A rainy St. Patrick's Day

It's raining. What a nice excuse to slow down a little. It started out lightly raining this morning, and then really caught steam about the time we were out and about.

Because it was a rainy day, we decided to explore public transportation today. We started by riding the metro to the train station. We needed to research train options for getting to Prague anyway. Observation 1: Hungarians like order. You must take a ticket. They will call you when your number comes up. This was true at the bank. And it was true at the train station.

Observation 2: Despite being part of the European Union, no one here wants to accept Euros. We arrived on Tuesday night all ready with our Euros -- and went to the local bakery to buy bread. Of course the Euros were in $50 notes straight out of the ATM. So first of all -- 50 Euros is a lot of money here. It's the equivalent of 13,689.636 HUF (Hungarian Forints). The bread we wanted to buy cost somewhere around 120 HUF. You can imagine the look on the shopkeeper (she spoke no English) 's face. We tried to signal to her that we would try and come back later with different money. We went next  to the 24 hour convenience store across the street to buy milk and laundry detergent. Nope. But they accepted VISA cards. But it was clear to us that we were not going to be able to maneuver around town until we got some Forints.

And even when we got to an ATM that had cash in it (the first one didn't), they gave us 5,000 and 10,000 notes. So we went into a bank to break the bills. And learned about observation 1. They do try to sort out what you want before giving you a number. With our language limitations, we just hoped we had communicated what we wanted.

So anyway. We bought tickets to Prague today. 5,225 HUF per person. That's about $26.75 per person for a 7 hour train ride. While at the station we met an American who had been in Prague on Tuesday, went skiing in Slovakia on Wednesday, was going to spend today in Budapest, and then ride the train back to Prague tomorrow. Made me tired just thinking about it all. We gave him our map to help him get oriented, then headed on to explore more public transportation.

I was proud to find the elusive New York Kavehas. It is in another old classic hotel and has the most amazing painted ceilings. We decided not to have a $10 cup of coffee. Looking was enough. Then we caught the tram back to the Danube and transferred to another tram to the Great Market Hall.

Here we had lunch like the locals. I had a casserole dish made of cabbage, rice, meat and cheese topped by sour cream. Jan had stuffed paprika (peppers). We shared a roll with chocolate filling and drinks. The whole meal cost about $10. We stood while eating and people squeezed by us as they shopped. We shared a table with a French magician named Tom. We told him that we had given our map to a new traveler. He was leaving in a few hours and so passed his (much better) map on to us. Pay it forward.

We bought some nice lacework before leaving the market. It was pouring when we left, so we ran across the street to a coffee house with awnings. We sat in as drip free a zone as we could find and enjoyed capuccinos with a lovely view of the Liberty bridge. At the table next to us, a very handsome Turkish man was flirting with a beautiful Slovakian woman. All very cosmopolitan-feeling.

When it became clear that the rain was not going to ease, we jumped on a tram and headed for the Great Synagogue. I was chilled to the bone at this point. (Foolishly -- I had neither a hood nor an umbrella to go with my very practical raincoat.) So I didn't take the time I would have to understand all that I saw. The synagogue is the largest in Europe, and next to the site of the Budapest Jewish Ghetto, where thousands of people died of starvation during World War II. There is a small graveyard only for the people who died there; many of whom were unidentifiable. There is a sculpture in the courtyard  of a weeping willow. The leaves hold the names of people lost to the holocaust -- many at Auschwitz.

We went back to our apartment after this to get warm, dry and rested. And to finalize our arrangements for Prague. Wow. It's all going so fast.

We went back to Liszt Ferenc Square for dinner; still in the rain. On the way back we did find an umbrella for me. (Jan's rain coat does have a hood.) We were back in our apartment and snug in bed early -- with no celebration whatsoever of St. Patrick's Day. It was a nice day.