There is totally a statue that looks like Gandalf at St. Stephen's Basilica.

11:11 pm CET

Boring day in school, blah blah blah. After class I exchanged some Euro for Hungarian forints, waited half an hour for a 41 tram, and went off along the Buda side of the Danube.

Instead of getting off at the Chain Bridge stop as I had originally planned, I went to the end of the line a few stops further upriver (I was going to go back to Castle Hill for a photo spree, but since the tram took forever to arrive, I didn't have much time left before I had to meet Jacob for dinner). I walked around for a while, watching the sunset pass over Parliament till I had to hop on another tram so I could meet Jacob at the Astoria stop in Pest.

Once we found one another, we went to Deák Ferenc tér to begin looking for the Shakespeare-themed restaurant I had read about in my guidebook. We found the street easily enough but, try as we might, we could not find the restaurant. Perhaps it disappeared, or maybe it never existed; who knows. Either way, we didn't discover its whereabouts, which, of course, was rather sad. After being accosted by a creepy guy who attempted to get us into some restaurant he said he works for, we decided upon the BoB--Bacardi Original Bar--and sat outside, enjoying the beautiful weather and the just as beautiful view of the Szent István Bazilika (St. Stephen's Basilica). We had a fantastic dinner and afterwards found a tiny ice cream shop where they made the scoops look like a flower. It was a lovely evening, that goes without saying.

Jacob went underground to catch the metro and I stayed above to grab my tram home. I noticed as I walked to the stop (and while in the tram en route to Móricz) that there were people on bicycles everywhere. I don't know if there was some huge cyclists' convention or what, but something must have been going on. I saw hundreds of people on bikes all heading toward Deák Ferenc tér, and there were several cops out and about directing traffic and patrolling in general. It was a pretty bizarre sight, that's for sure.

Tomorrow will be another exciting day; rather, the evening will be exciting. Ada, Yoana, and I are going to the State Opera to see Carmen!! I've been looking forward to this for weeks. It is going to be such a great show... and I will finally be getting my live performance fix. Thank goodness.