An underground hospital and a 'peaceful' gathering

So I'm still in Budapest, having a look around on the Buda side of the river. After lunch at Trinity Square I headed toward Buda Castle.

Part of Buda Castle

Then I went to a place that I had read about online called 'Hospital in the Rock'. During WWII the naturally-formed cave system that runs under Budapest was transformed into an underground hospital to treat the wounded, and later in the 20th century it was expanded to include a nuclear bunker. They have now turned it into a museum and guided tours are offered. It is really well set up. Photography is forbidden, so the following pictures don't actually exist...

By then evening was setting in so it was time to head back across the river and find some dinner. Had a look at the Great Market Hall on my way...

The next day I only had half a day in Budapest before catching the bus to Krakow. My plan was to visit the Hungarian National Museum and then see how much time I had left for other things. What I didn't know was that March 15th is a National Holiday in Hungary, commemorating a revolution in 1848. As I was walking toward the museum because the trams weren't running it seemed like half of Hungary was walking the same direction as me. When I was a couple of blocks away from where I wanted to be there was a police cordon and bag search to go any further, and there was a crowd of several thousand waving flags and banners and chanting and cheering. There were also some signs of protest, and many hundreds of armed police and military 'keeping the peace'. It became abundantly clear that I wasn't going to be able to get anywhere near the museum, and I didn't like the tone that the crowd was taking on or the level of interest that the police were showing... so I backtracked and decided to be a tourist elsewhere in the city.

The edge of the crowd

There wasn't really much else I had earmarked to see in this part of the city, so I just wandered. I found St. Stephen's Basilica, apparently famous for having the mummified remains of St. Stephen's hand on display.

St. Stephen's Basilica

Resting on the cushion is the clawed, mummified hand of a saint...

Then in my wandering I came across a place called Miniversum, a very large model town set-up. It didn't really interest me, but I went in and took some photos that I'll send to my nephews one day.

Then I just had time to poke my head into the State Opera House, and it was time to go and catch my bus to Krakow...

I took the underground Metro back to the hotel and then to the bus station to avoid the action that I could still hear going on above ground. It was disappointing not to get to the museum as it has great reviews, but I doubt they would have moved their National Holiday to a different day for me, no matter how nicely I asked.