More Travels With No Shoes: Luminary, Danube River - the Donkey who thought he could

It's a drizzly morning here in Budapest. It's also a public holiday and most of the town is closed. We are doing an optional excursion to the Hungarian Puszta Farm. Very happy to do that as we will the chance to get out and see a bit of countryside and see some horses.

First, though, a couple of photos from last night's walk along Vaci Utca (Street)... I forgot to put them in and I don't want to redo it as the blog has developed a nasty habit of deleting everything if I try - I have had to redo three days already - not fun when it's late at night and the whole thing disappears!

We want to see St Stephen's Basilica (ABC), this is one of the most important churches in Budapest, so off we set, with borrowed umbrella again.

Next to see, Andrassey Street and the Opera House.

And this is an early morning on a rainy national holiday tourist...or me...

Then it really is time for another coffee and we feel we have to return to Gerbrauds. The waitress brings us a menu and opens it to breakfast. We turn it to the pastries and order - strawberry and cream and macaroons for Alison, raspberry, lime, mango thing for me. She does say, "For breakfast?" When we order. We say, "Yes." Just bring it already...! Look at it!

Then back to the hotel to wait for our day trip to begin. There's a group of 45 heading off - not sure what everyone else is up to, there isn't much open in town! We hop on to the bus and out into the Hungarian country. It's a 30-minute drive to Lázár Park.

We drive past Parliament House and Rita, our guide, asks who offered to buy it for a home. The answer first given was Trump, but no, it was in fact Freddie Mercury, the lead singer from Queen. Apparently he wasn't serious, just wanted to see their faces...

Hungary has a 1,000-year history, with most of it war time, only some of it is peacetime.

There was communist rule here for 45 years, in the '50s to '70s and we pass some apartments built during that time. They are not liked by anyone and they have tried painting them and decorating them but they think they just look like Lego houses. And as Rita says, a pig with lipstick on is still just a pig.

Even through rain they don't look good...

During this time, people couldn't own Western cars, only Eastern ones, like the Skoda. After communist rule ended, they could own Western cars - they might live in a one-bedroom communist flat but they could drive a Mercedes...

Pest is cheaper to live in than Buda - an apartment could cost €300 a month whereas the same place could cost €600 in Buda, and the average wage is only €500 a month!

The population of Budapest is 2 million - 1.5 million in Pest, the other 500,000 in Buda. University education can be free if you get good grades, if not, you have to pay. You can get a scholarship type thing if you sign a contract to say you will stay on Budapest after graduation.

The public holiday today is for the revolution of 1956 where the most blood was shed and there was a massive revolution, all protesting soviet rule. A lot of people were killed and a heap more were injured. And around 200,000 people left Hungary, which devastated the country.

Hungary lost land during the two world wars and Rita gave the example of a person who was Hungarian, then went to Austria, then Slovakia, then Hungary and other countries all without moving at all. (Those countries aren't quite right but the gist is there).

Also their flag is red, white and green - red for power, white for fidelity and green for hope. And they fly everywhere.

Rita gives us some Hungarian words, the Hungarian is renowned as one of the most difficult languages to learn, with Chinese. There are 44 letters. The easiest word is szia, pronounced see ya, and is used for hello, goodbye - like the Hawaiian aloha.

She also tells us of the famous Hungarians - the Gabor sisters, Zsa Zsa, Eva and Magda. Bernard Schwartz, better known as Tony Curtis, Peter Falk, Houdini and Mr Rubik - the guy who invented the Rubik's cube.

Some random shots on the way, in the rain...

We come to the town of Gödöllä, also known as Sissi. Sissi married Emporer Franz Joseph and was thought to be the most beautiful queen. Franz Joseph and Sissi came to Gödöllä and she loved it. She asked him to buy her the Castle, he said he couldn't afford it but they were gifted the town and the castle for a wedding present. Sissi was very popular - there is one of everything named after her here - street, school, etc, etc. You can sort of see the castle from the bus...

Our destination is the Lázár horse yards. Apparently the Lázár family is huge in the horse business, these guys can't go to regular places to train as they are recognised by paparazzi and hassled. They are multi-award winning chariot race trainers and have won over 20 world titles.

On arrival, we are given a shot of pálinka, which is like a schnapps, and a pogdcsa scone - both delicious. The pálinka warms...

Then down to the stables for a look.

Then into a trophy type room where they show us a video of how the chariot racing works. It's like dressage but with a carriage and is quite amazing to watch - three sections, all very difficult. There are some sections where they have to get the carriage between two close markers with balls on and if they drop a ball, they lose points.

They have a small amount of their trophies in here, plus a racing carriage and uniform.

Next, it is into the new arena for the show. While we are waiting, just next to us is one of the entry points to the arena and we notice one of the famous brothers there, watching. They showed them in the video, otherwise we wouldn't have recognised him!

The show began with four of the standard black beautiful horses and the carriage and also a small carriage with the tiny white horses - they were not interested in working today!

Next was an archer who demonstrated the sneaky Hungarian method of being able to stand in the saddle and fire arrows - he was a good shot too! Unlike Alison, who was not a good shot with the camera!

This was followed by three guys on horseback, showing how good these horses are - they lay down (apparently they used to use the horses to shield them during battle), they can sit like dogs, and all the while the men are cracking whips around their heads!

The three guys - one on the left is without saddle or stirrups! - then did a challenge gallop, all holding steins of beer. Apparently it was like a manhood test - whoever had the most drink left at the end won...

Next out was Charlotte, the donkey, who apparently thinks she is just like the big horses...

How cute is Charlotte?!

The last rider was amazing - it's some old Hungarian riding tradition thing - five horses, three in front, two behind, one guy standing on the back two - and he was moving!

Then all in a for a bow...

Great show, then all to the dining room for lunch. They brought out soup and then massive trays with all sorts of delicacies for the meat people - duck legs, schnitzels, etc. We got rice and vegetables, really nice. All followed with something called milk cake, which was sort of like a solid custard, bread and butter type thing, delicious. They also had some gypsy guys playing.

A bit of a look through the zoo - no photos coz they all looked a bit sad, standing in the rain! Then back onto the bus.

On the way home, we passed the spa, that is meant to be huge here - we didn't do it.

Here's Rita, she's a lovely guide.

And then we approach pier 1, and the Luminary, our river boat - very exciting!

This has always been on my bucket list - a river cruise and it had to be the Danube! And today is the day! We board the ship and have a seat in the lounge until we are called to check in and head down to our cabin. We are in the cheap seats downstairs, which means we don't have a balcony, but we don't usually spend that much time in the room.

Then it's up the back to get a coffee, then safety drill, introduction to the staff...