Budapest Day 2 : March 15th Square

Michael and I got our act together and headed out around 11:00. The weather forecast proved accurate, and we were greeted with bright sunshine and temperatures in the high 20's. M+D's apartment couldn't be better situated, close to the Elizabeth Bridge on the Danube waterfront, so it didn't take long before we were in the heart of the city. CLose to home, we passed through March 15th Square, which had been given a major facelift since the last time I was here four years ago and looks really good now. I don't remember if the sculptural piece which forms the centrepiece was there before or not, but it's an impressive piece of work (just a tiny piece of it shows in the blip), as is the church behind, which only had its scaffolding taken down last week after years of painstaking renovation work ('especially for your visit', Michael told me, and naturally I believed him).

The only items on my agenda for today were to pick up my ticket for tomorrow night's concert and perhaps to check out the actual location of the hall so I'd know in advance exactly where to go. Michael guided me to the street where the Hungarian equivalent of Ticketmaster have their office, and left me to my own devices at that stage, feeling a bit unwell after last night's adventure. I picked up my ticket and went exploring, to a large extent re-tracing my steps from four years ago. I'd got myself a three-day pass, so was free to take full advantage of the city's wonderful transport system, but even so I did a lot of walking (though I did also manage to fit in several pit stops for food and drink).

The sun was going down behind the Buda hill by the time I got to the Palace of Arts where the concert hall is, but still it was wonderfully warm and I spent quite a while around that general area, all of which was new territory to me. After a little bit of a lie-down, David and I went out for a bit of grocery shopping when I got back to the apartment, after which he and I went out for a meal in a nearby Greek restaurant, which was really, really good. I needed to catch up on sleep after that, and was in bed much earlier than last night.