A very Merry President's Day

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Yesterday was by far one of the best Mondays I have ever had, especially considering school was in session. As I mentioned in an earlier post I only have Classical Algebra on Mondays, and it only lasts for another week and a half. I share this glorious happenstance with Ranjan, Lydia, and Kylee so naturally we needed to make the most of our free morning yesterday. We decided to go visit the Hungarian Parliament which is one of the most beautiful buildings in Europe. First however we opted to have brunch at a nearby crepe place. This was delicious!! They had a whole bunch of different varieties all at really good prices, so naturally I had to have 3. I started out with chestnut cream and apple walnut and finished off with a spinach crepe. Despite the fact that the spinach had been processed down to a green ooze it was still good, though nothing on the apple walnut my personal favorite. We're certainly going there again and I recommend you do to! (its right by the top of the Batthyány tér stop on the M2)

After crepes the we headed over to parliament only to be stymied by the following sign:
Though this certainly threw a wrench in our plans we persevered. And after snapping a couple of pictures we decided to wander over to Szent István-bazilika (St. Stephen's Basilica).As I have yet to find the correct camera settings for photographing the inside of churches all my pictures fail to do St. István's justice, but trust me it was spectacular. Once you walk inside everything is covered ornate detail work, barely an inch lacked some form of sculpture, or painting. In the back of the basilica they even have the holy right hand, which is exactly what it sounds like, the nearly 1000 year old hand of St. István himself. I admit the idea seemed a little creepy at first, but I was impressed that something so fragile was preserved for so long.

After the Basilica we made our way back to Bethen Gabor for Classical algebra. Naturally I though that would be the end of my president's day celebrations, but Budapest had one last surprise in store. As I was getting ready for bed I heard some distant booms, now I live right above a bus stop and down the street from construction of the new Metro 4 so I wasn't really perturbed. It wasn't until I turned out the lights and noted that the next boom was accompanied by a greenish glow that I actually looked outside. Sure enough there were fireworks! Since my flat is on the 4th floor I had a pretty good view and caught the last bit of the show. I have no idea what they were actually celebrating but hey President's day is as good a reason as any for fireworks in Budapest.

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