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| Looking across the Chain Bridge to Pest in the snow from the funicular. |
A very wise blogger cautioned me that a blog is not a diary. So I am going to try not simply to list everything we do. But I thought it might be interesting (or not!) to give a sense of how our days work.
So far, every day we have left the apartment mid-morning and gone "somewhere." The destination is sometimes important (in my next blog post I will write about the Kazincky Street Orthodox Synagogue which was our destination today); sometimes the "destination" is more about providing structure for the walk. Yesterday was a walk day rather than a walk to something new and special. To be precise, we walked to Buda, which is on the other side of the Danube.
We have often walked over to Buda. We cross the Chain Bridge, and then take the funicular up to the top (Buda is hilly while Pest is flat). Then we walk through the Castle section of Buda, stop at a little bookstore we like, then walk home. That was yesterday's plan. Except when we got to the top of Buda is was really cold, and when we were in the bookstore it started snowing. Hard. So we made our way down via the funicular, cautiously crossed the Chain Bridge, then came back to our apartment.
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| Debra in the funicular. |
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Hungarian State Opera House, taken on a sunnier day.  
We took the incredibly efficient Budapest metro to the opera house, had a quick dinner nearby, then went into the concert. It was amazing. (I know I am overusing that word, but I just don't know how to describe it.) Despite its grandeur, the opera house is small and we were very close to the stage. The concert began with Webbern Passacaglia, op.1, which I had never heard of but liked. Then there was a phenomenally young and talented female violinist who played the Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor. Ecstatic clapping. An encore from the violinist. Intermission. Stravinsky Rites of Spring. More ecstatic clapping. An encore from the orchestra. More clapping.
Metro home. Exhausted. Not all days in Budapest can be this rich and full, but there are certainly many more such possibilities ahead.
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sounds so wonderful!!!!! You are right that all days will likely not be like that one but here's to hoping they all bring something new and beautiful and that the memory of this day carries you though the grey and quiet ones.
ReplyDeleteThank you sweetie. We went to the jazz club tonight and heard two amazing electric jazz guitars, playing everything from blues to 60s psychedelic funk. I kept wishing Aaron was here. There is SO MUCH music in this city.
ReplyDeleteTravelling opens all your senses and the tastes and sounds are as much part of the experience as what you see. Thank you for sharing and, as you might have guessed, I look forward to learning about the gastronomic delights too in due course.
ReplyDeleteThank you Caree for kind responses. Gastronomy tonight. We are going to our favorite Budapest restaurant before leaving tomorrow for 4 days visiting old friends in Romania.
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