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The Team: Don Caron: |
Today was a free day. Don and
Rich again went to the little mall and picked up some breakfast and brought it back. Then
we took off walking. We ended up down by the Danube. We walked across one of the bridges
taking pictures as we went. We eventually ended up at Verosmarty Square again where we
bought some souvenirs (I found some small lithos by Zsuzsa Egressi) and sat to drink
cappuccino. Szidi called around 1:30 on the cellular and then met us in the square about
20 minutes later. We then headed for the subway which took us to the train station that
would take us north out of Budapest to a village still in the suburbs but about 25 miles
out. There we walked around looking in galleries, shops etc. There was a band of a bunch of students playing in the square. Instrumentation: guitar, ukulele type instrument, bass, clarinet. They played a rousing tune in 10/8 that Szidi said sounded Turkish. We ate an excellent lunch around 4:30 (I had lamb, potatoes, tokaj) walked around some more and found a guy selling crystals. There was some with an exquisite blue color that Szidi liked so I bought her one. |
We headed back to the train about 6:30. It was starting to get dark on the 45 minute ride home. Arriving in Budapest we decided to see if we could find a Hungarian made movie playing that had English sub-titles. We went to the theatre but no subtitles. I called mom and talked to her for a little bit on the cellular. We decided to call it a night. We rode a bus back to apartment. Szidi came back with us. Sleep..... The morning is started by a bird singing a downward minor third. Even the birds are melancholy here.....
Day 6 (Free day, the last day in Budapest)
Today Szidi picked us up at around 1:30. We walked over to the Bartok
Museum, where Bartok lived before moving to America. We were the only ones there and had
the guide to ourselves. Don and I took turns getting our picture taken in front of
Bartok’s Bosendorfer. Then we took a bus downtown, had coffee, bought some souvenirs.
Then we took a bus up to
the castle. We first went to the Hungarian Music History Museum. Old instruments, and a
lot of Bartok scores showing different stages of composition. Very interesting. We went
into the old gothic cathedral. Awe inspiring. They were having a service there. Then we
walked over to
the castle and looked at it for a moment. David called and met us and took us to a nice
country style Hungary restaurant after which we went back to the apartment. We said our
good-byes with handshakes all around. We went to sleep and the taxi picked us up at 4:00
am for the long trip back home. At LAX Don and I had beers to celebrate a good trip.
Arrived
home at 11:00 PM exhausted. The end of a life experience.
