Hi Gram!
I woke up in a better mood today. This room, despite being poorly furnished and small, had 2 redeeming qualities. It was very dark and very quiet! I got up, did my usual puzzles, stairs, and breakfast, then went for a walk. The city was beautiful so early in the morning. There was almost nobody else out and walking around. The sun was rising, but hadn’t peeked above the buildings yet. The city was quiet.

I got a few good photos of buildings and statues, then finished my walk and headed back to the apartment to finish my puzzles and some life admin tasks before heading to the walking tour. I realized that I was low on cash but wanted to be sure I could tip the tour guide, so I searched for an ATM. There’s a network of ATM’s in Europe called Euronet. They’re mostly in tourist areas and they scam people out of money. There have been multiple exposés about their predatory practices, so I knew to search for one that they didn’t own. It was a little harder than I would have liked, but I found one a few blocks away. Unfortunately, it only dispensed money in Hungarian Forint, the local currency, not Euros. Also, the minimum was 60,000 HUF which was around $200. I pulled that amount, knowing that I would have to exchange the majority of it tomorrow before I left.

The tour started on time, led by Fortuna who was an energetic and informative guide. We walked all over town, learned a lot, and saw some great sites. After the tour, Fortuna suggested a nearby restaurant that I tried for lunch. The food was delicious. The waiter was rude, the prices were high, and they added a mandatory service charge, so I’ll never go there again! lol

I headed back to the apartment after that for some rest. In the evening, I walked over to the Buda side of the river for an evening siteseeing river cruise. We got to see buildings and bridges all lit up, hear their histories, and enjoy a cool enjoyable evening. The cruise lasted around an hour, then I walked back to the apartment. I called my mom along the way and caught up on family stuff, then headed to bed shortly after I got back.