After our tour of Pest and Buda, we had a relaxing dinner in a nice little garden restaurant a short stroll from our hotel.
There is an interesting little anecdote about the menu. It was in Dutch, English and Russian. I asked the waiter, "Why Russian? Why not French or Italian or Spanish?" He replied that English is an international language in Europe. When he travels to France or Italy, he converses with them in English. When they come to Hungary, they can read an English menu. But the Russians only speak Russian. Russian tourists are increasing in numbers, so the restaurant is prepared for them with a menu in their language.
Our last event in Budapest was a river tour. It took us up and down the river for a daytime view of those magnificent buildings and bridges.
Above and below is the green bridge. This area is where we stayed. Above on the left are the buildings housing the pharmacy and our hotel. On the right of the bridge is the Main Market. Below on the left where those two river boats are berthed is where our river boat originally tied up upon our arrival.
Remember all of my talk about how the heavy rains and how the rivers were flooding. Wow! Just kidding. This is a novel tourist ride up and down the river, a floating bus! Now that was an eye catcher!
Back ashore for an appropriate ending to our trip. Relaxing at a sidewalk cafe is always a good thing to do.
A final little note about currency and its challenges. The Euro is the currency of all the countries we visited except Hungary. The currency in Hungary is the Forint, or HUF. The Euro is accepted in most places in Hungary, but the HUF is preferred if you have it. The exchange rate is roughly 300 HUF to one Euro, so one has to make an attitude adjustment to comprehend how much something really costs.
We both had to see the doctor in Budapest. The Maria Theresa staff made the arrangements and the doctor made a "boat call" to see us. A wee bit expensive with the total bill around $400.00. It was a bit unnerving signing a credit card charge for over 120,000!
The other challenge towards the end of the trip is to try and pace yourself so you don't wind up with a bunch of left-over local currency, in this case the HUF. There are not too many places you can spend the HUF. So, as our final day of touring dawned, I carefully calculated what we would need for meals and tip for our driver taking us to the airport the next day. Off to the ATM located in the little plaza close to our hotel.
On the way to our boat tour of Budapest we walked down that pedestrian street where all of those shops were located. First shop. "Oh what lovely souvenirs." Souvenirs. purchased.
Recalculating.
Back to the ATM.
Three trips to the ATM that final day! Ah, the challenges of international travel.
But such an enjoyable time.