Kerek egy negyed kiló kolbász!

This morning was our first shopping excursion in Central Market. The prices are very reasonable, so for a total of something like 1,000 forints ($6) we brought home a bundle of bananas, green grapes, nectarines, sandwhich salami, sausage, and sweet paprika, as well as a very tasty chocolate croissant for a snack while shopping. I contemplated getting a string of garlic and paprika too, but I'm not quite sure how they prepare the hot chilies.

We then found ourselves walking down the Vaci Utca (Vah-tsee Oot-sah) which was ever so beautiful in the sense that all things Hungarian had been concentrated into an alley of tourist-oriented shops. The crystal is beautiful, as well as the elaborate lacework on the napkins, tablecloths, and placemats.

For lunch, we ordered the infamous 22" pizza from Don Pepe's. It feeds between 4-6 people, and must have magnetic powers because everyone stared at us (even more so than before) as we were walking back to the flat to eat it. Here, a plain pizza is called a "Margherita" (culture difference #527) and the XXL size that we ordered only costs 3,100 forints ($17); it was really tasty!

After the sun had gone down, we made our way to Hero's Square, which is probably one of my favorite monuments in the city. It was built to commemorate the millenium celebration of Budapest, and honors the leaders of the Magyar tribes who were the founding fathers of the country. I love how it looks at night, the lighting is just fantastic. Because of the throngs of people wandering about, I thought this photo below would do it better justice.

This next picture was from the tour on Thursday- I was very moved by this building because it is a memorial to those who lost their lives in the destruction of the uprisings. The black spots on the walls are bullet holes and scars from the gunfire between the Soviets and the Hungarians in the 1956 uprising. Nearly all of the city looked like this building during those tumultous times.

This final picture was taken from the Palace and overlooks the Danube. Parliment is the beautiful building on the right, and there is no other way to describe its architecture as simply spectacular. Whomever designed our Capitol Hill really should have checked out Budapest first for some ideas! Ironically though, the building was completed in 1902, but did not house its first democratically elected goverment until 1989. Hungarians really had to fight tooth and nail to get the country back into their own hands.