Just after lunch on day 14 we excitedly joined our ever-obliging young tour guide, Valerie, for the very last info-walk of our Viking holiday. We were going to stroll through the main shopping precinct in Budapest, which is on the flat “Pest” bank of the Danube.

For D.B. and I this was going to be a rather important afternoon stroll, as we took in the various landmarks of the main commercial areas and hastily acquainted ourselves with the new city.

D.B. and I considered ourselves rather lucky, for we still had a further 5 full days ahead of us in which to explore this beautiful city of Budapest, before flying out towards the end of the week. These last two info tours on Day 14 (both the a.m. and p.m. tours) would later prove most beneficial in helping us to identify, and also prioritise, the important areas we would like to return to in the coming days.

We found the city streets were absolutely bustling. There were little cafes and souvenir shops selling many different traditional Hungarian products and handicrafts. There were many western chain hotels and charming little alfresco establishments. One of my favourite shops in Budapest was a smallish store that sold the most exquisite coloured-crystal glassware. Had I lived closer to Budapest I may well have been tempted to buy some of it. Well maybe just one piece…..as it was quite expensive.

As we explored the main street we saw several pretty young girls dressed in beautifully embroidered Hungarian folk costumes.

There were also several interesting street performers eking out a living by performing for tourists on Budapest’s streets. All of it of this was of course just wonderful to photograph.

One of the street performers was dressed in a fine silvery witch’s costume. In fact she was painted silver from head to toe and accompanied by a rather fine looking silver cat which also played a part. The witch was particularly intriguing, as she had meticulously refined her rather bewitching characterture. She could really be quite eerie…no make that quite scary to watch.

One young fellow was trying very hard to encourage his anxious girlfriend to have her photo taken with the wicked old witch but it all seemed more than the young girl could handle….she was just so absolutely terrified by this scary old witch’s persona and her sinister witching movements! The young girl would invariably take two or three steps towards the old witch and then run…obviously terrified back in the direction of her boyfriend. I myself even thought I could hear witch’s gleeful cackle as the young girl ran!

I’m still not sure whether they actually ended up getting that photo or not as our group was again moving on.  And you know…..by now this rather sweet but “not so young” Viking River Tourist wasn’t taking any chances of getting lost or even separated from her group again. For more on that story you might like to read my story on Lost in Regensberg!

She now always made sure she dutifully followed her Viking River Cruise tour guide! After all she’d already learnt her own scary lesson when she’d got lost in Regensberg just a few short info-walks ago!

Related articles

• My love for Budapest (alexamazza.wordpress.com)
• Budapest, Hungary (coeycoo.wordpress.com)
• Budapest: 5 things I’m looking forward to (ournextsunrise.wordpress.com)
• Day 14 – Budapest; A City to Watch in the 21st Century. (kidazzleink.com)