We're number One!

Yes I know Syracuse lost, but according to CNN travel the number one market in Europe is the great Market Hall in Budapest.  This is where I do a lot of my shopping, it's two blocks away and has great poultry and pork.  The only other place on the list is I've been is the Market in Barcelona which gave me "market envy" and I hear the one in Turkey is amazing so I'm not sure how Budapest got the win, but I'll take it.  Here is a link to the article: http://travel.cnn.com/europes-amazing-city-markets-354731.

I know this guy is out partying as we speak!

Things seen in Budapest

Apologies for the poor picture a moving Metro car and my phone do not make the best combination,  but if you look at the guys lap on left, that is a some sort of attack falcon or some other such bird of prey. I'm so glad we were not taking Midnight on the Metro to bring her to one of the parks, it could have gotten really ugly.

Die Hard

This picture was taken with an iphone while driving over the Erzabet bridge so you are going to have to take my word for it, but the bald guy in blue in the middle of the picture is Bruce Willis.  I mentioned before that a lot of movies are filmed in Budapest because it can look like a lot of other places and it is cheaper than filming in the actual places.  So now we have the latest Die Hard filming here.  Later in the day we walked the two blocks back to where they had been filming and saw that our neighborhood had been turned into Russia, there were Russian police cars, posters, flags and of course Bruce Willis to save the day.  Below is a picture of his trailer and a bunch of production trucks that are parked where the Bus stop normally is.  Can't wait to see the movie! When you watch it, be on the look out for a black SUV driving in the bus lane with an iphone sticking out the passenger side, that's us!

Gellert Hill

The hill to the right is called Gellert Hill.  It was named after a priest in the middle ages who was trying to convert pagans who got stuck in a barrel full of nails and rolled to his death in the Danube for his efforts. I guess they felt bad for him so the named the hill after him, no hard feelings, right?  Any way it is just across the river from us and it's a nice walk up to the top with some great views of the city.

Central Market

Castle district

Any Ideas?

I walk by this sign just about everyday since it is on my way back from the central market and have no clue what it means. I've been going with don't hold hands with people wearing strange hats and it's worked for me so far. Come to think of it, the hat does look a little like Freddy Krueger's from Nightmare on Elm Street.

Ferenciak Tere

Just one of the many amazing buildings in the city.  This is right across from our metro and bus stop.

More from Revolution Day

Normally our street is a very quiet street.  We are right downtown but our street is a narrow one way street until it gets to the end of our block, then it's one way the other way so you either turn right onto a dead end street or take a left and then a series of turns on many more narrow one way streets before you hit a major road.  Due to road closing for the holiday festivities our road some how became a major thorough  fair.  The picture below was taken out of our window, the cars on the right are parked, the cars on the left are just stopped.

The check's in the mail

The check's in the mail isn't an excuse your going to hear in Hungary much. Not necessarily because people pay their bills here on time, but because there are no checks!  So what do you do when you need to pay a bill? You walk down to the Post Office (pictured above) and give them your bill and the money and that's it.  I thought it was a little strange at first but it is actually pretty easy and so far have had no issues.

Serbian Church

At the end of our block sits this beautiful Serbian church.  I love the picture above showing St. George slaying the dragon.  The church dates back to the late 1600's and is just one of those cool buildings that I can't believe I walk by everyday.  I'm also very appreciative that they have a little driveway that we can pull in real quickly to unload stuff from our car because finding parking is impossible!

Underworld

You might be wondering what a picture of Kate Beckinsale from the opening scene of Underworld is doing in my blog.  The answer is she was in one of the buildings at the end of my street getting ready to follow some lycans into our Metro stop! It was pretty weird to be watching that movie a few weekends ago and think that looks an awful like Ferenciak Tere, but it was. Here are those buildings from our normal vantage point.

Apparently they shoot a lot of movies and things here because it's pretty cheap to film here and it looks like a lot of other places, even Buenos Aries for Evita.

Grocery Shopping

At the end of our street is Budapest's Central Market (Nagy Vasarcsarnok).  This beautiful buildings was built in the late 1800s and serves as our local grocery store. There are three floors for your shopping pleasure. The basement has a local grocery store chain, fish and pickling.  The main floor has butchers, produce and some baked goods.  The top floor has places to eat and local crafts and goods. 

 

It really is a remarkable place to shop, except that it is a tourist attraction so I try to avoid it during the weekend or if I see a tour bus pulling up front.  The produce and the butchers are amazing here.

I'm not the sure what the scariest part of this picture is: the animal skull with teeth, toungue and sunglasses on a stick; the dead pig to the right of the picture; or the crazy butcher behind the counter.