The best part of being in a time zone ahead of almost
everyone else in the family, is that I woke up to a whatsapp inbox full of
birthday greetings, and a call from my mother. Since it was still only 7.30 am
for me in Budapest, I had time to speak to many friends and family members
before setting out for the day. Thanks to some confusion over the location of
the meeting point, we missed the walking tour (thankfully a free one so didn’t
lose any money over that), but then had a wonderful time walking around the
city centre. The whole area was really festive thanks to the Spring Festival
being celebrated all over the city, and we wandered past some wonderful shops
selling locally made handicrafts – wooden puppets, ceramic dolls dressed up in
local folk costumes, embroidered pot pourri bags, handmade soaps and incense
holders etc.
Like kids, Ravi and I went up the Budapest eye and got a
bird’s eye-view of Budapest, then spent some very interesting time at a post
office while posting postcards to Charu and Shashank/Supriya. The very chatty
attendant told me all about her passion for Space Astronauts and how she
followed some of them on Twitter. A long walk, interspersed by walks in and out
of interesting stores, brought us to Govinda – an ISKCON centre which had tasty
Indian vegetarian cuisine thankfully. We
then headed back for a peaceful warm afternoon, avoiding the drizzle and the
cold that threatened to freeze me.
In the evening, we set out with absolutely no plans. This
surely is the best way to experience life in a strange city – we ended up
seeing the glorious Matthias Cathedral, by catching a Metro across the river
and a Castle Bus to go right back across the river! The first thing we did was
to duck into a Starbucks as it was drizzling and freezing when we got off the
bus. By the time we emerged, with warm (no one here really seems to serve
anything hot) chocolate inside us, the lights were on all over. Budapest is beautiful when the imposing
monuments on both sides of the river are lit up – everything glows with a warm
golden sheen.
A walk along the river brought us past the ‘Shoes by the
Danube’ – a really sobering end to a happy day, and I was glad to walk home
with Ravi in silence. 
