Before we start Budapest, here are two pictures we just had to share from Priestnay, from our “balcony”. Guess it was worth something 
Now, on to Budapest…………
We arrived on August 19th to learn that the 20th is the biggest holiday in Budapest. It celebrates the birth of Hungary and their first king, King Stephen, who afterwards became a saint, so it is called St. Stephen’s Day. So we went to see what they had in store. Well, they had people in period costumes, doing craft work and making music.
There were quite a few people there, as you can see. These were just the people getting from one side of the Danube to the other. Many more times that many were at the fair.
There was a ceremony celebrating the harvest with some public official and a clergy of some sort and a young girl singing (beautifully) some national songs. There were people in costume with loaves of bread on the stage and some presented their loaves to the officials. In the audience were other people holding loaves of bread. On the stage, each participant took a piece of broken bread from a woven basket. It was neat. Afterwards, people went through the crowd offering pieces of bread. So we partook of the bread sharing and became part of Budapest.
We made reservations at the same hotel that Duane’s sister was staying at, the Hilton. We had to take a taxi there, from the train station. It turned out to be pretty far. Budapest is made up of what used to be two cities. (actually 3 cities, but the third was the northern part of one of the cities) Buda and Pest (pronounced Peshed) The train station is in Pest, the flat part and the hotel is in Buda, the hilly part. Turns out the hotel is right on the castle hill. What a view we had after we got our room changed from smoking to non.
But it didn’t compare with Bill and Eileen’s view
Some other views from our area………….
St Stephen’s Cathedral
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