Thurs, July 31: St. Stephen's, New York Cafe, Arzibeth

We finally went to see St. Stephen's basilica, one of Budapest's main attractions. We had heard some Spanish ladies at the opera house talking about how it was beautiful, but not (it) Spain beautiful. They were probably right, but it was awesome. They had a relic of St. Stephen's hand in one of the chapels. We also climbed up the tower to get an awesome view of Budapest.

We had to (had to) stop at Zara because father's shoes were completely destroyed and he finally agreed to let us buy him new ones. We stopped at a little chocolate stand and bought some marzipan covered in chocolate.

From there we walked to the New York Cafe, a magnificent cafe operating out of a hotel. It was incredibly expensive but totally deluxe. I had an ice cream cup bigger (and more expensive!) than any ice cream id ever had before. It was mainly tourists so we didn't feel too embarrassed taking pictures. Before heading home we walked through the Jewish Ghetto, in an area called Arzibeth. We planned to go back tomorrow to the area and look at it with more detail. We went to dinner at an older restaurant called Cafe Bouchon. It was supposed to have French influence but was much more Hungarian than anything else (most of the restaurants here insist on incorporating Hungarian cuisine in one way or another, even if they call themselves some other cuisine). Jack and I had amazing duck breast, different but as good as the one at the Russian restaurant. We were walking home through some streets when I noticed something peeking out of the window of an abandoned building. A little white kitten was sticking it's head out. It was the cutest thing we had ever seen, and we tried for the next half hour to coax it out of its window. 

We gave up eventually, realizing that we wouldn't be able to help it even if it came out. Goodnight buda, goodnight pest! (We are staying on the pest side of the river by the way, and did I mention that they were joined into one city in 1873??)