A year ago today we left Canada! I can still remember this day last year like it was yesterday. have dinner at the Shoe Shop, saying goodbye to my brothers and Julia and George taking us to the airport. Then saying goodbye to Halifax. A month and a half and I'll be back for a visit!
Woke up to a nice day - thank God! I forgot to mention were stayed on the Buda side which is the older part of the city whereas Pest is the administrative side and is more modern. We learned immediately when we went out in the sunshine that the Buda side has a lot of graffiti - not just the area we are staying in. Which also doesn't look dodgy at all in daylight when you notice the surrounding areas look the same.
Keith and I had no idea where to look for food so we just wandered and eventually found a like shop. I had a tea biscuit that was more baking soda/salt than anything else. I'm not even sure what Keith had. It was something on a bun. Haha. I can't even explain it really. But it was good. And we couldn't ask because the lady didn't understand us!
Once our bellies were full we decided to follow the map and go to Castle Hill. Castle Hill is home to the old Parliament, the Castle and several landmarks/tourist attractions. This area sits above the rest of the city and overlooks the Danube, Buda and Pest. It's beautiful! It is quickly visible that this district is home to some of the richer things in Budapest as it's so clean, no graffiti and the buildings are beautiful. We spent several hours here walking around, shopping and just checking things out. We also popped into a cafe for lunch where we enjoyed our first bowl of goulash soup. So good!
We visited Fisherman's Bastion which you can see in our pictures (link at the bottom). It's an open stone structure that overlooks the Danube and Pest. The views from here are incredible. We didn't go inside the Castle but we walked around the grounds. It was a bit disappointing as I've become accustom to English castles (old and beautiful) but the Buda one was let's just say - I didn't even realize it was a castle! I had to keep looking on the map as I thought I was missing it. It's not a fancy building but has beautiful, manicured grounds. We visited the vendors who were set up around Castle Hill and bought some cinnamon funnel cake that was also really good.
Mid afternoon we decided we saw everything we wanted to on Castle Hill and we headed towards Pest. We walked across the famous chain bridge (which is lit up at night and is very nice). Once on the Pest side we walked to the new parliament building. It was a bit of a walk but well worth it. This building is magnificent! Topped with spires with very medieval architecture it takes your breath away. I was hoping to do a tour but it was closed for tours today. Dammit! And there's no time tomorrow. So I just took a ton of pictures of the outside. We then strolled the streets of Pest and eventually got thirsty so we stopped at a pub for a drink on the outside patio.
We decided to do an evening dinner cruise on the Danube as a romantic way to celebrate our past anniversary. The trip was somewhat of an anniversary gift to ourselves, so the dinner cruise topped it off nicely. They started the cruise off with a glass of champagne for everyone and there was a large buffet with a great spread of Hungarian appetizers, mains and desserts. The food was fantastic. I've decided I really enjoy Hungarian food. There is no shortage of paprika either. We cruised the Danube past the parliament building and under the chain bridge (which was lit up as it was now dark) and past many other sites. They also had live music playing. We really enjoyed it.
After the cruise we walked around a bit - to walk off all the food - then we walked back to our hostel. Lots and lots of walking!
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