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| The crew at the top of Gellert Hill! |
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| St Stephen's Basilica Fun fact: its dome is 96m tall, exactly the same height as the dome of Parliament buildings, symbolising the equality of state and religion. No building in Budapest is allowed to be higher than these two. |
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| Outside the Synagogue- one of the largest in the world |
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| The Budapest Palace plus the chain bridge- the oldest bridge crossing the Danube. It wasn't until the Danube was bridged that the two cities Buda and Pest became Budapest! |
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| The many bridges crossing the river. To the right is the Parliament building, one of the largest in Europe. It's modelled off the English building, but is just one metre longer and wider :D |
We also spent a reasonable amount of time trouping around museums learning about some of Hungary's history...
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| The Hospital in the Rock Museum. It's a cave system that was turned into a hospital during the world wars, then a nuclear bunker. It was pretty spooky, and an interesting way to learn about Hungary's place in the world wars and the Cold War. |
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| Shoes on the Danube A memorial to the Jews who were executed on the banks- they were made to take off their shoes before they were shot. |
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| House of Terror Museum. It was an intense exhibition about the communist and fascist dictatorships that Hungary had been subject to. |
These were two of my favourites...
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| The 19thC policeman- you rub his belly or moustache for luck. |
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| Anonymous- a statue dedicated to the unknown author of a chronicle of Hungarian history. Writers rub his quill for inspiration. I love how chilled he is (: |
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| We were off for a night cruise on the Danube! |
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| One of the reasons the Romans first settled in the area was to enjoy the thermal springs everywhere. We tried out the Szechenyi Thermal Baths, the largest medicinal baths in Europe. |
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| Szimpla-The most famous ruin pub in Budapest and voted one of the best bars in the world. We had a chilled time there trying the mulled wine and cider. |
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| Taking random pics of cool stuff paid off- we discovered a cute restaurant tucked away in this courtyard. |
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| Traditional goulash soup- yumyum |
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Rastel Hostel- our home in Budapest.
It wasn't as run-down as it looks, but it did have character.
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The ruin bar below our hostel. We weren't even sure how the
locals managed to find it, it was so tucked away.
This was where we were true Hungarians-
we tried the ruthless national drink and folk danced in circles with the locals!
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The Hungarian Ballet performing Don Quijote in the National Opera House.
The building was gorgeous! The story goes that that Austrio-Hungarian Emperor
at the time said that the building wasn't allowed to be more grand than the one in
Vienna.The architect duly made it smaller and less fancy but then let loose on the interior.
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So that was some of our Budapest adventure. It's up there on my list of favourite places to visit. The Hungarians were great- so proud of their language, so nice to pedestrians trying to cross the road, ever-so-slightly weirded out by four crazy foreigners. I was sold after we walked down a street on the first night and every second shop was a bookshop. Clearly they know what's important in Hungary! It was such a cheap city too (once we figured out the conversion, which meant rustling up the three times tables), and this was an excellent excuse to test out the local food :) Although I inadvertently tried the popular poppy seed paste, thinking it was chocolate.
I won't forget the hysterical laughter of a barman after we tried to say thank you in Hungarian, almost getting done for shoplifting (long story), paying one euro fifty to see the ballet, dancing until 6am, discovering a dairy that made spectacular crepes and walking awlll over Budapest!
Until next time,
Búcsú
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