Day three in Budapest was by far our busiest day. Whilst wondering around Budapest the two previous days was really lovely and peaceful, we suddenly realised we hadn't actually ticked off most of the 'must-see' sites in the city. So, we (Jen) did some planning the night before so we were well prepared the following day. 

Despite catching the bus six or more times on this day of "rest", we ended up walking nearly 24,000 steps which was our highest of the weekend. So what then did we get up to on our last day in Budapest (other than cry about leaving such a beautiful place)? 

I woke up exhausted but Jen convinced me the walk up to the Citadel would be worthwhile and I'm so glad she did. We headed off from our usual bus stop bright and early and stopped just before Elizabeth Bridge. We popped into the centre of Pest to grab a coffee and I also ended up buying a cardigan too - despite being about 17 degrees still it felt quite chilly after spending 2 days in near 30 degree heat. We crossed over Elizabeth Bridge and started to make our way up the path to the citadel. 

It wasn't really a hike as such but many describe it this way. Having hiked the Inca Trail, numerous routes in the UK and also soon taking on Tour du Mont Blanc, it was fairly easy going and only took us about half an hour with stops (our feet really were exhausted). The views were incredible on the way up and just as much so from the top, though this was incredibly busy as the Hop On Hop Off had just dropped many other tourists off here. We took in the scenery and snapped some photos before wondering down the road to have a look at the market stalls. These were mostly the same sort of gifts we'd seen else where in Budapest, bar one stall which really caught our eye. This particular stall was made up of an array of colourful glass jewellery with the most beautiful designs. The name of the company was Freya Design, whose Facebook page you can view here. I hadn't bought a single treasure or keepsake from Budapest other than postcards for my sister who's a collector, so I thought why not treat myself?

We headed a little further down the road to enjoy our leftover pizza in the park before taking the bus down the hill and back into Pest. We hopped off around St Stephans Basillica and I headed straight for Gelato Rosa, a gelato store that produces very beautiful ice creams. 

Once I'd taken photos and consume my delicious little piece of heaven (and art!) we jumped on the next bus to head to Heroes Square and Vajdahunyad Castle. We admired the castle first before heading to find Jen an iced coffee, and soon found ourselves on the outskirts of the tourist centre of Budapest - we entered a McDonalds where only one member of staff spoke very little broken English. It shouldn't come as a shock when you're abroad, but for some reason it did. We'd only walked 5 minutes outside of a huge tourist spot but these locals were just going about their normal life as we do in the UK and we were suddenly reminded of how ignorant we were when travelling. 

Jen had some support from a lovely young man who showed her how to order on the touch screens (she'd wanted to order in person to make sure the iced coffee had no traces of nuts due to her allergies) and we headed off back towards Heroes Square where we admired the magnificent statues all honouring leaders of the Hungarian tribes and other national leaders. 

Back through Pest and over to Buda we went, to lose ourselves in the grounds of Buda Castle, quite literally. Despite its size it wasn't hugely clear where we were supposed to go so we just wondered in search of the rest of the tourist population, which soon appeared. Our tired feet needed a break by this point so we enjoyed the grounds of the castle and the view as far as our feet would carry us before going in search of the castle labyrinth where Count Dracula was supposedly imprisoned. 

Unfortunately, Jen found the ominous music and the dark caves far too creepy and we decided to give it a miss though it looked incredibly interesting so I would definitely recommend paying it a visit!

We carried on towards the Fishermans Bastion and Matthias Church. You had to pay to go into the higher towers of the Fishermans Bastion, and whilst the view looked like it would be beautiful, we enjoyed the view of the Bastion itself just as much as we may have done the panoramic view of Budapest. The Bastion also has a really interesting history which is worth a read! 

From here we took a very long route down from Castle Hill in an attempt to cross over Szechenyi Chain Bridge - of course from the hill we looked far closer to it than we were in reality, and this certainly accounted for the majority of our 24,000 steps. We eventually made our way into Pest and went for dinner and had some really lovely food. We then headed over to dock 10 for a boat to Margaret Island for one last look at the musical water fountain. Unfortunately our experience this time wasn't quite as enjoyable due to other tourists standing directly in our way, but we discovered that the playlist and therefore the light show were a repeat from Friday night and chose to leave, not feeling disappointed to have missed out having already enjoyed the majority of the show on our first night. 

We headed back over Margaret Bridge and enjoyed our last view of Budapest by night. 

MissIsGoode