8-15-19 - Monster day in Budapest & new record

Day 60.

We have fun monitoring our daily steps and miles on the trip on Apple Health app.  Early in the trip, Leanne and I walked to exact same route for the entire day but her iPhone said she did 10K steps while mine said I did 12K steps.  This revelation didn’t go over well with Leanne.  Neither did my explanative suggestion that maybe the iPhone deducted penalty steps because she was walking too slow.  So I researched the accuracy of the app and it turns out the steps tend to under-report actual steps by 5% - 20% with it be less accurate the slower you walk.  Turns out my wise-crack comment unknowingly had some veracity to it.  Knowing it is not perfect, it is our goal to reach 10K steps in a day.

It’s a new record today. 23,904 steps. 10 miles. That should tell you that we accomplished much with John & Justin having planned the day and leading the charge.  We start out walking to the Budapest Opera House but soon find out we have been “Big Ben’d.”  In London, Big Ben was under construction and almost completely covered so it has become our verb for other landmarks having similar fates.  Yes, the Opera House is almost completely covered but we get a picture and can see the statutes of famous opera singers and classical musicians adorning the top.

Next, we walk to Saint Stephen’s Basilica.  We are blown away by this immense, grandiose, architecturally impressive Catholic church built in a Neoclassical style.  We have been briefed by our tour guide Zoltan the prior day that the church is a dedication to the first Hungarian King, Saint Stephan in 1,000 AD and that his statues are the central focus while it’s hard to even find one of Jesus.  The inside is equally awe inspiring.  There is a daily mass going on so we are able to sit in the tourist section (not allowed with the actual parishioners) however, the mass is in Hungarian making it a little hard to say the proper responses.

We read the story of the building of the church.  It was started in the 1850’s.  Ten years later, the architect / designer of the church was worried that the buildings in the neighborhood were getting taller so the church needed to be even taller.  Let’s just say going “off-architectural-plans” might not be the best idea and sure enough an entire section of the church collapses.  The church project is put on indefinite hold and the architect passes away (cause and effect – I’ll let you draw the conclusion).  The church is eventually completed in 1905 at a height of 96 meters tall.

Next we go to Miniversum which is “one of the world’s largest model layouts.”  We buy our entry tickets and the woman asks us “where are you from?”  I see no benefit from saying we’re Canadian this time so I answer “USA.”  She then asks, “where did you learn about us?”  I respond “John & Justin’s Off-The-Beaten-Path Big Sauce Tours” [this the name working name for the tour company they are going to start post our trip].  “I don’t know them,” she says. “Oh but you will in a couple years,” I say. Leanne’s had enough of my antics and says, “Trip Advisor.” The woman nods in recognition and marks six check marks next to Trip Advisor.” I look at the sheet and every single check mark is next to Trip Advisor and not a single checkmark for any of the other options. “At least you know where to spend your marketing dollars,” I say pointing to the sheet.  Leanne’s really had enough of my humor and drags me through the turnstile.

Miniversum is a gigantic model train set of Hungary.  The central display is of current day Hungary including the notable buildings and landmarks. They have a special exhibit which walks you through what life during the Communist era was like and then has its own representative model set.  It was brilliantly done.  In the space of 30 mins, we came away with an excellent understanding of what life was like from their perspective.  It also helped clarify the taxi driver and Zoltan's commentary on current day life. The communist government has a “planned” economy in which factories were operated at or over capacity even if there was no demand and created unnecessary jobs in order for people to be employed.  In fact, if you went 30 days without a job, you were considered a dangerous vagrant and arrested.  With the conversion to a free market economy, all the “artificial” jobs disappeared and unemployment skyrocketed.  Many Hungarian people lost their apartments and homelessness skyrocketed as well.  So although life under the communism era lacked pizazz (most people lived in a small concrete apartment near their job and did not leave the area often), they did not have to worry about a job or financial burdens.

Next, we hit the Budapest Eye.  Apparently, it is a requirement of the board of tourism of every major city to have either an (1) “Eye” in the form of the giant Ferris Wheel or (2) a tower with an observation deck at the top at a dizzying height.  Leanne is not so fond of heights so she always gets a bit nervous when John announces the “Eye” stop in every city we’ve been to.  This one is not as tall and there is no line so it’s a nice little break.    

Next, we stop at the “Shoes on the Danube” which are cast irons of the original shoes of the Jews murdered there all laid out along the sidewalk next to the river. Some shoes has flowers or memorial decorations adorning them.  It was a moving moment thinking to reflect on how the impact of WWII is still felt over 70 years later.

Next is a tour of the Hungarian Parliament Building.  The only way to gain access to the building is via a tour and John scored tickets that morning at 8:02am as they released a few tickets.  As we wait, there is a sign informing us that the building is the 10th most popular / visited landmark in the world according to the Trip Advisor.  We are well familiar now with Trip Advisor’s status as the end-all, be-all of tourist attraction reviews.  Impressive.

The building is equally impressive and the tour is informative.  The Parliament is 96 meters tall.  “Wait, that’s the same exact height as Saint Stephen’s Basilica!” you might be shouting out right now and you are correct.  First, 96 is a symbolic number as the first Hungarian’s are believed to have arrived in Hungary in 896 AD; thus 96 became a meaningful number (and I suppose building an 896 meter-high church and parliament was bit of out of the question).  Also the Church and Parliament being 96 meters symbolizes that spiritual-world and real-world matters should be given equal importance.  

There was no talk of the government corruption that our tour guide Zoltan went in depth about the previous day.  John has made me promise not to ask our guide about fixed elections, bribes, unemployment or the likes so I let sleeping dogs lie.

On the way to a late lunch, we see the changing of the guards.  We’ve gotten lucky and this is our 5th changing of the guard (Buckingham Palace & Windsor Castle (England), Edinburgh Castle (Scotland), National Gallery (Hungary) and now the Parliament Building (Hungary).

After lunch, we walk to Margaret Island (alas not named after my mother as she was of Irish-English descent) where we see the Music Fountain that spray in patterns that sound like music (but actually sounded like fireworks). 

We wrap up the day visiting the Tomb of Gul Baba who was Muslim’s patron saint, scholar and founder of the Islamic Hungarian community under the Ottoman Empire circa the 1500s.  There is a small window where you can look inside the tomb and see the enshrined Gul Baba.  Amongst the dark shadows, I swear he moved but Leanne thinks I was pulling her leg.

After our monster day, our date night turns into a date nap as we fall asleep at 7pm.