Budapest again....

While some people might grow tired of seeing a city over and over again, there are a few places I feel like I will want to visit as much as I can...Budapest is one of those cities for me!

I first visited there back in 2007 with some of my, now, dearest friends. For me, I think that city will always belong to the four of us. Every corner I turn I can think of some picture I have which we took there or of a funny thing that someone said or did and suddenly that hectic (and some might say dirty) city is reduced to only a few people and is one I can't imagine never seeing again. As a side note, I might add-perhaps one of the thoughts that saddens me most in life is thinking that I might never again see a place I once loved...though I guess there are things that are worse, it seems to me that few things could be.

My second visit to Budapest was one of relief....as some of my readers will remember, I was quite sick on the long trip Megzi and I took after our contracts finished and Budapest was the city where my very long recovery began....sometimes I think I still have remnants of that illness that plague me even today....but enough of that for now, before you all begin to think that illness has gone permanently to my head!

Brian and I looked for a way to fit in several Eastern European countries on this trip and had at first hoped we would do it all by train. When it finally became clear that we'd waited too long to book anything of a reasonable price, we decided to book a round trip ticket to Budapest and go from there by train around to the cities we hoped to see. We booked a flight to leave very early the morning after my birthday....6:50 in the morning, to be precise, making that day a very long one indeed.

For one reason or another I did not sleep the night of my birthday...I think it must be the combination of the supreme amount of food I ate that night and the fact that neither of us had proper alarm clocks and I was very nervous that we'd miss the flight entirely! But we made it indeed and upon arriving in Budapest I began to feel a tiredness which surpasses all the fatigue I can ever remember experiencing before. I think Brian recognized this straight away and stated several times that we just needed to get a nap in before we tried to go out and do anything. Away we went to our hotel, the grandness of which I was not able to fully appreciate to begin with, and I commenced to sleep for several blissful hours.

The aforementioned hotel is in fact the Intercontinental overlooking the Danube River and the famous Chain Bridge which allows for passage from the Pest side of the city, where we were staying, to the Buda side containing the castle and wonderful little hidden passageways. I could never nor would I ever in my wildest dreams be able to afford this hotel; however, darling Brian with his fantastic job of staying most nights in hotels for his job, had accumulated quite a few "points" with that hotel company and we were able to reap the benefits of a 7th floor, river view room because of it....quite a step up from those hostels I'd stayed in on previous trips there!!

While I napped Brian went out and found a small grocery where he purchased some salami, sliced cheese and bread for our lunch....what would become our lunch most days because, lets face it, you can't have fresh cheeses and meats with wonderful bread and most importantly the view of a beautiful European city every day of the year, so we took full advantage of this while we could! Soon after we were on our way out the door to see the city.

Every other visit to Budapest I have had a specific goal in mind....to go on a tour of the Hungarian Parliament Building. Several years ago, upon finding out about our impending trip, a revolting Romanian man in my German language class informed me that building was the best part of the city and for some reason I've not been able to shake a visit there from my thoughts. Every trip to Budapest I've taken before it has been impossible to accomplish due to riots or some other odd reason but this time we checked and it was open for visits so we made our way there first to make sure it wasn't skipped over on this trip! It did not disappoint. The inside of the building is very ornately decorated and just the sheer magnitude of the size of the building, which is the second largest parliament in Europe, is worth a look. I took a few inside pictures but they pale in comparison to the actual view...if you click on the link above you'll be able to see a few which I think are far better than mine.

During an afternoon of touring around we made a quick stop into the St. Stephen's Cathedral where Brian and I had a look at the right hand of Stephen, considered to be the first king of Hungary and namesake of the cathedral. A very interesting relic if you like those kinds of things. We wandered around afterward looking for a place for dinner and were pleased to find an entire street of options which are off the beaten path and therefore occupied more by locals than tourists! Even given the nap earlier in the day, we were tired....we made our way back to the hotel.

The next day we headed straight out for the main shopping street. Some sort of Easter market was in the local square and we took our time browsing the goods, some homemade and some obviously shipped in from somewhere else....We made it our attempt to find the synagogue, which my guidebook boasts as the second largest in the world. It is quite impressive. We could not enter as it was shut for a holiday but we were able to see the grandness from the outside and also to see the Tree of Life which honors Holocaust victims from Hungary.

After a wander around Pest and a wonderfully traditional Hungarian meal for lunch, we headed accross the Chain Bridge to Buda. From there we were able to take some wonderful pictures of the river and surrounding city from Buda hill. We made our way over to the Castle Labyrinths, a really cool site I first visited with Megzi on that first trip. We waited until after 7pm, when they turn out all the lights, and were able to go in with lanterns.

As the name of the game on our trip was to have a nice and leisurely time, we slowly made our way back accross the river while enjoying all the sights and sounds of the city and then enjoyed yet another wonderful meal of cheese, bread and salami in our hotel room with maybe the most wonderful view during a meal that one could ask for!! Off to bed early, tomorrow we're headed to Zagreb, Croatia!

Ciao for now,

LuLu