Breakfast, museum and ski chairlifts in Budapest
Early in the morning we stomped off to breakfast at a cafe pointed out to me by TripAdvisor. Despite the fact that the number of purchased reviews on the internet is growing, review sites are still solid. Blue Bird Cafe turned out to be top-notch, both in terms of design and style, and tastiness. Interestingly, their breakfasts are offered from different countries - British with bacon and eggs, Belgian waffles, French crepes, and so on. Stylish!
After pleasant impressions at the cafe we headed to the national museum. I can only last a couple of hours in museums, after that I run out of there as if I'd seen the devil. Same thing happened this time. I looked at the hand axes, hatchets, armor and bows, and sped up. The twentieth century is a bit more interesting - there's an old-school pot-bellied TV and a fascist uniform, but you still get tired. In short, the museum was enough for me, and for one other zwerg, and so we bailed out of there pretty early.
Two stayed behind, and one wasn't with us at all, because he was "going about his own business". A weird phrase, because what business can you have in a city where you don't know anyone. But we found out what kind - buying souvenirs. We joined the busy guy at an interesting souvenir shop where all the products were creations of local artists. I bought a couple of postcards and magnets, as is my tradition, and the guys straight up bought a painting. I think the shop was called @rododendronart, but I'm not entirely sure. In any case, culture is bubbling in Budapest, and you'll find other, equally worthy shops.
After the purchases we moved to Buda Castle, on the other bank from the center. There we tried to find some grub, but in places like that it's either super expensive or the reviews aren't great, because where are tourists gonna go from a submarine. We had a plan for the evening to go up the mountain, admire the sunset, and so we couldn't dawdle much. In the end, three of us who wanted to go up on the ski chairlifts hopped into a taxi and rolled out, and the rest continued looking for an affordable eatery.
We did get up on the chairlifts for cheap. Moreover, one of us cutely squealed in terror the whole way up because the chairs were 5-10 meters above the ground. It was adorable. But I was already so used to heights in Switzerland that I threw my legs up and settled in comfortably semi-reclined. Forgot, though, that my pants had holes and my underwear was showing. Good thing not my balls!
Walking down the mountain and Budapest takeaways
Up the mountain we did go, but how to get down? The thing is, the lift works until 17:30 + until the last visitor. But they cleverly figured out how to avoid abuse of this clause. They let the queue inside the booth pretty quickly, and then close the door so nobody plays "I'm just real quick, I need to go down too".
In the end, we turned out to be exactly those goofballs: stand there behind a closed door and twiddle your thumbs. There is no bus down, and all the Bolts were constantly busy. Not even anywhere to buy food - the crepe stall was closing up, and the workers were washing dishes. We bought at least some cider just to pour some kind of sugar into ourselves. On the flip side, since there was nowhere to hurry anymore, we took a little stroll, climbed a low little tower. After that we walked down the steep trails. We could have taken the asphalt, but that's unsportsmanlike. While it wasn't dark yet, we decided to risk it. When the dark, languid evening almost fully set in, and you could barely see anything, we finally made it out to the bus stop. Soon we were already moving to our hood.
The next morning we had breakfast at that same wonderful Blue bird cafe. I first ran to the post office - to send postcards. I didn't want to, as I wasn't feeling great, as happens 90% of the time in my life. Knowing, however, that my female addressees would get a ton of positive emotions, I forced myself to stand in line for a stamp, good thing they understand the word "Europa" everywhere. Then I crookedly scribbled a greeting, and flew back to the cafe on a Bolt scooter, where the guys had already ordered breakfast for me. Luckily, we had time, and I managed to both devour the Belgian waffles and buy some coffee beans - for myself and as a gift. On the way, a stuffy and heated discussion flared up about whether our universe can be measured to the end, or if at the quantum mechanics level everything is approximate. In the taxi I lost in rhetoric. Then I got back at them a little, sent a link to an article explaining what the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics was given for. In Russian it's on Meduza, for example - https://meduza.io/feature/2022/10/04/nobelevskuyu-premiyu-dali-fizikam-zalozhivshim-fundament-kvantovogo-interneta-buduschego.
What to say to sum it up? Budapest didn't fully reveal itself to us, and I'd visit there again to understand it better. I probably wouldn't fly there specifically, but if fate brings me, I'll take a walk, explore.
