Tour of Budapest

We got up bright and early to a foggy day in Budapest. Our tour guide, Andrea picked us up and we drove a bit through the castle district and headed to the citadel. The citadel itself, as with other buildings in Budapest was marked with bullet holes, left there as reminders of the past. At the top of the citadel is an old Soviet monument that the Hungarians have reclaimed for themselves. It was a really great view from the top of the hill. We hopped back on the bus and headed to the Parliament, a beautiful building and one of the largest in Europe apparently. Next stop was St. Stephen's Cathedral. A really interesting church dedicated to the most popular saint of Hungary. He was the first king of Hungary and brought Catholicism to a people who were primarily pagan. He had a remarkably long life, he was approximately 68 when he died, which for the time (1038) was rare. He outlived all of his children and so before he died he is said to have offered the crown and the people of Hungary to the Virgin Mary and asked her to be their queen. In the church is housed the mummified right hand of St. Stephen. We drove a bit more around the Pest side of the city and up the Hungarian version of the Champs-Elysees and at the end is Hero's square (that we decided to go back to the next day) and our last stop was the large covered market. We were then left by our tour guide and left to our own devices. We walked around the food stalls on the main floor, filled with fruits, vegetables and meats. It was really neat to explore. We stopped for lunch (schnitzel, really good) and proceeded around the second floor, where all the souvenir shops were. It was packed full of glassware, linens, beautiful pashminas, chess sets, and many other crafts. A few friends and I started our walk back to the hotel, down the pedestrian street, Vaci Street. Lined with more shops we took our time walking along this street finding more treasures. Our tour guide had told us about one of the oldest cafes in Budapest called Gerbeaud. So we stopped for a coffee and a treat. It was fantastic and a really beautiful building, inside it felt like a old fashioned hotel lobby with warm colours, gold leaf crown moulding, and chandeliers.

With a gorgeous sunset as the backdrop we strolled back along the Danube, past the Little Princess and over the Chain Bridge. We took the funicular up to the top of Castle Hill and got back to our hotel.

A little time later we were picked up again by the bus and brought down to the river where we boarded our dinner cruise. It was a great time! We enjoyed the views from the river with all the buildings lit up. The city is absolutely magnificent looking at night.