After St Stephen's, we made our way to the Budapest Synagogue, which is the largest in Europe and the second largest in the world. Had some very knowledgeable tour guides and learned a lot, especially about the near annihilation of the Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust. There is a mass grave of Jews from the ghetto in the garden, as well as a tree monument where every leaf has the name of a murdered Hungarian Jew. The museum also had this as a focus. Very hea...

Toured the Pest side of Budapest today. Believe it or not, what we know as Budapest used to be two separate cities... Buda (on the west, hilly side of the Danube) and Pest (on the east, flat side). It's a beautiful city, one which has suffered grievously in the past. It continues to grow and expand toward the future while remembering its past. More locals speak English here than in any city we've visited so far. We made our way towards the river, stopping first...

Got into Budapest today. Took awhile finding our hostel since we were essentially trying to follow two different sets of directions... Did a 3 km loop before we found it. Once we'd found it, we went out for dinner at a little place and ordered what they call a meat platter... Basically, you get a big plate with rice and salad and a main feature of duck, chicken, beef and pork, along with a ton of wedges. Huge meal... Excellent and very cheap. After, we had a ...