Budapest

What: The street by our hotel that is lined with awesome restaurants

Attendees: Roy and Yours truly

Comments: Not much to say really, I pretty much eat here every day. Thank gawd there are tons of restaurants.






What: Escalator down to the subway at Kalvin Ter (this is where my hotel is)

Attendees: Roy and Yours truly

Comments: This escalator is rocket fast. You really have to watch out or you will be destroyed. There are really corny adds for bad movies and businesses around Budapest.





What: Saint Stephen's Basilica

Attendees: Roy and Yours truly

Comments: This place was huge much like the rest. You can see this church from pretty much anywhere in Budapest. The decoration in the church is much darker than in the German churches.





What: Statue Park

Attendees: Roy and Yours truly

Comments: I am almost positive that this statue in particular was in the Goldeneye (game and movie?). The hands are probably about twice as tall as I am (that's 12 ft for people that don't know me, or my height, well).






What: Statue Park

Attendees: Roy and Yours truly

Comments: This statue was really huge, maybe 2 and a half stories? The lady said that it was a running joke, when the statue was in its original location, that the guy is saying, "Sir, you forgot your towel". Most of the Hungarians weren't really "down" with the communists post 1956 so there was plenty of internal mockery between them.









What: Hungary's Statue of Liberty

Attendees: Zoltan and Yours truly

Comments: This statue sits really high and is located at one of the highest points surrounding Budapest. You can see the entire city from up here. The statue was erected when the Soviets "freed" the Hungarian people from Nazi occupation. After the Soviets left Hungary in 1991 there was great debate regarding whether to move the statue or not. They decided to keep it but remove the Soviet statues that surrounded it to statue park.







What: Pariament Building

Attendees: Zoltan and Yours truly

Comments: This is probably the most captivating of all the buildings here in Budapest. The picture really doesn't do it justice from a size point of view. Zoltan said that during communist rule there were three large red stars on the points of the three middle towers. The Danube is what is in front of it.



What: Just your run of the mill Gypsy Circus

Attendees: Roy and Yours truly

Comments: Um yeah, so this was set up in front of the office here. There were small malnourished horses/ponies wandering all around as well as semi-violent dogs. We didn't go in. Zoltan said they (the gypsies) probably stole everything for this production.