On Friday December 7th I flew to Budapest Hungary looking for a new adventure. I had never been to Hungary before but I read so much about Budapest and its famous Christmas markets I decided to spend my last free weekend there. Budapest is about 1 hour 45 minute flight from Rome. I was somewhat shocked because the plane was totally filled and Alitalia has two flights every day to Budapest. As best as I could tell, the plane was predominantly Italian tourists heading to Budapest. In fact, I flew back with many familiar faces on Sunday. Many Italians had the same idea I had. A weekend holiday in Budapest.

Not sure how familiar everyone is with Budapest. It was formally two separate cities on the Danube River, Buda and Pest Hungary. Once a bridge was completed connecting the two cities, they decided to merge and become one city. There are large, expensive, and beautiful hotels on the river front: Four Seasons, Intercontinental, Sofitel, Marriot, ... etc. This is not where I stayed.

There are companies with regular or daily river boat dinner cruises on the Danube. The Danube is huge. I had never seen it before. The city is huge, but the city center like Rome is quite easy to see on foot. Budapest is also famous for its baths or spas. I did not get a chance to partake, another good reason to return. Besides the Christmas markets, I was there for the food, not the Turkish style baths.

The picture below are of the Budapest Opera house. One of the oldest great opera houses in Europe and only a 5 minute walk from my hotel.

I had checked online before I left regarding shows and tickets. All the performances for their Nutcracker were sold out, but they didn't have this scheduled the weekend I was there anyways. On Friday and Saturday evening they were going to have a performance of the opera La Boheme. I decided to check on tickets for the performance that evening. They had single seats open with obstructed views. And one seat open in the second row. I decided to buy the second row seat. Great decision.

Once I bought the ticket I decided to explore the area around the hotel more.Also within a five minute walk of the hotel was the Saint Stephen Basilica.

The most famous aspect of St. Stephen's is the the Holy Right Chapel. It contains the Holy Right (also known as the Holy Dexter), the mummified right hand of St Stephen and an object of great devotion. The area was cordoned off while I was there, so I didn't get a picture of the hand. Not sure if they would have let take one anyways. But I did get some great pictures from inside the church.

In the little square in front of the church there was a small Christmas market.

After St. Stephen's I decided to wander over by the river to get my bearings for my sight seeing on Saturday. The other side of the river is the city formerly known as Buda and it has some great old castles and views. These I planned to explore on Saturday. Here is a lttle preview.

Then back to the hotel to get dressed for the opera. Good thing I brought my suit with me. The only regret I have is that I forgot to take my camera to the opera. I have no pictures from the inside. You will have to take my word for it...it was GRAND.