The Scenery is looking up or Shakespeare Bloom arrives in Budapest

Sometimes we just have to skip over things. An organ recital in the cathedral where Joseph Listz was a organist and a Hungarian cowboy taking a bullwhip to my sweetheart. The recital was fabulous and the cowboy was flirting with my sweetheart for the amusement of two hundred onlookers. But all this was a prelude to one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It was not just the bikini clad girls outside my hotel window, the Budapest Hilton but the entire city of Budapest was beyond words. Of course, the girls were a nice touch. Said to be one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, Budapest straddles the banks of the Danube. On the Buda side is the Castle District, with its narrow winding streets, old citizen houses and the Castle district of Budapest which reflects a medieval atmosphere. On the other side of the Danube, Pest or the flat side, is Heroes’ Square, the monument square at the end of Andrássy Avenue that sums up the history of Hungary. The millenium memorial commemorates the 1000th anniversary of the arrival of the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin. It appears the rich, affluent and tourist lived on the Buda side and the working man lived in Pest. Both sides of the city had its own vibrant and interesting sites, after visiting the socialistic counties of eastern Europe it was refreshing to see a city of well kept streets and beautiful old buildings.
Budapest is the city if spas and geothermal springs. The Gellért SPA is one of the best known and most favored among the thermal baths of Budapest. It is in the same building as Hotel Gellért, which was built in 1918 in art nouveau style. The hotel is at the foot of Gellért Hill where the Citadel is located. It is from the Citadel that the best panorama of Budapest is available, Gellért Hill definitely worth a visit. The old fortress and the statue of Liberty can be seen from far, they are an important part of the cityscape The thermal water was already used in the middle ages, and during the Turkish occupation of Hungary in the 15th century a bath house was built on this spot. In the Second World War the building was badly damaged, but later it was reconstructed preserving its oriental decoration and atmosphere. Today it has a thermal bath, a swimming pool and an open-air section, supposedly for those girls in Bikinis.
We were lucky to arrive the weekend of the Antique Festival in Pest. The streets were alive with vendors and even a street side opera was going on. We enjoyed the festival and then stumbled our way to a local Hungarian restaurant. The restaurant was crowded with locals and the food was excellent at about one third the cost we would pay in a tourist restaurant. One must advice you about the taxi; always have the restaurant or hotel call for a taxi. The taxis you see standing on the streets are private taxis and you will have to save a lot of euros at local restaurants to make up for the outrageous prices they will charge. Unfortunately I learned this on going to pick up my rental the last day in town.