Budapest

Our day started with the Central Market Hall where we picked up a light breakfast. The Great hall is a massive warehouse with hundreds of tiny stalls with each vendor selling their own goods. The first floor consisted of a lot of meat shops selling dried meat and sliced sandwich meat. There were many shops selling paprika and had paprika souvenirs which really made me question the Hungarian fascination with the spice. The notoriety of paprika dates back to when the Turkish closed essential trade routes and Hungary had to find a new spice to replace pepper that was also cheaper. Unlike the Spanish paprika, it is not smoked but since the 18th century it has become more and more popular. From the market hall we picked up a few pastries for breakfast as we headed out for a little hike.

Gellert Hill Cave is a little cave church that sits on the ascent to the Citadella. We went in and took a short guided tour to see the tiny church tucked away in a cave. The church is still active with daily services.

From the cave church we continued our hike to the Gellert Hill Vista Point. From there we had panoramic views of both sides of the river. I always love a good view and thought it was cool how high up we had climbed. At the top of the hill is the Citadella and lady liberty statue. We climbed all the way up only to discover the whole place was under construction. Still worth it for the views though.

Our tour of the Hungarian State Opera House was booked for 1:30pm. I have tried to visit so many of the big opera houses from Paris Garnier to La Scalla in Milan and every time the tickets are either sold out or there is a rehearsal happening onstage so you can't view the auditorium. Today was my lucky day as there was supposed to be a rehearsal on the stage of the Hungarian State Opera House but it was canceled since they were having malfunctions with the fire curtain.

I absolutely loved the opera tour and cannot recommend it enough! Even Holly turned to me at some point and said she was having so much fun despite not having a music background.

The auditorium of the opera house was absolutely stunning! I don't have enough words to describe how strikingly beautiful it was. It was built in a circular shape with an orchestra level and box level seats above. The two main colors are red, green, and white (gold) which are the colors of the Hungarian flag. There was so much gold ornamentation everywhere! Directly across from center stage is a fancier box seat which was reserved for the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph who funded the construction of the opera house. Today, the box is still reserved for high profile individuals and a couple years ago Queen Elizabeth II came to watch a performance.

The Hungarian State Opera House was built in 1884 and initially there was no electricity in the area so the giant chandelier used illuminating gas that they had to make sure did not torch the beautiful paintings on the ceiling of the opera house. The ceiling of the opera house was painted by someone who spent 5 years of his life lying under it. The scene depicts many Greek gods and somewhere snuck in there is a self portrait of the painter himself.

The initial funding for the opera house came from the state but when they ran out of money they asked Emperor Franz Joseph to fund it. His one condition was that it could not be as large as the one in Vienna. He did not say it could not be as fancy and rumor has it he was pissed when he saw how ornate it was and did not return for two years. The opera house has been under reconstruction for the last 5 years and just reopened in March last year. Therefore everything was looking very new and shiny.

In addition to the main auditorium, we saw several rooms that were not open to the public during performances. This included the minister's room and several others that were filled with beautiful paintings and gold leaf ornamentation. There was even a special entrance that had been built specifically for the emperor Franz Joseph that is today only used for high profile guests and big name singers who visit.

You cannot miss the grand stairwell. The staircase is modeled after the Paris Garnier Opera house which I only know through the photos. It was so grand and royal! I would totally take my wedding photos there.

To top off our visit to the opera house we were presented with a little live performance! Two singers performed a scene from the Marriage of Figaro. The opera nerd in me was fangirling so hard! It made me so happy to be in the opera house and learn about all the composers who had graced the hall and the history of the building. Our visit was truly special.

Holly and I were both in such good moods following our opera tour we stopped at a gelato place I had read about in someone's blog. The gelato place called Gelarto Rossa was famous for serving gelato in a rose shape. Not only was the gelato so aesthetic but it was also good! I ordered pistachio and rose flavored gelato. Rose is my favorite flavor and it was my first time having rose flavored gelato. I gave it 5 stars.

St. Stephen's Cathedral was right outside the gelato place so we bought tickets to go inside and climb the tower. St. Stephen was the first King of Hungary and I really questioned how a King became a saint. He is praised for "christianizing" all of Hungary (though the means are unclear) hence why the pope granted him saint status. The cathedral was spectacular! It was so fancy inside. One peculiarity is that behind the altar instead of Jesus on the cross, there is a statue of St. Stephen.

We didn't actually climb the tower since there was an elevator option which we happily took. The views from the top were nice. Not as good as the views from our morning hike but we were now directly opposite the point we hiked to and could see it clearly.

In the afternoon we realized that it was probably too late to visit Buda Castle so we decided to go back to our favorite place - the opera house! The tour guide earlier in the day had informed us that standing room tickets were released the day of and were only 4 euros. We took the offer and before we knew it we were back at the opera house for a ballet.

The ballet we saw was Pigmalian which is the play that My Fair Lady was based off of. Instead of learning to speak though, the main character is creating a new life for herself as a dancer. The ballet was more modern than I expected but it was fun to be able to see a live show in the opera house.