What does Mt. Fuji have to do with Budapest?

The opera was grand...from the fifth row we got a clear view when the bad girl shot the good girl just as she was to drive off in a new, sporty, BMW with Edgar. The moral of the story, as I understand it, is, don't hang out with good girls. The opera house, built in 1884, is grand and it was an interesting contrast with the modern staging of the opera....2008 chic. I'd do it again but not twice.
A traditional Hungarian dinner in a tradtional hungarian place; painted walls, marble columns, huge chandeliers, silver service, (goose liver is big here) with a live band, introduced us to a new musical instrument. It sounds like a piano but is played with mallets like a marimba and is called a "timbolo" or "timpolo". The player said it was unique to Hungary. He sat in front of it and the strings lying flat in front of him were struck with mallets in each hand. A good time was had by all.
In 1961 I spent a few months in a tent camp at the base of Mt. Fuji. We arrived under the cover of darkness and awakened to Ft. Fuji looming above us with little snow, pictures taken; soon it snowed, pictures taken; more snow, pictures taken....and on and on until I was the proud owner of 300+ pictures of Mt. Fuji. Walking Castle Hill in Buda today in the sunshine I had to restrain myself from turning the Parliment Building in Pest into another Fuji experience.
It was interesting to visit St. Mattias' church and Europe's largest synagogue on the same day. Similarities, large, ornate, painted walls and ceilings....yet significant differences, e.g., statuary, etc. Which reminds me, at the Basilica the most prized relic is St. Stephan's, first king of Hungary, right hand. I also saw a rosary with beads the size of chicken eggs. (Go MaryJane!)
Tomorrow we'll take the three hour train ride to Vienna. The boat on the Danube only goes during the summer. We'll be glad to get a couple of more days in Budapest on our way home. We've found it to be as delighful as everyone says.
My first scam is amusing. I went to pay my internet bill with a 500 bill thinking it was Florents worth about $3.33, and they wouldn't accept it. Turned out it was a 500 Rubles bill which looks similar but isn't worth anything, here at least. I'd been given two of them somepace as change...good joke on the Curmudgeon!