Budapest on Sunday

April 20, 2008

This hotel charges 14€ (about $20) for breakfast, so we bought cereal, yogurt, oranges and bananas last night, and had breakfast at John and Linda’s kitchen table.

Took the subway and a walk uphill to Buda Castle. We attended Mass at St. Matthias Church on Castle Hill – Latin high Mass, with 10 young male altar servers –Mass in Latin, readings and homily in Hungarian, incense, holy water, fabulous choir; the outside church bells started ringing during the consecration; after Mass the choir sang an amazing “Alleluia” with a huge round of applause at the end. Parts of the church go back to the 1400s, but it was basically “redone” 150 years ago, and every square inch of wall, ceiling and pillar is painted with frescoes or painted decoration with beautiful stained glass in the windows. The church is undergoing a 20 million euro renovation. Outside, the weather had turned sunny and warm, allowing us to stroll around the Fisherman’s Bastion, with views across the Danube to the Hungarian Parliament Building and St. Stephen’s Cathedral in the distance.

Running out of battery, more later….