Margit-sziget

Today we woke up and I decided to go running with Erin due to the amount of sights in Budapest. We ran to Margaret Island which is connected to the city via a bridge. It was a beautiful morning. The island is MASSIVE, with a swimming pool, mini zoo, small football stadium and Erin even ran past an outdoor cinema. Erin loved the run around the river and I enjoyed a walk around to see a giant lego lion. We got breakfast then headed off to a walking tour of the city. Our guide was funny and passionate about giving good tips for visiting the city. We met a lovely German woman called Annie, who was around our age and travelling by herself. We got to know her on the tour while seeing beautiful buildings in Budapest. Highlight of pettiness was seeing the communist Russian monument that has been left by the Russians (in an agreement with the Hungarians) right by the American embassy. The Americans have erected statues of 2 presidents standing quite close as a retaliation move we think.
The tour ended at the parliament building which is an absolutely stunning building and puts parliament house to shame. We then walked to the shoes on the Denue which is a memorial to the Jews who were killed and pushed into the river during the Nazi period. They were told to leave their shoes as leather was valuable. Just a sad but fitting tribute.
We then headed to get Langos for lunch, which is fried bread recommended with sour cream, cheese and garlic. We actually met our new friend Annie there and had lunch together. Next we headed to the House of Terror which is a museum about the rule of terror by both the Germans and the Soviets with a heavy focus on the Soviet occupation. The 'house' was the 'headquarters' of both these regimes and we even got to see places where people were tortured and wrongly imprisoned. It was a lot of information and very emotional. We then decided to head back to the hotel, and outside was Budapest Pride march! There was bright colours, music and we got to walk along for a short period. It was awesome to see.
We freshened up and headed to the ruins bar which was a massive old building that has about 6 bars inside and now covered in graffiti. It had a super cool vibe and even had some market stalls inside. Then we headed towards our river cruise, got lost and had a drink in a questionable bar.
The river cruise was very fun, we sat with Marlene and Paul who after hearing about the wine debarcle bought us a corkscrew... We had great food, great wine and saw the city at night. It was beautiful. Everyone got along really well, there was a large glass of grapa being passed around to drink which helped... Everyone has been so nice and have such interesting stories, it has made the trip really interesting.
We walked back to the hotel, Paul has smuggled white wine out for us and we chatted with 2 guys we hadn't spoke to much. They are a gay couple and live in America, they told us that the pride march today was actually illegal as kids under a certain age cannot be exposed to LGBTQI+ ideas. It was a good conversation and we even considered going out with them but as soon as we hit the hotel it was bed time. We didn't drink the white wine either. Don't tell Paul...Lue lisää