Update from Budapest

What a fascinating ciy! Yesterday we spent 11hours out and about, 10 of it walking. We took two of the free walking tours. The first was 3 hrs seeing some of the main sights and learning about Hungary's history and culture. Afterward we joined the guides at the worker's canteen for lunch. It was cheap, and totally Soviet era from the completely bare,utilitarian lunch line to the lunch ladies in white uniforms and scowls. Side dishes of pickles (whole plate of them for 15 cents). We then hurried back to the square and went on the free communist tour. Really terrific guide, a young woman who was 17 at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Learned about how Hungary survived that era, saw the bullet holes in the walls of apt buildings from the 1956 uprising, saw the statues, most of which were hauled away from the city to a "memento park". Except for the memorial to Soviet soldiers, right in front of the Am. embassy. In response, America put up a bronze statue of Ronald Reagan, just recently! Off to see the House of Terror, a museum where the Nazis imprisoned and tortured people and then the Communists took it over and did the same. Then some healing time in the thermal pools.