Both Nicole and I have traveled to Castle Hill all by ourselves independently and neither of us remembered any problems. Today, we decided to either walk Chain Bridge or take a trolley, whichever came first. Nicole still had a 3 day pass but I needed to buy a ticket. We decided to walk the bridge, then took the funicular up the mountain. Somehow, we turned left instead of right, walked down a hill, talking merrily, and ended up back at the funicular. The funicular cost 1000 forints; no problem--I thought I had a 10,000 bill. But no, I had a 1000 so we counted all our change and rode it back up the hill. Then we were out of money, with no transportation pass, no water, no food. We finally found an ATM and made our way to the restaurant (courtyard above). The place is delightful. The trilogy consists of grilled goose liver which was excellent, a pate which was magnificent, and a souffle that looked like creme brulee which was one of the most unusual and delicious dishes I ever had.
After that, we made our way to Ruszwum for their world famous cream pastry, also a Johnny recommendation, They were out of that but promised me the cream puff used the same cream. It was great. Nicole got sour cherry strudel which was also great and was real strudel instead ground poppyseed cake.
Then we packed; got a quick dinner on Liszt Square and are preparing for a 7 a.m. taxi and a 14 hour trip (Nicole) and a 19 hour trip (me).
So bye to Budapest--still one of my favorite cities despite the fact it's overrun with Americans. Really. Tonight at dinner, it seemed everyone was speaking American; didn't hear any British.
Until next time...end o'blog.
