November 28: Budapest & Sailing

rnorell
Nov 28
3 min read

Breakfast this morning was 7 to 9 am, and then the included Budapest city tour left at 9:45 am. We boarded the buses and drove past many of the iconic sites. We stopped at Castle Hill and had free time to explore, so we went to the Christmas markets where we found different things than we had seen at the other markets. We also stopped at Heroes’ Square, but only stayed in the square and did not go over near the park. They are getting the park ready for the holidays, and there was a tethered hot air balloon that kept rising over the park.

Fun information:

They actually celebrate on December 6, which is St. Nicholas Day. On December 5, the children all clean their shoes and put them in the window. Santa comes and gives them chocolates.
The Christmas trees are decorated with foil-wrapped candies. Many children secretly eat the candy and then rearrange the wrappers to look like they are still filled.
Little Christ gets the letters from children and brings the gifts, and angels bring the tree. They used to wait until December 24, but many are starting to put the tree up earlier.
They open presents on Christmas Eve and then have dinner. They believe that if you eat a lot of poppy seeds, you will get money in the new year, and if you eat a lot of walnuts, it keeps away evil spirits. For dinner, they eat an apple together, then fish soup, then stuffed cabbage (our guide makes 140 each year for her family and that lasts about three days). Then dessert, a soft rolled cake called beigli.
Buda was a Roman city 2,000 years ago. Pest was not. In 1873, Buda and Pest were officially united. There are eight road bridges and two rail bridges.
Eiffel built the Margaret Bridge and the railroad station.
Trams: During peak times they run every two minutes. There are yellow trams, red electric trolleys, blue buses, and four underground subway routes. Those who are 65 and older travel free, as do children under age six.
The last time they had a victor was in 1456, so they celebrate every day by having the bells ring at 12 pm.
A popular dish is rooster testicle goulash.

We were back at the ship around 1 pm and had lunch. Around 2 pm, the ship departed and we sailed down the Danube. Sailing past the Parliament Building is such an iconic moment. It was chilly and windy, so many of us went to the lounge or our rooms after we were past the Parliament.

From the ship we could see The Shoes on the Danube Bank, a memorial to the Jewish victims who were shot into the Danube River in 1944 and 1945. There are 60 pairs of cast-iron shoes (in the 1940s style) because the victims were made to take off their shoes before they were shot into the river. The memorial was created in 2005.

The sun sets very early here, around 4 to 4:15 pm. I got some nice photos of the sunset from my cabin window as we sailed. The earlier darkness is actually helpful for visiting the Christmas markets, because they are much prettier and magical with the lights on.

At 5 pm, we had a presentation about our time in Bratislava. At 6:30 pm there was a welcome drink, and then dinner was from 7 pm to 8:30 pm. You could arrive anywhere in that time range, but most of us went down at 7 pm.

Earlier in the day, one of the crew members asked Sister Cindy if we wanted to dine in the Riverview Café. It is at the back of the ship on deck 3, and their menu, which is the same every night, has more casual options. She said yes, and the three of us had dinner there.