I had aimed to condense my short weekend in Budapest into only one blog post but I just found it impossible. There is SO much to see and do in this city and if I wasn't desperate to visit other places around the world I wouldn't hesitate to return.

After a rather relaxed day of strolling around the city on day one, we decided to make day two a little more scheduled, heading first to Gellert Spa. 

Jen booked tickets online, as recommended, the day before we headed to the baths. We had been hoping to visit Szechenyi Thermal Baths instead but the outdoor pool was closed for renovation. We took that on the chin and headed to another of the popular baths. Typical tourists, we took the Pink/Purple line of the Hop On Hop Off bus to save our feet and headed over Margaret Bridge into Pest and down to Liberty Bridge where we walked our way back into Buda and onwards to Gellert Spa. 

Not being the type of girls to have a spa day, the part we enjoyed most was actually the walk there. It was a beautiful view and Liberty Bridge took our top spot of favourite bridges in Budapest. We also spotted a castle like building carved into the side of the rock and a church within a cave - both of which we decided to explore later. Firstly we of course headed into the spa to see what all the fuss was about.
We'd paid the equivalent of £19 for a day pass into the spa and cabins to change in. Inside we followed a tunnel towards the changing rooms before milling about awkwardly. We went for a look around to get our bearings; the outside pool was packed along with all the seats and the inside pool required swimming caps which we weren't aware of. I dipped a toe in before a man tapped his head at Jen and implied that we couldn't come in with our hair uncovered.
We left the inside pool with our tails between our legs and eventually found ourselves a spot in the outdoor thermal pool, above the main pool, which we spent the majority of our time in. It was relaxing, but we only spent an hour there in total, including a few posing photos and some shots of the view. I saw only one life guard the whole time we were there and none outside, and Jen was quite overwhelmed by the sheer amount of flesh she was seeing (her words), not being remotely into this type of activity in the UK we decided to call it a day on the spa and get back to exploring.

Outside we made our way just off Gellert Hill and into the Cave Church. It was still a used Church so it felt a little invasive having a look around whilst people attended their local mass, but all the tourists wondered around quietly admiring the building. We only needed a short time there as it was quite small, but it was very peaceful and a nice cool place to be away from the 28 degree heat.
We moved on and went back to Pest for lunch at an Italian restaurant called La Botte, which was lovely. The staff were very considerate and thoroughly checked all the items Jen had requested on the menu for any traces of her allergens. After wondering around more shops for quite some time we headed to our hotel to get ready for an evening meal at Hard Rock Cafe.

We made the walk from our hotel into the centre of Pest, going past the Hungarian Parliament and the monument, Shoes on the Danube Bank, which is to honour people who were killed during World War II.
Once at Hard Rock Cafe, we had a lovely salmon dinner and I enjoyed a cocktail before we went in search of the infamous run bars, coming quite easily across one of the most well known, Szimpla Kert.

Honestly, what an unusual place.

MissIsGoode