Little frustrations were things like the terrace at Fisherman's Bastion closing early so I couldn't have the drink and hear the gypsy music there that I had been looking forward to. Another was finding the folklore performances which are held daily in "the season" are only on Thursdays right now so we didn't get to see one. Then, there was the issue yesterday where we walked up Andrassy Blvd. to the Opera House with the intent of taking one of the 2 pm, 3 pm or 4 pm tours. While tickets were available, we were told that the auditorium was closed for renovations. The price had not been reduced even though the auditorium is the star attraction here. That seemed pretty silly to us so, with that, we decided to forego the tour which was a shame because the Opera House here is supposed to be one of the loveliest in Europe. We now have high hopes for the one in Vienna.
Then, there is the currency: the Hungarian forint, abbreviated as HUF. That was the main frustration. I was pretty good at math in high school but all those zeros on their bills have left both of us confused sometimes wondering if we are paying $1, $10 or possibly even $100. When I was here in 2014, I blogged about how I had gone to 3 ATMs and withdrawn money getting quite annoyed as each machine only gave me what I thought was $25. When I phoned my bank, they told me I'd been withdrawing $250 each time. This time, we wanted to be careful to not have that happen so we have taken out smaller amounts. The exchange rate is roughly $300 CAD = 60,000.00 HUF. So, it really is just a matter of dividing the amount by 2 but you have to get those zeros in the right place!
So, if you look at the above bills, you might sympathize. Is 20000 HUF $10 or $100. If you guessed $100 you got it right, I think! The first restaurant that we ate at, Kath got confused and almost accused the waiter of ripping us off. He, not so patiently explained to her that there is no 200000 note which is what she thought she had given him. She can be forgiven; perhaps a comma on the bank notes might help! That being said, we have gone through a lot of HUF which also makes us wonder if we have gotten it all right.
Oh well, after today, at least until Sunday, we are dealing in Euros which are a whole lot easier. After that will be CZK or Czech Koruna - but I am so not going to worry about that challenge right now!
And, speaking of puffing, while it isn't any kind of scientific study, our casual observations led us to believe not as many people in Budapest are smoking, particularly when you compare it to Croatia, Switzerland or Germany. While it is still possible to smoke on terraces here, in a number of places we noticed there were non-smoking areas outside. Also, not many of the people walking around were smoking either, perhaps they were tourists like us. I can honestly say I rarely smelled cigarette smoke which is very different from many other parts of continental Europe. We thought that was good.
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