Right Hand Man

We were awoken at quarter to 8 by our aussie friends who were packing to leave. We got up and ready, and found a bakery to grab breakfast, as our hostel claimed to provide it, but they LIED!
We werent too sure where to go, as none of the museums open until 10 and it was only quarter after 9. So we strolled up the Danube River (this river runs through the middle of the city and divides it into Buda and Pest), marvelling at the Hungarian Parliament Building on our way to Margaret Island. The island is a beautiful park with monuments, fountains, church ruins, and a Japanese garden.
We enjoyed the scenery for a while before heading to the Ethnography Museum. This museum wins the award for being the strangest, scariest, most awkward, and confusing museum on our whole journey. There were no signs telling us where to go (which, in this building, is pretty essential) and the stuff on exhibit was mostly creepy and weird. None of it was in English either, so even if we wanted to understand it, we couldnt. The architecture of the building was the best part.
After running (almost literally) out of that museum, we headed for St. Stephens Basilica, home of St. Stephens right hand....no, for reals! His mummified right hand is in this place. Interesting...There seems to be a bias towards St. Stephen with all the churches we have been to in his name. He must have been one popular dude.
We were going to head to the Opera House, but the only way to see the inside is by guided tour at 3 and 4 o clock daily and it was only 1. Instead, we headed down Váci Utca, the pedestrianized main shopping street in Buda. We grabbed some Hungarian food on this street, then walked past the University and over the Liberty Bridge to the Gellert Hotel, where we peeked in at the hotel lobby, which is supposed to be breathtaking. It was nice, but not breathtaking - not to our standards anyway.
Then we hiked up Gellert Hill, stopping and riding down some super awesome fantastic slides (Jarrah might call this place Heaven). We went into a cave church that was built into the side of the hill, and was almost as creepy as the Ethnography Museum.
We kept hiking up this giant hill, but not qite high enough to reach the Citadel, as we were admittedly out of breath. The view of the city was beautiful from way up there, even with the somewhat gloomy day.
We champed back down the hill, passng the Gellert Monument on the way. Then we walked across the Elisabeth Bridge and headed to the supermarket for a few essentials before landing back at the hostel where we made dinner and watched a movie (Sam - we watched "The Terminal"). We made friends with an aussie guy, who never introduced himself formally, so we dont know his name. ha! He is a member of couchsurfing too. We went to a bar with him and chatted it up about our travels and experiences and home towns. When we got back to the hostel, somehow politics came up (as it has pretty much everywhere on our trip, because everyone wants to know how us Americans are going to vote, and how it is an atrocity that not everyone in the US votes - as it is the worlds most important election. Its always the same conversation) so we talked about that for a while, then headed to bed.