I'm going to say it, Eliza and I are horrible travel partners. As we were making our way to the marketplace with Kieran, Dave and Bekah, the two of us would constantly get distracted. So much that in the end we lost the Brits and never made it into the marketplace anyway. But at least what we saw on the way was enriching.
On our first detour, we walked past the faculty of humanities and philosophy, an old building with large wooden doors and painted frescoes in the interior. Students our age were walking in and out so our entering was of no suspicion to anyone. We completely blended in if it wasn't for my whipping out the camera to get a shot of the library they beautifully designed in the patio.
Our second stop was at the national museum. At this point we gave up the idea of getting to the marketplace and got student tickets to discover the history of Budapest instead. Many moustached men and a piano interlude later and I left with a changed perspective on Hungary.
The third accident happened in the beautiful 5th district where we came across a woman s club and library, then a flea market where the history we learned from the museum was put to use. They had memorabilia from Nazi as well as communist Hungary. To Eliza and I, born in 1991 and 1992, such history hadn't felt real, until that point where we were staring at cross pins and binoculars engraved with "Made in the U.S.S.R". We realised just how real this history is. We were holding their remnants in our hands.
It was very fitting that we then made our way to the opera to watch Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Figaro. We somehow managed to resist further distractions to sit among finely dressed couples and tourists alike surrounded by that explosion of gold and colour so common to Budapest. The voices of the cast left Eliza and me speechless. We walked out into a glittering Budapest, dazed and in love with the city.
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