Waking up Thursday I felt so terrible. It was a struggle to get ready and everything else packed and loaded. As I took my final load down from the room the housekeeping staff started throwing questions at me in Hungarian. I tried to communicate I didn't understand and that I was sorry, and their result was to laugh at me. Such a classy place that Club Dobogomajor was. At check out we were not allowed to leave until someone went and checked we had not stolen things from the room. Cause you know everyone must be coveting the outdated TV, drying rack or the 10 year old phone.
Sorry, that timeshare isn't a place I am in a rush to return to.
We met at the same cafe as the day before to have a final goodbye breakfast with Iva and Ivan. I loved spending time with them on this trip, and hope Iva visits Canada soon. She was a lot of fun! (Sadly, the hot chocolate wasn't as good that morning)
We made our final drive into Budapest with Dad listening to the Audio book once again. I didn't mind and Brian was half asleep in the back. We initially were staying one more night at the timeshare, but since we had a train the next day and had to return the rental car to the airport we decided to come in a day early. Then on one of our walks we found a Hertz at the Marriott and Dad arranged to move the drop off location there instead. The airport was such a hassle and not something we wanted to repeat. Since Hertz was right at the Marriott, that is the hotel I choose for our final night in Budapest, and what a great choice I made. The hotel was right on the Danube with all rooms facing the water. The rooms were large, had an incredible shower, a super comfortable bed, an awesome view and had air conditioning. The trip is far from over but my prediction is that that hotel will be the best of the trip.
I was feeling worse by the time we checked in but was being stubborn and not wanting to waste my last day. So we got a cab and headed over to the Parliament Building. I had wanted to try and do a tour, and we got there just in time to get 3 or the remaining 4 tickets. We had an hour wait so we walked across to an awful cafe. This place was disorganised, being used as both a cafe and flower shop and the staff were rude. The server spilt some of Brian's diet coke on him and the table and just shrugged and walked away. When I was waiting for the washroom I had a German man mistake me for the attendant and get mad that I wouldn't let him pay. That was an odd experience that may have been funny had the man not gotten so miserable.
The tour began with us passing through security - our bags were X-rayed and we were sent through metal detectors. The whole tour was about 1 hour and took us through about 4-5 rooms. When the building was built there were two houses of government hence the massive size. As there is only one now, the other side is used for the tours. I would love to know how many of the 691 rooms inside are actually used. The building spans 268 meters along the Danube, had 12.5 miles of corridors, a 96 meter dome and is 18,000 square meters in size.
We walked up 150 stairs to began to the tour which made a lot of the older tourists mad. The guide had warned us and asked if anyone wanted an elevator... yet this group spent the next 10 minutes complaining that they should have been told about this.
We saw the various rooms and were told a lot of the history surrounding the building and the government. I really only remember snippets as I was getting worse by the minute. At one point I almost fell over and both Dad and Brian insisted I return to the hotel as soon as the tour was over. Brian and I took a cab back, Dad opted to walk since he needed to find a post office in order to pay a parking ticket. As soon as I reached the hotel I climbed into bed and spent the rest of the night there. My plans of walking along the pedestrian street and buying some souvenirs were dashed. Brian went out to try and find some sort of meds for me - he got some tea and some medicated throat candies. Fortunately I had some Gravol and Tylenol with me, along with my ear drops. Brian surprised me and walked back to the market to buy me the wooden Santa I had seen... its a bigger one and so adorable. He also got me the Hungarian wooden nesting dolls and a shot glass - he is a keeper!
I felt a little better later in the evening so we ordered up room service for dinner... then I stopped feeling better so I didn't eat much and went back to bed. Its not how I planned to spend my last night in Budapest, but at least I had an awesome view of the Danube as a consolation.
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