Day 52.  Friday 22 May.

Four days in Budapest, so we’re able to take a fairly relaxed approach. After breakfast – a power outage! D checked the circuit breakers: all good. Notified the agent, sent photos. They would send someone around to check during the day.

Checked out Lidl for T-shirts, but they were expensive. A random woman advised T of an Op Shop named Emily London close by. So off we went guided by Apple Maps which knew of it, to discover it was now called Maggie’s. Loads of recycled clothes etc, but nothing bought. D rather fancied a brown corduroy jacket that took him back to his (much) younger (wrong) days, but the fit was definitely wrong, so we exited with nothing more to carry.

Headed towards Buda Castle in the heat of the day. Stopped below St. Mathias’s Church, sharing the experience with thousands (it seemed) of our fellows. The church square was filled with food and souvenir stalls, all highly priced. Desperation iced coffee at Starbucks, a sweet treat based on pastry & those poppy seeds & with a wedding blocking access to Fisherman’s Bastion, we moved on & down. We’ll do the castle at a different time was the decision. Decided to finish the day & get the 48-hour Big Bus Pass tomorrow.

As we neared home our street was taped off, and every fifty metres or so attendants in fluoro policed no parking. T asked what was happening: an attendant said ‘Movie’. Another 20 metres & a group of fluoros, so T asked again… Turns out tomorrow the street is to be the used in filming scenes for the second series of ‘The Jackal’, based on the Frederick Forsyth novel. The group was quite friendly but with limited English & no Hungarian on our side, details were very sketchy. Maybe we could be extras?