Saturday, December 17 - Day 6, Part 1

 And a VERY Good Morning to you, from BUDAPEST!!  

I know, I know.  I should have been a model or something.  BUT, this Blog isn't about me...entirely.  So, this morning we woke up and went straight to breakfast.  This was partly because we woke up a smidge late after the visit from the EMT's, and I wasn't up at my normal time.  Or maybe it was because it's freakin' the future and my body isn't sure when or where we are.  At any rate, we ended up down at breakfast by ourselves, as Mom was studiously ignoring us.  I have a feeling that her body is doing the same thing and saying "Nope, it's Friday evening, not Saturday Morning."

Bill and I sat down with two ladies, and quickly engaged in a lively conversation.  Ilene and Sharon are childhood friends that started getting high on a bus in high school, and now they've graduated to airplanes and boats.  All jokes aside, Ilene and Sharon were great to sit with and we enjoyed their company.  

Following Bill's tumble, he elected to stay home for the day, and since Mom was still ignoring us, I went ahead and loaded up on the bus by myself.  To my surprise, Ilene and Sharon were in my tour group, which meant I knew people!

AMAWaterways breaks up the excursions into smaller groups, which makes the tour easier on everyone, since we're not fighting through masses of people to hear the tour guide.  In addition to that, they have in every room a Quietvox remote thingy, which you plug a pair of (provided) headphones, and you're tuned right in to the tour guide.  This is helpful for multiple reasons: 1) you can actually hear the tour guide no matter how far back you are, and 2) you can stop to look at stuff, while listening, and not have to be paying as much attention.  I'm in love with them immediately.  

 

This morning I followed a gentleman named Laszlo through Budapest, hopping off in the Castle District to the first flurries of snow that Budapest has seen this year/winter (according to Laszlo).  It was a great start to the Christmas Market Cruise excursions, and while it was a wee bit chilly, I honestly didn't mind at all.  I had packed my long wool "trenchcoat" that was a super tight weave (according to the store clerk that I bought it from TWENTY YEARS AGO....).  

 

I can't believe I'm posting the next photo, but when it's cold, there's a million people around, and you need proof that you were there.... 

Yea, well...there's me!  Hah.  So pretty.




Anyway - this was a church.  Laszlo mentioned a lot of history.  I tuned a lot of it out.  I was interested in SEEing, which I saw.  It was really cool, and I loved the glazed tile roof.  I wish I was a better photographer.  I had my "fancy" camera, so I totally snapped a whole crap ton of photos.  The comical thing is when you're setting up the shot, and you see it in your head, and "CLICK" the photo, it comes out crooked.  I must have one leg shorter than the other?!

We walked back to the bus, and headed across the river to Pest side of Budapest (it used to be two cities - Buda, and Pest).  On the Budapest side, we stopped at another church, which can hold up to 8,500 people for any given service, and got to visit our first Christmas Market of the Cruise. 

So, I have no idea what this church is called either.  What I remember from this Church is that there is a relic located inside.  That relic is the right hand of someone, which circulates between several of the churches in the Diocese.  Hungary is stoked, because not only did Budapest have the Sacred Right Hand, but apparently there's an A-List soccer player that has a Golden Left Foot.  So, they almost have a human at this point.  (Sad the things I remember!)

Anyway, above is the somewhat elevated view of the Christmas Market.  Now, leading up to this, the Cruise line had advertised that if you wanted to stay on shore for a bit longer, that they would have a complimentary shuttle that took passengers from here to the next pier to meet up with the ship.  I had decided against doing that, as I wanted to really do the Markets with Mom and Bill, and since they were both on the boat...it was best to head back. That being said, I had 48 minutes to power through this market if I wanted to catch the boat before it headed off to our next pier. 1, 2, 3, and GO!



Now, I wish I could say I was overwhelmed with completing this  market in 45 minutes.  However, the longest part of the market was when I was leaving and found a side strip of stalls, which is the last picture above.  I'm not sure what's worse - boarding the subway in Tokyo, or walking through the above crowd.  I finally made it through, and was able to hop back on the bus.

While I was there, I did take a self indulgent moment, and I bought my first Chimney Cake.  I have a friend from law school who told me that they are a must.  My first Chimney Cake did NOT disappoint.  I bought a vanilla flavored one (boring, I know), and was super pleased with my selection.  I ended up bringing half of it back to the boat, and gave some to Bill.  For the rest of the day, our cabin smelled like a bakery or doughnut shop.  Like, insanely so.

Anyway, getting back on board in the early afternoon, Mom and Bill joined me for lunch, and we were shortly underway to our next town (Bratislava). Mom was still trying to recover from the plane ride down, which was brutal on her back.  She silently gave me death glares when she thought I wasn't looking (I guess for dragging her on the trip?!), but we had a wonderful lunch of...food.  What was it, you ask?  I have no idea.  We've had an over abundance of good food here. 

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful - I do remember that we spent a good amount of time in the dining room having lunch, and catching a few glimpses of outside.  The scenery wasn't all that great, but then again, it was kind of gloomy outside, and we were in the dining room more focused on food.

I encouraged everyone to join me in the lounge for Tea Time, which coincided with what I thought was going to be the port talk for Sunday.  Sadly, it ended up being a presentation of ALL of the upcoming ports, which was WAY too long.  Thankfully Bill's back was "acting up" and he started to step out.  I dutifully followed my husband, and we safely escaped the cruise talk.

We had dinner in short time, which for me was a bowl of Pho and some desserts, and then it was bed time.  Long day of fun activities, and I was happy to crash into bed.  Here's hoping to a good night's sleep!

A few photos for you to peruse - nothing life altering, but...I was focused on typing today and missed the interjection of photos.
 







 





Comments

  1. Laura WagnerDecember 20, 2022 at 3:30 PM

    Other then the Christmas Markets, I think I would value the trip more in the Spring....I don't like cold!

    ReplyDelete

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