budapest

words cannot describe this trip...so, i'll post pictures instead.

on the train...john and ben
mark...he's an undergrad. we took pity on him and allowed him into our presence.


some budapest buildings. i love the old style architecture

the christmas market! we spent many hours here...shopping, eating, listening to music and drinking mulled wine.
delicious circular pastries.

boys and their toys...they never grow up. and yes, ben did buy that sword.

more streets. we walked a loooong ways to hero square.

large basilica
cool street design

i like the pastel paint for the buildings. houses in other countries are so cool looking and so boring in america.

house of terror. where the communists and soviets tortured and killed people during their reign in hungary (which has been independent since 1991)
continuing our journey along andrassey to hero's square.
we finally made it - tired and hungry. grrr.
this was our view at the restaurant we ate at.


back at the market for more mulled wine and sausage after a wonderful visit to the baths. the best thing in budapest is their turkish hot springs that are a gazillion years old. we had a fantastic time swimming and relaxing in the outdoors pools at hero square. in fact, it was so wonderful that people were having sex right next to us. john enjoying his wine...
buda castle. budapest is broken down into three main areas. we stayed on the pest side and all the pictures above are from the pest side. this castle is on the buda side.

the danube (this is from the buda side looking at the pest side)






more houses on the buda side in the castle district
a cool old church that was being refurbished
not sure what this was..but it was cool.
the parliament building
reflection of the cool castle building

parliament up close
back at the market again....this time there were musicians and they complemented the mulled wine perfectly