Sunday street scene

I had taken rather a lot of photographs yesterday, and spent a fair while sorting through them after getting out of bed. I'd phoned the lads the night before we came over and asked them if there was anything they wanted us to bring over to them. Surprisingly, the only things they said they wanted were (a) the makings of a breakfast like they'd get back in Ireland, and (b) potato crisps (because they don't like the brands which are on sale in Hungary). I missed breakfast yesterday morning because of leaving the others still snoring while I went out exploring, but this morning I shared a moment of digging into a big feed of fried eggs, rashers, sausages and black and white pudding.

After that it was time to discuss what we might do for the rest of the day. It took a while, but finally Carl and I decided to go down to the city centre and walk around to see what shops might be open. Glorious weather made the experience very pleasurable, and we spent a few wonderful hours exploring little side streets and alleyways which were just a bit off the beaten track. I'd noticed the previous day that what had been pleasant spots to stop for food and rink in the open air back in May were no longer really suitable for that at this time of year -- the sun is lower in the sky and doesn't fall into the streets as much as it did then, so that a lot of the pavement chairs and tables are in shade. A positive side--effect of the way the sun falls at this time of year, though, is that it does all sorts of lovely things where it does shine. I spotted this scene as we wandered. It was the sunlit wall plants which caught my eye at first, but I was delighted when the elderly gentleman came along and added an extra touch of genuine Budapest atmosphere to the whole thing.

We found our way back to the lads' favourite bar where we met up with them, we went for a pleasant meal together, we went back to the bar to end the night, then it was back home for chat until the early hours -- yet again!