The bus finally found a spot to drop us at the back of the church. We walked for a while to see the front side of the church. St Stephen’s Basilica is the most beautiful and significant church in Budapest due to is historical heritage. The church was dedicated to the holy king St Stephen who was also the founder of the Hungarian state. In addition, the church is also famous for its architectural and artistic value. The church houses so many valuable items including Hungary’s most sacred treasure, St Stephen’s mummified right hand, the Szent Jobb (re: Holy Right Hand). A bit background on the mummified right hand, the death of king St Stephen was followed by a turbulent period characterised by struggles for the throne. A certain faction of the king feared that the embalmed and mummified corpse of the king might be desecrated, and therefore ordered its removal from the marble sarcophagus standing in the middle of the basilica where king Stephen was buried on August 15, 1038 and hid it in the tomb under the basilica. The right hand of king remained intact and it was detached and taken to the treasury of the basilica since it was believed to have miraculous power.

The district where the basilica is located is a bustling city centre filled with row of cafes and souvenir stores. I suppose this place is always filled with tourists so it’s not really weird to find a lot of coffee shops and stores here. 

If you are looking for some souvenirs to bring back home, you may want to look for “Memories of Hungary”. When I first saw the words “Memories of Hungary”, I thought this building houses a museum. Turns out it is a big Hungarian souvenir shop. It is quite famous in Budapest and it has branches across the country. 

Memories of Hungary has a vast collection of products which tell visitors a story about Hungarian culture. The products sold here are related to traditional culture and folk customes of the Hungarian. The store has some interesting items other than the usual kitchen stuff and magnets. For instance, there are those party masks which you usually see people wearing at some banquet gala and wooden dolls in many sizes which pretty much similar to the Russian dolls. 

I do not know that Hungary is famous for its pepper ground/ paprika. It’s probably equivalent to chili flakes in Singapore. Paprika is powder made from grinding the pods of various kind of peppers. It is considered the national spice of Hungary. There are eight grades of Hungarian paprika which are differentiated by the level of smell and spiciness. The spice will make a good souvenir to bring back to your family (especially if there is a chef in the family). 

After Mom has finished looking around, we came out from the store with one or two fridge magnets (Mom is an avid collector of magnets). Wondering what to do while waiting for the rest of tour participants, I went to a gelato shop called Gelarto Rosa to check out what kind of gelato they serve in Budapest. Turns out it’s the kind of gelato shop where they will scoop and shape your gelato in the shape of flower. Oh my. 

You can choose two flavours and the staff will shape the gelato nicely to make a flower shape. My cousin asked me if I want to share the ice cream with her but this is one of the things in the world that I apply perfect selfishness so we ended up having our own ice cream. She chose strawberry and vanilla gelato. 

While I chose pistachio and vanilla gelato. On second thought, maybe I should have chosen other flavour instead because green flower does not really exist. But then again, who cares about such details, right? Hehe.