We started off our morning with going to doing a general walking tour! Lucky for us it was the same tour guide that we adored from the communist tour we did a few days before. Yet this time it was even better since there was no rain just lovely sunshine. We mainly toured the main sites that Andrea and I have seen the last few days, but it was fantastic to get some more insight on what we’ve seen! We passed through both side of the whole city. Lets just say that we were a little tired afterwards so we went back to the hostel to freshen up and have some lunch before heading out again.
Today there is a parade for the ?!?!? Festival. We hit the streets with John and Paul in search of the parade. It was easy to spot by the marching band lining up along the river. As the parade began we all began to march along side then. We had Canadian flags on tote on our belongings to it was as if we were proudly presenting Canada in the festivities :) Each costume from every country was so elaborate, detailed and looke way too warm for this heat! Most of the counter that partook in the festival were from Central and Eastern Europe and you can’t forget China either! The parade snaked through the streets all to meet at the city square.
Within a few minutes cultural dancing began. Each of the rare step countries performed a traditional dance routine and some countries even had live music and singing accompany the dances. Even for these countries being is such close proximity to one another their dancing was so diverse. All the routines were so well polished it was really impressive for just a recreational level of performance. After a long wait for the little Chinese girls to perform their acrobatic routine we went to go and grab a bite for dinner
The four of us then decided to go out to a ruin bar. Instead of not using the underground cellars bars and clubs had renovated then for their use. We went to szimpla kert. It was the first ruin bar in Budapest and it had super interesting furnishings. There were lamp chandeliers, driftwood table tops, old cars renovated to be seats and other insane creations. We went to watch a band playing in one of the back rooms and when they invited the audience to join them Paul went up and killed it with them! By the time he finished that the the room was packed. Afterwards we headed out to go to the middle of Elizabeth park where the everyone goes to drink for heading in. When I say everyone I literally mean it all the benches and grass in filled with people, so much so that people were sitting on the pavement. In the middle of the square there is a pool, but actually it is the roof for the club. Sadly when we went to check it out there was no one in the park unlike other evenings and the club was closed. So we settled on all walking back to our hostel along the river and having and resting up, but not before singing along the streets! We were a rocking quartet!