March 15th is the Hungarian equivalent of 4th of July in the USA. It commemorates the Revolution of 1848 against the Hapsburg rulers of Austria. One of its leaders was Kossuth Lajos...which happens to the be name of our street here in Budapest. We decided to head down into the city and ride the funicular up Castle Hill for the first time:
We made it to the top of the hill to start our tour (courtesy of our Rick Steves Budapest book) and the skies opened up. And we had packed no umbrellas. So the plan went out the window. We popped into the Budapest History Museum for a while (a surprising amount of time for two damp children), ran past a fountain and a statue or two...and gave up. The rest of Castle Hill will have to await our return. On a day with much better weather!
Wet and waiting inside a bus stop shelter for Daddy to get the car.
As we waited, the gentleman in the middle of the picture began speaking to me in Hungarian. I smiled, but understood nothing. He pantomimed that he wanted the ?Golden Jesus? to be in the picture I was taking of the kids. I obliged, and he handed me a few Holy Cards. Another gentleman in the shelter handed me what I thought were a few coins. I thought perhaps he wanted me to give them to the statue-man as a tip. But no, they were Holy Medals. Not sure if this is a common thing, but they were really nice to us as we all stood there out of the rain.
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