July 3, 2009

Today started off with a latte macchiato (which Mom called a caffe mochino?!), some Hungarian poppy roll, and a trip over to Parliament. We had just missed the tour, so we decided to come back later. Instead, we walked over to St. Stephen's Basilica, Hungary's largest cathedral. It was beautiful, and full of pink and green marble, statues, and gold everywhere. They said it took about 250 years to build! After that, we stopped for some sandwiches. We got this really good wrap that I want to recreate. We headed back to Parliament just in time for the English tour. However, to get in to buy tickets, you must stand outside a gate where a guard will let each group in, one by one. We missed the English, so instead, we decided to go on the Spanish/Italian tour! :) It was kind of a bummer that we couldn't hear about it, but hey, at least we got to see it! After that fun adventure, we went back to the apartment to change...The aunts, Logan, and Annie went to one of Kelly's friend's houses for dinner. Mom and I wanted to get to bed earlier, so we stayed behind and packed. We had heard about an organ concert over at St. Stephen's, so we decided to chick it out. Before, we went to a really nice meal that was quite reasonably priced for what we got.The waiter recommended a great wine for us, and we shared a Hungarian duck leg with cabbage, and chicken with gnocchi! For dessert, we had this French toast thing with cinnamon apples and ice cream! Yum!! The concert was phenomenal. Besides the organist, there was a trumpeter, a violinist, a soprano, and a tenor. They sang some classics (I knew a lot of them from my high school choir!) and a few others. Our favorite was one where the trumpet and violin played together. I can't describe how cool it was, especially with the acoustics of that church! The others had a great time too with all of Kelly's friends. A great last night in Budapest!