Ennui

Thursday marked our fourth day in Budapest. We knew that Friday we would have to get up early and head to the airport for our long trip back. It didn't seem worth our while to venture out to someplace new, so we spent the day retracing some of out favorite spots of the week.

During the week, we had visited the Castle District, Statue Park, Gellert Hill, the Jewish District, and the baths at the Gellert Hotel. We had eaten at a lovely restaurant in the Buda Hills overlooking the entire city, at a smart restaurant in Pest, at the Gellert and at cafes in the Castle District and along the Danube. While I'm sure that there's still much more to see and do in Budapest, we both felt that we had gotten at least the general impression of the experience, and a certain weariness, an ennui if you will, had started to set in.

So Thursday morning, we headed back to the Castle District to buy gifts and to visit the Catacombs. Lunch was at a beautiful cafe called the Peirrot. Our afternoon was spent at the outdoor pool at the Gellert (although by then we had checked out of the Gellert Hotel and were staying across the river at the Inter-Continental) enjoying the sun and the wave pool. I dug into my paperback novel (Tom Wolfe's "A Man in Full"), and L. Into her more literary read. Dinner was back at Cafe Peirrot. But for all intents and purposes, we could have been back in Atlanta.

Now, a little bit of boredom isn't necessarily a bad thing. For us, it merely meant that we had enjoyed our visit, enjoyed the sights, and enjoyed each others company, but like a full diner after a good meal, we were both satisfied and ready to push back away from the table. Friday would mean Budapest-to-Paris, and Paris-to-Atlanta.