Day 62 Budapest a city of many wonders!

Tuesday 22/05/2018 (20 SZ) Central Budapest Apartment Lonyay utca 19, 09. Ferencvaros

A slower start today with many pics to sort... our last 2 days of sight seeing are becoming overwhelming in a way... so much to see and take in, in this amazing city of many wonders. At many turns there are new streets, alleys and sights that delight and make you want to see more. But as a human your body can only do so much. So sitting quietly for a few hours today, even though sorting pictures, has been restoring. We had lunch in the unit then headed out on foot to see the last of the sights I had hoped to see before we go.

On our at a guy was taking some outs in a park I had been heading towards the statue to get a pic, his wife nearly bumped into me... h was snapping away I stood next to him thinking ohh he looks a foreigner anyway I said thanks for letting me into get a shot, the wife goes ohh an Aussie... I laughed as both were Aussies as well, i said to them I had heard many Aussies talking in The Street... t be honest the city is crawling with Aussies.... they seem to pop up everywhere... especially younger ones... seems Budapest is a must go to destination on the young persons and older persons list.... who would have thought... it’s not a country discussed much in the travel world when your looking at travelling, but it seems many actually do come here... most I would say for cruising but many like us just exploring the city....

So onto our days, late start day...... Firstly we had some groceries to buy and had planned to go to Aldi, as Aldi’s building was within the Grand Market Hall of Budapest and it was one of my must see sights off we set.... fortunately it is only around the corner for us. This is an amazing building The Great Market Hall or Central Market Hall (Hungarian "Nagyvásárcsarnok") is the largest and oldest indoor market in Budapest, Hungary. The idea of building such large market hall arose from the first mayor of Budapest, Károly Kamermayer, and it was his largest investment. He retired in 1896 so when the building was completed, he participated in the opening ceremony as a citizen.
It is located at the end of the famous pedestrian shopping street Váci utca and on the Pest side of the Liberty bridge at Fővám square.The building was designed and built by Samu Pecz around 1897.The market offers a huge variety of stalls on three floors. The entrance gate has a neogothic touch. A distinctive architectural feature is the roof which was restored to have colourful Zsolnay tiling from Pécs. The area size of the building is 10,000 square meters, which is covered by steel structure. During the World Wars it was completely damaged and then closed for some years. Throughout the 1990s restoration works brought back the market to its ancient splendour. The building was awarded with FIABCI Prix d’Excellence in 1999. The Central Market Hall is one of the most popular tourist attractions of the city. Most of the stalls on the ground floor offer produce, meats, pastries, candies, spices, and spirits such as paprika, Tokaji, Túró Rudi, and caviar. The second floor has mainly eateries and souvenirs. The basement contains butcher shops, fish market, and picked vegetables including the traditional cucumber pickles, as well as cauliflower, cabbage, beets, tomatoes, and garlic.

However in saying it’s amazing in design it really is mainly for the tourist now... some local produce mainly by way of butchers and fruiters .... and the prices of items for the tourist are hugely inflated.... we had come to Budapest believing it would be a cheap city, but in all honesty because it is crawling with tourist, the cruise tourists and 1,000’s of young people flocking to Budapest now, The prices are extremely inflated.... I am sure there are places you can get good bargains but certainly not in the main tourist sections...
Once we had a squeeze through the markets.... it as a squeeze as so many here....
Then off to Aldi on the bottom level... We managed to get a few items, but nit as much as we wanted... taking our few bits through the checkout... Th girl sitting there was very serious, she bought up the price I handed over what I thought was the right amount, she looks at it then threw the change back at me, yes threw... I was so taken back I burned up immediately say to her who I am sure didn’t speak english, that she didn’t hav to rude about it, this made me more angry and upset... John managed to give me the right change which I quickly gave her and off we went. There had been a huge line up behind m all seeing what went down... I was so upset I shaking inside... what I had done was gave her a Euro instead of local currency.... the stupid thing is they use Euro as well... all she had to do was show me it wasn’t the right money... instead her behaviour was just horrible. She obviously hates tourists... I was so upset about her actions I really seriously thought I should complain to Aldi, but they would only think it was a stupid tourist as well... it was the 2nd time this had occurred ... the other day in a shop in Schliersee same thing happened I accidentally handed over a English coin to the girl at the checkout and she huffed and puffed and wasn’t very happy about it and you could see she also was very impatient with the stupid tourist... but she wasn’t as violent as this one as.... I had checked my money both times to make sure I didn’t have any coins not of where we were but somehow I still managed to stuff it up... this whole episode left m very upset for ages, John being very patient trying to make m see it wasn’t worth being thus upset... it just felt so personal and really at the end if the day it want personal it as just that they most likely find the tourist a pain to deal with.... but in both places tourism is one if their main bread winners, so being nice should be important... but we are all human and I guess not all like being nice...

