Budapest

Budapest seem to be the part of the trip where we took things up a notch again. We were only in Budapest for 2 days so we had a lot to do in a short amount of time. On our first day we spent the day on the Buda side of the river. We started with a visit to Gellert hill and got some amazing panoramic views of the city. Our next stop was the Buda Castle. When we got there we were trying to decide how to get up the hill to go visit it and decided to take a hop-on-hop-off shadow. This worked out great! It was able to take us to not only the Buda Castle but some of the other places that we were wanting to see on that side of the river. Our first stop was the Fisherman’s Bastion and the Matthias church. Surprise surprise it was all so beautiful. Our next stop was Buda Castle why we did not go in it was still nice to see the outside of it and again get some views over the city. We also got to see the equivalent of the white house in Hungary. After a visit to the castle we went to the entrance of the castle gardens. They weren’t many visitors there so it made for some nice pictures and Scenic views. We then headed back over to the past side. We took a quick visit to the Parliament Building which is one of the main attractions in Budapest. It is is huge and so gorgeous! While we were visiting we also happened upon a little concert that started to go on. It was the Hungarian jazz orchestra that just happened to be playing at that time that we were going bye. So we sat down and stayed for a while to listen to the music and it was beautiful. After this we headed over to the New York cafe for dinner. It is one of the swankiest restaurants in the city so of course we had to try it out. The food was just ok and the portions were so small! But it was a beautiful place to have dinner so I guess that made it worth it. On day 2 we spent our day adventuring the pest side of the river. We started off going to the Central Market Hall. This is a famous market in Budapest that sells all kinds of different things. I bought a few souvenirs but we must see just looked around and took it all in. Our next stop was was in the old Jewish quarter. This area has what are called ruin pubs. They are little cafes and pubs that were converted after this area of the city was destroyed and abandoned. we went to a place called mazel tov. We both tried some traditional Hungarian food and neither of us was too stoked about it. For the next part of the day we went over to a park where we got so see Heros square as well as Vajdahunyad castle. Try saying that 3 times fast. Then we ventured over to the Szechenyi thermal baths. I never even attempted to say the name outloud. We spent a few hours there relaxing and trying not to think of foot fungus. We went back to our hotel to shower and then out to dinner. We had a late dinner but it was nice because we got to see the city at night with all the buildings lit up! We strolled along the river to get a look at the parliament building and the castle across the way. It was a perfect end to our trip in budapest!