Budapest days 3&4

Hello from London Heathrow airport! Well, I was too busy gallivanting to keep up in my last two amazing days.. Unfortunately I am on my ipad with no keypad, so this will be brief and I'll try to add in some of what we did as I remember. That's what I get for taking no notes and not keeping up!

We sure fell in love with Budapest. It's a creeper; I didn't fall in love instantly as I did in Prague, though really enjoyed it. It's much bigger than Prague by 50 percent and feels it. Regardless, it's a wonderful place that I'd recommend.

We were decided to do a walking tour (self guided) of the Buda Castle area on the other side of the bridge in Buda. Budapest is actually comprised of two cities, Buda and pest. We stayed on the pest side but wanted to explore a bit. We walked through pest towards the Danube River and toured St Stephens Basilica before heading out. There was a funicular that led up the hill, and we decided on that. After crossing the famous chain bridge into Buda, we rode thr funicular up, enjoying the views. The area was on the top of a large hill and very quaint. There is a large church called Matthias church with a gorgeous brightly tiled roof. We walked around the fishermans bastion and through the area.

Under part of the area were some caves used during WWII. We did climb down but decided against the tour. The same went for the hospital on the rock as we weren't all that interested and felt we still had a ton to see. We saw the old castle ruins and walked around the grounds housing several museums.

We were hungry and found a cute little Italian place by the river, back in pest. The food was really good and we rolled out of there. I did get a lemonade, which turned out tone orange juice with cut up citrus fruit. It was good though not what was expected.

Kim decided to go other company's office in Budapest to make contacts and had a great time. She took a team to a bus- what an adventurous spirit! She became friendly with toe folks so Michael and I met them for drinks by st Stephens basilica. They were both from Australia and great fun.

We wandered looking for a place for dinner and came across a place called Bouchon which surprisingly had Hungarian food. It also was very highly rated in tripadvisor's top ten, so quite a find. The meal was really great. I tried another dessert wine similar to the one we had last night and Kim and Michael tried palinka, a local drink. Wow. It made the schnapps I had the other day taste like water!

Yesterday was our last day so we tried to pack a lot in. First we took a cab around thirty minutes to Memento Park to see the communist statues and learn more of the history. It was really interesting,and we had some gum mimicking the statues and taking pictures. We got back to Buda, over the bridge to climb gellert hill, where one of the statues used to reside. It was a hell of a climb but offered spectacular views of Buda and Pest.

The citadel is right behind it, built by the hapsburgs around 1850 to keep watch over the city and was later used in WWII as a bunker. We climbed down and crossed the bridge to go to the market. It was really crowded. We bought some souvenirs of paprika, salt and others and headed out to find a lunch spot. We ended up at the same place Kim and I got a drink at the first night when we got in,and it was great. The food on this trip has been really wonderful.

We then raced to the museum of terror just before it closed. It was a well done museum touring the history of the communist regime in Hungary, post WWII. It was quite artistic and hard to view in parts. We decided a drink was in order and headed out. But first tried to find the one(yes,one) pharmacy open in the city on a sat night as I developed a bit of a cold. Lovely. After an hour of false starts, we found it then very much needed that drink!

We got dinner at a place the hotel recommended and it was excellent. When we left, we were going to go to Parkin pub, which completely escapes me at the moment as to what they are, but it was raining so heavily that we headed back. I seconds we were soaked, and Kim again noted that the city was crying since we were leaving.

Kim and I had early flights. I'm heading back to the states soon. We were tempted to (try to)miss our flights but decided not to. What a truly amazing trip! I'd so recommend it as it's a really great mix of cities. I'm really sad to leave but thrilled to travel with them again.. And hopefully soon!