So up to Tesco we go to finish our shopping and as we walk in the guard in the door smiles and says hello, what a difference... did what we had to here back to the unit to put things away and eat before we headed offf on foot to those planned sights...

So off we set across the Elizabeth bridge to the other side to the Szent Gellért it’s a half moon shaped amphitheater halfway up the hill... we thought it would have great views but they weren’t so great... so got the pics, then decided to head to do our last cruise... when we bought our Hop on Hop off tickets, it gave us 2 cruises... so having done one yesterday we decided to finish off our Budapest experience with another cruise... today was so different than yesterday... quite over cast so everything took on a different look all together... Up and back again, relaxing and worth doing all over again... Got to see 2 huge Scenic River Cruise Boats head towards Amsterdam... they had all their guests who must have just arrived all on deck having their drill.... all in bright high vis life jackets so no chance of missing them. I would say a fair amount of these people are from Australia as Scenic has such a big push in Aus.....

Well we finished our cruise lovely as it was, then off on foot for home... we had planned to head straight home, but then decided to go via some of the many side streets... it really is Pandora’s box here streets BOH g here there and everywhere all offerings something different to see.... as we walked along John was saying how much psi his neck was in... just so happened we were passing a heap of Thai massage places, so I said to him, get a massage it might help.... so we did fo in and yep could do it straight away... 1/2 price today really...ok John to have full body massage me just feet... so off he goes I get mine down, but a Hungarian girl... which is unusual un a Thai massage spa, but we are in Hungary... she wasn’t too bad have had better but she looked really tired and as she spoke English we chatted... she had been going all day from very early, I am gathering g without much of a break... we discussed quietly that maybe it’s time she found another position, she had been doing this for 2 years here... The Thai ladies running it were very bossy and before she was half way done they were at her to hurry up as 2 more customers had come in and she wanted me done so the girl could do one of them... she looked totally defeated... poor girl... I felt that something wasn’t right with the fact she was working here it just didn’t fit... anyway she finished they Thai lady insisted a lay there for a bit and rest and I did I must Hvar dozed off... then I had to get the money so up the street I go to the ATM as cash only, doggy, am thinking... waited outside for a bit.. I went back and sat......I had noticed a lot of young guys coming out of the spa, all longing very happy... then a John came out, not looking very impressed... off we went then he told me its the worst massage he has had for a long time they didn’t even massage his neck much which is the problem area... then he tells me he was offered a happy ending... really the buggars with me sitting there waiting... turns out he had one girl do the massage but half way through another took over she was the one offering the extras... he told me quickly so guessing well and truly he was a bit out off... this has happened before as well on our travels and I have always been there when he has been offered... guessing a lot of men take up the offer, just happy mine was honest upfront and fessed up quickly ha ha.... but really it gets you that they even have the
Wife or partner there and still offer it... I had said to John about the Hungarian girl I felt something wasn’t legit there too... most likely has to pay the back for something and locked into them for a long time... Reading about it later it would seem there are 100’s of these massage parlours all over the city and yes main operating system seems to be the guis of massage and they do, do that too, but with extras offered as a big part of it... I read a few stories about it on google people’s experiences and the use of the Hungarian girls is all part of the game... so sad and to think we added to the industry...
so with bad tastes left we walked home... the seedy sud if all cities is only a doorway away.... and we got to see in doorway there are many, many more...

So our time has come to an end here all in all it’s been fantastic... Budapest is a city of many sights and delights and we barely scratched the surface of it... Our abode was in a perfect place, so easy to get from A-B... even walking Budapest is not difficult and with so many facets to it walking us really the only way to see them.Read more