The Road to Budapest - Day 15

4/04/09
I took the time to sleep in a little and woke up just before our agreed meeting time at breakfast. It will be the last time we all see each other together – Gail leaves to go to Croatia this arvo, Antonio flies out to Barcelona and Sean & I still have a few days left in Budapest. Antonio didn’t make it breakfast – he was still asleep (he stayed out even later that me). Sean and I booked a bike ride later in afternoon, so I went back up to try and sleep for a few hours. Just before the bike ride, Sean & I got to say good bye to Antonio – he was such a great guy – really friendly, heaps of fun and just a great bloke.
At 1pm we started our Guided Bike Tour of Budapest – it was a mix of a group: Kiwi’s, Aussies and Americans. We rode to the Opera House first - the balcony of the Opera House is where they shot the historic scene of ‘Don’t Cry for me Argentina’ in the movie Evita, with Madonna. We then rode out of town to the Heroes Square. We saw the funniest thing here – a little dog walked through the square with a balloon attached to its collar – it said ‘Original GPS’ on it; it was so cute! Next was the City Park – they were having car races near the park – racing VW Combie Vans, VW Beetles and other old cars – it was funny. There is a beautiful old Castle next to a lake in the Park and then near that is the historic Thermal Baths. The natural springs here are so hot, that the water needs to be cooled before use in the baths. When we were standing out the front of the main entrance, we could feel the rumble of bubbles under the ground – it was quite a weird feeling through my feet.
We then rode back towards the centre of the city and had a bit of a rest before the next part of the tour. When we continued, we rode through a park and stopped to watch a ceremony that was in progress – it was the Socialist Party. We decided it wasn’t a good idea to stay and watch, so we headed out to the Parliament Buildings – there we were confronted with a display by White Supremacists! The guide thought it was so strange that we were faced with two different parties displays – he said “They are not normally here” and had to laugh. The tour then took us over the Chain Bridge and up the hill to the Palace. The ride up the hill wasn’t helped by 2 things – lack of gears on the bicycle, and that I wasn’t in the perkiest of moods from lack of sleep! The grounds of the Palace are magnificent; the Mathias Church is glorious and the view from up there across the Danube is outstanding. We rode to a few places up on the top of the hill before taking the smooth ride back down the hill, over the bridge and back to the starting point.
After the ride, Sean had to move his luggage to the Hostel he was staying in for the next few nights – so I helped him move his stuff and then we went to the supermarket. By this time I was exhausted and called it a night.