Thailand in the eyes of a 20-something..: Day 7

-Kaitlyn sent me off to the city centre with a map and a few recommendations, and I arrived at the Hospital in the Rock at 8:30...only to find out they open at 10. So I walked up the hill and wandered around near the Buda Castle, found a bench under cover from the drizzly rain, and plopped down to journal some more. Arrived back at the Hospital/Museum promptly at 10, just in time for the first tour (for which I paid half price simply by showing an ID that proved I was under 26). No pictures were allowed inside, but I very much enjoyed the tour, which led us through the various hallways and wards of the underground hospital that was used during WWII and the Cold War.

Overlooking the Danube separating Buda and Pest

Entrance to the Hospital in the Rock

-I walked around the hill above the Hospital, roaming down the little streets, doing my best to avoid getting trampled by one of the ~~mobs~~ tour groups. I wasn't too interested in going inside the Buda Castle, so I found my way down the other side of the hill to the Danube and trotted across the Széchenyi Lanchid bridge to the Pest side. I walked along the river towards the Parliament Buildings, and just before I got there I found what I was looking for - the "shoes on the Danube Promenade." The shoes are a memorial to represent and remember the Jews that were lined up along the river, ordered to remove their shoes, and then shot so their bodies would float away down the river and not need to be buried.

Buda Castle

The Danube - Buda on the left side, Pest on the right side

Shoes on the Danube

Heartbreaking to see children's shoes as well

Shoes on the Danube

-After grabbing a pastry on the metro, I rode to Ferenciek Tere, and walked across the Erzsébet bridge to Gellert Hill, where I first toured the Cave Church, then had the crazy idea to hike to the top of the hill to the Freedom Monument. I made it, and just like Petrin Hill in Prague, it was another slap in the face to my physique, but as I was nearing the very top and a few tubby Spaniards waddled past me, I realized my physique was not only being slapped this time but mocked as well. Let's hope there are no hills in Istanbul.

View of Gellert Hill from the bridge

Entrance to the Cave Church

View from the top of Gellert Hill

The Freedom Monument

-Met Kaitlyn at the bottom of the hill, and after a quick cappuccino in a nearby cafe, went in search of a Thai massage parlor. Finally found one with a decent price (though still about 4x the price in Thailand), and settled in for my foot massage. The woman ended up being Chinese, and although she did a good job, I know I'm going to be needing another one when I'm back the Land of Smiles.

My stuffed "herpes" microbe hahaha

-Our agenda for the evening: Speed Dating! I know, right? I've never done it before, and never thought I'd do it in Budapest of all places, but it proved to be an interesting experience. As we expected, the women outnumbered the men, but the organizer made sure to space them out so that at no point would we have to sit out more than one rotation in a row. Each participant was given a number pin (like a prostitute) and a "scorecard" where they were to circle yes or no for each person they met. I intended to go into it with an open mind, but after the first guy circled 'no' right in front of me within the first 10 seconds of sitting down, I decided the only way to enjoy the night (without exceeding my two glasses of wine) was to make it a game for myself. knowing that I would receive mostly 'no's simply based on looking quite young and living in Thailand, I challenged myself to see how many conversations I could have without telling them my age or where I lived; the age wasn' too hard (most didn't ask), but it was a bit more tricky when they'd ask how long I'd been in Budapest. I found that if I answered "not long", "only a little while," or "I just arrived recently", and either directed the conversation back to his interests, commented on how difficult Hungarian is to learn, or said I was an English teacher and spoke vaguely of my students, they seemed satisfied with my response and didn't bring it up again. There were 3 that I actually enjoyed talking with (2 Hungarians, and 1 New Yorker), but most of the others were such a mish-mash of oddballs that I had no trouble seeing why they were single. We had a few good laughs about it on the way home.