As we arrive in Budapest around 7:30am, we got up to the sundeck to see the approach to Budapest, which is lovely, built on two sides of the river. We take a city bus your, driving around the large and beautiful green Hero’s Square, which is closed for a rehearsal for a military parade. The guide told us that during the winter the large artificial lake freezes and lots of people go ice skating, which sounds fun. Then through the old Jewish quarter, which has the second largest synagogue in the world (largest is in NYC).
Across the Elizabeth Bridge (there are many in Budapest, and the large Chain Bridge near our boat’s mooring was partially demolished during the war and rebuilt), to the Castle area.
After some nice views from the Fisherman’s Bastion, a lovely lookout spot, we walked down a small, dark lane and enjoy an ice cream ( it is about 87 degrees out today and very humid). Our guide and another guide are relaxing at the same cool spot.
We walked the back lanes to return to the bus, and then back to the ship. In the afternoon, we found our hotel (only 2 blocks away), saw the memorial to Hungarian Jews (more on this below), and walked around central Budapest. In the heat everyone walking around seemed exhausted, I gather it is not often this hot here, so few places have air conditioning. We were pretty hot too, and glad for some cool air after our return. I am finally able to get the phone to work, and connect with Anne Godon, daughter of our friend Catherine Godon in Paris, who is doing a year of her Master’s studies in Budapest, and plan to see her Saturday afternoon.
On the morning tour, we learned that during the war, 95% of the Hungary’s pre-war Jewish population of about 500,000 was killed or deported, so today the Jewish community is small (about 2% of the total population) and slowly growing. When we get back to the boat, a short walk away on the riverbank is a memorial to a group of about 200 Jews who were shot dead and pushed into the river by the Hungarian Nazis (called Arrow Cross), after D-Day when the Nazis were clearing losing but the extermination continued. It is a long line of cast bronze shoes just as if people had fallen out of them. It is quite moving.
On our final night on the ship, all six of us collectively gave a special tip to our waiter, Tihomir, who is from Serbia originally, and now lives in Kiev with his wife and son. Their system here is to work 4 weeks, then they get 2 weeks off. He has a wonderful sense of humor (it is always amazing to me how someone can makes jokes in a second language), after one meal he remembered what everyone drank at which meals, and he always had a positive and uplifting effect on everyone around him. We had a long conversation with him before we left on Saturday, and he talked about philosophy of being always positive, how he enjoyed traveling with his family, and how he hoped too come to the US some day. We invited him to visit California sometime, as he also knows someone in LA. He gave us his email and asked us to send the photo of the extended family he took of us … he said he liked to have the photos of people he felt he made a nice connection with on the ship. I think he will soon be rising to be the overall director of the ship.
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