Budapest- Day 1

The bus ride to Budapest last night was pretty fun. It's a nice bus company, with movies on board and free coffee and hot chocolate and stuff, so the 7 hour ride went by pretty fast. The first movie was some Czech movie with English subtitles, and it was alright I guess, just... different. I don't know what it was called. After that was Madagascar, but dubbed in Czech with English subtitles so that was weird. After that was a movie called Fracture, which I hadn't heard of but it's an American movie with Anthony Hopkins and was therefore very creepy so I didn't watch much of that either. The highlight, though, was probably the sunset. What an incredible experience to be able to watch the sun set over the Czech countryside. It was absolutely beautiful. Here are a few pictures of that, but they don't come close to doing it justice.

Sunset over the Czech countryside:

The bus got in about half an hour early (at 11 pm) which was reeeeeally good because it meant I could take the metro instead of a cab. So that was easy. I got to the hostel with no problems and had a room all to myself so that was really nice. I think a few people moved in today though.

This morning I started by walking down Vaci Street (a big, pedestrianized shopping street) to the Central Market, a big indoor market, where I got breakfast. That was fun to walk around.

Central Market:

I wandered around the city a bit then went back up towards my hostel to St. Stephen's Basilica. It's a really beautiful building, and there's a dome you can go up for a great view, which I did. I think I'm going to go to a concert there tomorrow night if I can convince myself to spend the money. It's supposed to be a really incredible concert, but it is pretty expensive. I think I'll do it though.

St. Stephen's Basilica:

View from St. Stephen's Basilica:

After that I went to find a free tour I had seen a flyer for, but I couldn't find it. I decided to do the city hop-on, hop-off bus tour. Yes, it's overpriced, but I really, really liked it. It's a really nice way to see the city when you're by yourself, and I'm pretty drained from all the walking I've been doing so it was nice. The weather today was incredible, sunny blue skies and high 70s. When did it get to be summer? The buses were open-topped and I was completely comfortable in just a t-shirt, it was very pleasant. I saw all the main sites and took pictures of them of course, but I don't feel like uploading a lot so here's just one. The rest will hopefully be on facebook soon.

Millenium Monument:

I got off the bus at Gellert Hill, which has the citadel and a great view of the city and lots of space to walk around. I wandered around there for about an hour, then sat in the sun for another hour, thoroughly enjoying the weather and the view.

View from Gellert Hill:

Eventually I convinced myself to get up and go to the Rock Church, which is a church built into the side of the hill so that was cool.

Rock Church

I was at the bottom of Gellert Hill by then so instead of walking back up to catch the bus from where I got off, I decided to walk along the Danube to the next stop. It was a great walk, the city and the river are beautiful. Before I got back on the bus I got lunch at a great little restaurant that served traditional Hungarian food. I got goulash, which I've been having a lot recently. Apparently Hungarian food is very similar to Czech food...

So I got back on the bus and it took me up to Castle Hill, where I got off again. I spent a few hours wandering around there. There are some great views, especially from the Fishermen's Bastion, several nice churches (the most famous is St. Matyas), some museums, and lots of nice streets. I wanted to do the castle labyrinth (one of the 7 underground wonders of the world) but I didn't have enough money on me and I couldn't find an ATM so I will probably do that tomorrow morning. I spent a long time up there exploring and sitting enjoying the sun/views, and I got kurtoskalac, which is pretty much exactly the same thing as a Czech trdelink, but bigger. I like the way Hungarians think.

St. Matyas Church:

I was pretty drained from a long day in the heat by that point so I got back on the bus and rode it back to where the tour started, which is right by my hostel. I relaxed a little, then got dinner.

The bus tour came with lots of coupons for stuff, including 2 free boat tours, so I decided to do one during the day and one at night. Since I might go to that concert tomorrow night, I decided to do the night one tonight. Unfortunately, when I got to the dock, I found out that the schedule on the coupon was wrong, and there weren't anymore boats tonight. I wasn't the only one standing there confused... But yeah I was super bummed about that because I really wanted to see the city from the river at night, but oh well. I'll do the tour tomorrow during the day.

So instead of a boat cruise I walked around the city at night. It's really pretty all lit up. There are some magnificent buildings here, like this one:

Hungarian National Gallery:

So it was fun walking around, but I was sad about the cruise. Oh well. Tomorrow will be another day of sightseeing, and maybe checking out one of the world famous bath houses!