Pictures with PEOPLE in them!

Sometimes we* get to carried away taking pictures of the fantastic places we visit, and the interesting experiences we have, that we forget to take pictures of us, and the people we love.

St. Stephen's Basilica, and us. 

Alan, a constable, and two baby pandas.

The view of the Danube, my mom, and me.

Hero's Square from behind, and our behinds from... right on. 

The "mmm beer," shot. 

My mom, and the crowning or  baptism(?), of St. Stephen or St. Adalbert(?).  

This was supposed to be ladies striking a model pose.  Apparently Sonya has no experience in professional modeling. 

You can't tell that this is the Blue Mosque, but we look happy huh?

Scarfed up, inside the mosque. 

This is a "Look how big this column is!" picture.  All those busy tourists refused to go away.  Rude. 

Kinda scary, but the only 'cistern + us' picture we have.  

The "Little Golden Gate" over the Bosphorus. 

Standing in Europe with Asia in the background.  Planning to swim this in the summer.  Hard core. 

*Before Alan fake coughs and says "WE???" let me be the first to admit that he is the sole picture taker, because I don't know how to use his fancy camera, and because in my panic over dropping it, I don't change the settings back to automatic, and end up with a bunch of completely black and white pictures.

Istanbul: Spicy and Bazaar

Like the rest of Turkey, Istanbul has fabulous, huge, bustling, and loud markets.

The Grand Bazaar, the world's first covered shopping center, opened in 1461.

It consists of over 50 covered streets, and 4000 shops.  (We saw about a 1%, and managed to escape with most of our lira.)

Things one could easily do here:
Pray at one of many mosques.
Get a good scrub down at a Hamam.
Spend ALL money.
Drink countless cups of free tea.
Hone haggling skills while drinking said tea, and spending said money.
Have someone run all of your many purchases to your hotel for free (so that you can't use the excuse of having no more hands to carry merchandise).
Get irreversibly lost.

Something one can't avoid doing:  Getting verbally assaulted by all of the vendors vying for your attention and money.
Some of the more creative lines to get our attention:
"Everything in my shop is practically free."
"In my shop I have everything, except no customers" sad face.
"If you have lots of money that you're trying to get rid of, I can help you."
 And the weirdest:  "Espana? Italia?  Oh... American... generally bad customers." (Not sure what the goal was here... issuing a challenge maybe?  Unfortunately I'm not so patriotic that I felt like proving him wrong.)

Farewell Budapest

Our week visiting was so lovely,  thanks for the good times!

We'll miss your chilly air, your super efficient public transit, your appreciation of all things pork, and your truly stunning historical architecture.
We'll miss the lovely-but-brown Danube, and the charming bridges that cross it.  We'll miss your perfectly patina-ed statues, your hideously amazing fur coats, your eternal Tina Turner soundtrack, and even your begrudgingly-helpful-bordering-on-rude customer service. 

Budapest, you'll always have a place in our hearts.

Step Into Slovakia

The little city of Esztergom has a bridge that crosses the Danube into Slovakia.

Never being travelers to miss a chance like that, we marched over the bridge at sunset to a small Slovakian town promising little more than stunning views of Hungary.

We only had about an hour, so we decided to spend it drinking beer.  We headed to the first "pub" sign we saw, which lead us practically under the bridge to a "bar" in some ladies basement.  She welcomed us in and happily poured us some beer from her keg.  Four tall beers for 3 euros.  Pretty much can't beat that.

Thanks for the lovely time, Slovakia!

"Da Basilica"

Yesterday we traveled to Esztegom to see the first capitol of the Hungarian Empire, and the largest Church in Hungary.  My Mom studied the history of the town and gave us a walking tour as we went.

Knock Knock

Who's there?

View from Slovakia

As we're gazing upon it's magnificence, I ask my mom (the teacher) "Who's basilica is this?"
Mom: "Huh?"
Me: "What's this basilica called?"
Mom: (confidently) "Well that would be 'El Grande Basilica'."
Me: "Ha Ha, no really."
Mom: "Erin, this is THE BIGGEST. They just call it 'Da Basilica'."
Erin:  "Never mind I'll ask Alan."
Alan: "Yeah, ask me, I bet I know the answer.  What are we talking about?"
Erin: "What's this basilica called?"
Alan: "Oh yeah.  You know... It's St. Ubidubilus Basilica."

Real name: Basilica of St. Adalbert

Budapest day 5: Hella Cultured

You know what they don't let you do at the ballet?  Take pictures during the show. 

You know what you can do (or at least what they don't stop you from doing)?  Pretend you're a ballerina, and take pictures of your self at the ballet. 

You get a few weird looks, but that's just the face of jealousy.

 

  

It was a classy night.

Budapest Day 4: A city stroll

Mostly just photos for you today, walking around the city has made us tired. This is what yesterday's walk looked like...

First a walk down Andrassy "ut" ending here at Heroes' Square.

Ice Skating in the park, in front of the fake 700 yr old castle (it was actually finished in 1908).

St. Stephen's Cathedral, didn't get to see the light up mummified hand. 

Then a sunset stroll over the Danube. That's the Buda castle.

Erin is looking for real estate to buy, here's one option, notice the "szex shop" on the lower floor. Due to the holes in the wall and the overall run-down look I bet it's cheap. The view of the Central Synagogue might up the price a little.

All in all it was a Beautiful day...more to come tomorrow.