The Best of Pest

We were on our own for the remainder of the day yesterday.  After the tour, we figured out how to take the tram down the waterfront and headed for the Great Market Hall, built in 1897 and housing all manner of produce, meats, fruits and vegetables, and, of course, paprika!

 

We had to get a photo of this guy eating a very large sandwich!

 

After touring the market, we had a nice lunch on Vaci Ut (major shopping, read tourist, street) and headed for the Opera House.

 

Our charming guide on the Opera House Tour

 

Not only did we get a lovely tour of the Opera House, one of the best opera houses in Europe, but we were treated to a couple of arias afterward from a member of the Hungarian State Opera.

After a brief rest, we headed out for the event of the evening:  a dinner cruise on the Danube with musical entertainment.  By this time, we had figured out how to take the metro (one of the oldest subways in Europe) from our hotel to the heart of Pest, not an easy task when the stop names were made up of a dozen consonants we couldn't read! We found our way to and boarded the ship, along with other visitors from all over world, as far as we could tell from listening to languages.  The cruise was a delight:  good food, a good selection of Hungarian opera, popular songs, folk dancing, and belly dancing (!), and great views!

Our table partners were an elderly couple celebrating their 49th anniversary.  We figured this out even though they spoke no English and we spoke no Hungarian.   Overall, it was a peak experience to be floating past the incredible buildings on both sides of the Danube!

Notice our table number!(for those not from the northwest, this has something to do with the Seahawks!)