We'd already seen St Matthias's church and the Fisherman's bastion - twice, even; both our walking tours had taken us there - but we'd not stopped to have a proper look, which is what we were there to do this morning. And it was worth it; not only are the buildings themselves impressive, they provide a stunning view of the city.
After that we made our way to Buda Castle, having realised they've got a gallery there. So, in we went. A great deal of it is by Hungarian artists, and much of it was excellent. There were also some works by non-Hungarians like Monet and Cezanne there.
What we were hoping to do next was get to see one of the famous Budapest spas - but they don't really do tourist visits anymore (they've recently stopped for some reason) and neither of us were willing to pay for a proper visit, given we wouldn't actually be able to stay long enough to make it worthwhile. So that was annoying. But what we did do was go on another walking tour; this one the specifically Jewish history tour. And we got Zoltan again, which was awesome.
The tour was - unsurprisingly - both fascinating and depressing; like many cities in Europe, what had once been a much bigger community is now a tiny fraction of its size due to the Holocaust. Zoltan didn't pretend at any point that the Hungarians weren't complicit in a lot of really awful stuff - though, like anywhere, it was at least somewhat balanced out by the fact there were people who did a great deal to save as many Jews as they could.
We finished the tour near one of the famous ruin bars - so, we went in for drink. Rochelle insisted we try the local drink, pálinka - I told her it was basically the Hungarian equivalent of schnapps (which she hated when she tried it in Vienna) but she insisted. We got a shot of it and it was indeed hideous.
[there are photos of us drinking it but I don't have them - insert later]
There was a alley of street food vendors next door, so that's where we went for dinner before heading out of the centre of town in search of the Flippermuzeum - a pinball arcade with machines going all the way back to the 60s. We didn't end up staying as long as we probably would have liked 'cause it took us longer to get there than expected (thanks again, Google) plus we had to do some extra walking to once again get cash out. But it was still fun.
There's a Houdini museum here - he was born in Budapest but moved to the USA as a child.
I really need to take better notes. I like this one, but can't remember what it's called or who it's by.
A portrait of Franz Schubert. He wasn't Hungarian but the artist was.
This is not titled 'Young Karl Marx at his Easel'.
A painting of the Hofbräuhaus in Munich - where we'd been only maybe a week or so ago.
Something very vampiric about this. Probably not surprising, given where we were.
Why...are some of the people tiny?
Creepy.
The Cezanne.
The Gauguin.
The Monet.
Not sure who this is by (slaps self).
Back outside. We didn't see the Magritte/Dali, given we had limited time and I'd be seeing more of their stuff in Brussels and Berlin respectively.
Oh, yeah. Europe has crows, but sometimes they're black and grey.
The outside of a spa building.
The funicular. We didn't ride it.
Start of the tour of the Jewish Quarter.
The return of Zoltan.
Mural of a Rubik's cube. Its inventor, Ernő Rubik, is Hungarian - Zoltan told us (roughly) where his house is and that it's very nice. A lot of people bought those cubes back in the day.
The ruin bar.
Pinball museum.
Oh, and it has a Darth Maul statue for some reason.
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