Budapest

May 24, 2012
Our first European stop was Budapest, one of my favorite cities. After almost 24 hours on airplanes and in airports, I didn't have the energy for too much exploration so we stayed fairly close to the hostel.The main marketplace and bridge over the river are very close. 

We walked across the bridge that once separated the cities Buda and Pest. This bridge is not the one that officially joined the two cities as well as another, Obuda, sometime in the early nineteenth century. That bridge is a little way down the river. Our crossing the bridge was an experience in itself. I am not used to sharing the sidewalk with bicycle traffic during rush hour. Adam kept pulling me out of their paths and a couple times I actually got swished. I survived and so am able to report to you that the Danube is not blue. I can't recall which composer was so enamored with it but he was just spreading rumors. Modern day Danube is green-brown at best, but mostly brown. 

In the morning we went to the main market looking for coffee since our hostel didn't brew before 8 am. It seems nobody else there believes in that early morning cup of joe either. We asked at several little stands where breakfast was being cooked and/or men were enjoying an early morning shot of vodka, but no coffee. Someone finally pointed us in the direction of a small stand with a big line. We got coffee to go, the standard European sludge, in a plastic bathroom cup that burned my fingers. Small sacrifice. 

There is a monument called Shoes Along the Danube (I think) that we hiked to after coffee. They are old shoes, different sizes, different styles, all cast in metal, possibly bronze,and placed along the edge of the river. Some of them have coins, candles or flowers placed in them as tributes, also an Eastern European custom. From what I hear, these are the shoes of people rounded up during the Holocaust. They were lined up along the edge of the river, told to remove their shoes, then shot. Their bodies fell into the river. Don't ask how someone managed to salvage and save the shoes. It is a very effective display and a grim reminder.