"All Spots On Me"
"I'm your most basic assistant"
and "Incomplete, Different, Daring, Shy"
Poetry.
Where We're Going
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You can eat that packing foam. It's basically corn starch. They sold it in the Polski Sklep near where I used to live.
I also got given some as an arty kids Christmas present once (about three years ago). If you moisten the ends, they stick together and you can sculpt them.
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