Advent Market, St. Stephen's Square

So, the Christmas markets continue to open up here in Budapest. This one is in the square in front of St. Stephen's Basilica and is called the Advent Market.

Szent György nagyvértanú szerb ortodox templom

St. George's Serbian Orthodox Church is a place we wanted to see and were we lucky to arrive shortly before it closed for the day and we had a brief visit.

Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem

We went to the Baron Roland von Eötvös University to see the church and found it to be closed and under construction, as you can see on the right side of the photo above.

However, this is a place named for a well-known physicist from the 19th and early 20th century. This university is both the oldest (founded in 1635) and largest university in Hungary (currently about 28,000 students). It was named for Eötvös in 1950.

Szent Mihály-templom

I realize that it has nothing to do with the main point of this post which is St. Michael's Church in downtown Budapest, but I really liked the manhole cover in Váci utca (where the church is located). Thus, you get to start your brief tour of this church with a totally unrelated manhole cover.

Deák Ferenc tér

I realized that I haven't give you much of view of the streets here in Budapest. So this is a quick look at a small area around Deák Ferenc tér. This is right in the heart of the city a couple blocks from St. Stephen's Basilica, 3-4 blocks from the Danube, and a transportation hub for buses, trams, and the metro.

The photo above in interesting. As you have noticed in past blog posts (most recently in Glasgow) that I am fascinated by scenes that have a timeless quality to them. This time it is interactive. Take you right hand cover the right side of the image where the zebra cross is. Now tell me when this image is taken.

Organ Concert at St. Stephen's Basilica

We went to one of the Monday evening organ concerts at St. Stephen's Basilica. This gave me a chance to bring you a few more photos and a video of a snippet of the concert.

Between Vörösmarty and Deák Ferenc tér

Between Vörösmarty tér and Deák Ferenc tér runs a pedestrian street lined with fashionable clothing stores. This time of year this streets connects two squares that are filling will booths for the Christmas market.

And no, I did not (nor will I) try the rooster testicle stew.

Andrássy út and Szent István tér

After leaving Hősök tere and stopping for a bite of lunch, we had ourselves a stroll along Andrássy út to see the sights. Mostly, we saw lots of high-end shopping places that we had no business going into. But along the way we did see a few interesting doorways.

Ferenciek Tere

After my visit to the Franciscan Church, I headed back out into Ferenciek Tere to go catch up with E. On the way I spotted this imposing statue with interesting buildings in the background.

Budapesti Belvárosi Ferences Templom

After out immersion in WWI and a front row seat to the National Day parade, we rode back to Pest and stopped in Ferenciek Tere. I'd like to tell you that it was to see sites of great historical significance, but alas, I cannot. E saw a toy store she wanted to stop to see.

While she was shopping for a new puzzle to assemble on the dining room table, I was on the other side of the square investigating the the Pest Franciscan Church.