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

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

Whilst my last post reflected on Budapest By Night, we didn't spend all our time waiting for darkness. In fact, we were up early every day to make the most of the 30 degree heat and our 3 full days in Budapest. So, what did we get up and what would I recommend?

Today was the day for getting our bearings. We'd arrived at 2am and whilst the city was illuminated it felt completely asleep. We stayed at the Grand Jules Boat Hotel on the Buda side of the city and had a good nights sleep in our cabin on the River Danube. We first headed further down Buda and over the Szechenyi Chain Bridge, one of the many iconic bridges in Budapest, and made our way leisurely over to Pest. I hadn't known they had once been two separate cities until reading up on Budapest before our holiday, but you could tell that they had once been quite easily. They had such different characteristics. 

A view of Buda Castle from the Szechenyi Chain Bridge

Once over the other side we headed to Erzsebet Square where we found the Budapest Eye. We waited a short while and then hopped into our own little compartment to enjoy the view, which was absolutely beautiful. There was some construction work being done on one side, so we switched sides half way to both have a good view of the slightly more pleasant side. 

From here, we headed to the market just beside the square which Jen pursued for near to an hour. A true sucker for tourist gifts, she brought most of her presents for her family and a few for herself. After her shopping spree we continued our rather aimless wondering around the city, heading to some tourist shops (which had very similar gifts to that of the market stalls). 

Walking on, we soon came across St Stephen's Basilica (Szent Istvan Bazilika), which is in honour of the first King of Hungary. It was an absolutely beautiful basilica from the outside but we decided not to go in, I'm not sure why and I regret it a little now. 

We moved on and found somewhere to stop for lunch, settling on an Italian restaurant called Perfetto, which had the coolest wall inside the restaurant. Jen is allergic to eggs and nuts so we do our best when abroad to find places that are most likely to be suitable. The waiters here didn't seem overly understanding of the severity of her allergies but we communicated it in the end and unfortunately, she only had chips available. I just had a spaghetti bolognese (which is one of my favourite meals anyway!), and it was a really delicious one! I was stuffed after and definitely walked around a little more sluggishly. 

From here, we tried to make our way to one of the famous cafes' within Budapest. The New York Cafe is the infamous one but we wanted to see one that was a little less well know, but still very beautiful, that being the Alexandra Cafe. I'm kicking myself now because, as we discovered when we couldn't find the place and instead only stumbled upon the Alexandra Bookstore, it had been closed for nearly a year under apparent construction, though some people on TripAdviser suspected it wouldn't be reopening and the company had gone bust. Lesson learned, make sure you research your destinations a little better before you go! 

We had a well earned rest at the cafe within the Alexandra Bookstore which was perfectly pleasant, and then got back on our feet to head to Margaret Island (Margitsziget). I personally hadn't heard of this gem but Jen had done her research and I'm so glad we didn't miss out on such a beautiful location in Budapest. The Island is set just off Margaret Bridge between Buda and Pest and is full to the brim with beautiful gardens, restaurants and a trail around the whole Island which you can walk, cycle or take a pedal buggy all the walk round! We personally opted for walking but I'm confident our feet didn't appreciate that decision. 

We strolled for nearly an hour taking all the sites in before returning to a restaurant called Hippie Island. The restaurant was open top and the air had become a little cooler, so after dinner we began strolling back to our hotel though whilst walking we noticed lights and music coming from a beautiful fountain we had passed earlier. Realising this must be the Musical Fountain Jen had heard about, we hurried over to find a spot to view the show, which turned out to be amazing. We were hypnotised by the perfect synchronisation of the lights, water and the music.

We decided to leave a little early whilst an unusual advertisement was being projected on a screen of water, heading back onto Margaret Bridge where we got our first proper view of Budapest by Night. The reflection of all the lights in the River Danube was so beautiful and the Hungarian Parliament looked breathtaking. We took in the views for as long as we could before heading back to our boat for a rest. 

Whilst we didn't fill our day with all the tourist attractions, we certainly absorbed ourselves in the city  and thoroughly enjoyed going wherever our feet would carry us. We of course didn't let the tourist attractions escape us though and our next two days were filled to the brim with the beautiful places of Budapest so make sure you come back for more! 

MissIsGoode

We arrived in Budapest in the early hours on the 4th May – whilst we took a brief look around at the lights, we didn’t really take in the sites as we were desperate for a place to rest our heads. The next evening made us realise how little we had truly taken in. When sunset fell we were surrounded by the most beautifully illuminated city.

We had made our way to Margaret Island (Margit) just off Margaret Bridge in the middle of Buda and Pest – it seems that this place is one of Budapest’s best kept secrets from many young travellers because out of every blog post I read (which were numerous) and every friend and colleague I asked, none mentioned Margaret Island nor had heard of it when I returned and asked. And my, what they’ve missed out on. In the day time this is a beautiful island park with so many different areas to it that our weary feet didn’t make it to the other side. We came across a large water fountain that was mesmerising to watch in the day time, but so much more so at night – though I’ll get to that later. We strolled through the park as far as our legs would carry us before heading to a restaurant called Hippie Island.

The water fountain by day

It can be hard for us to find somewhere good to eat that understands and caters for Jen’s allergies (egg and nuts) and despite having a limited menu when it came to meals without these ingredients, they did ok at providing her with a meal that would satisfy her. As we sat in the open top restaurant, the sun went down and darkness fell so we finished up our meal and started to walk back to our Boat Hotel. As we made our way towards the exit of Margaret Island we saw a plethora of lights coming from the water feature we had so enjoyed earlier that day. We walked to it and found a spot that didn’t block any one else’s view and stood there for over half an hour watching the show. It was a light show, perfectly timed with songs that suited a variety of listeners. Some people ballroom danced on the edges, others made the whole park their stage and then there were the few who were oblivious to the view of others and stood directly in the way, but we tried not to let our irritation towards the latter spoil it. 

I filmed a fair amount of the show but peered over my phone (which you can catch on my Instagram!), determined to capture the moment but also experience it at the same time. As the show came to a close we strolled back slowly on the left side of the bridge towards Buda, with a stunning view of the Hungarian Parliament, the Fishermans Bastion, Matthias Church and the rest of Budapest to admire. We couldn’t resist taking a few photos.

The Grand Jules Boat Hotel we stayed on with the beautiful sites of Budapest in the background

The next night (don’t worry, I’ll cover all of our day time activities in another post or two!) we got a little dressed up and made our way leisurely to Hard Rock Cafe, where we knew for definite that Jen could find a good meal. The sun hadn’t yet set so we made our way passed some riverside bars and down to the Hungarian Parliament and walked alongside the Shoes on the Danube Bank, a heart wrenching monument to those that were murdered at the edge of the River Danube during World War II. It was quite hard to see and think about what had happened.

We moved on from here heading deeper into Pest and found Hard Rock Cafe on the edge of Vorosmarty ter (square). We spent a short time here, tucking into a salmon dinner and I had a mojito whilst Jen enjoyed a mocktail.  From here, we wanted to explore some of the sites within Pest by night. 

We were aiming for one of the infamous Ruin Bars, though with Jen unable to drink due to health reasons and I not wishing to do so without her, we were only going just to experience it. We headed to what some call the ‘mecca of all ruin bars’, Szimpla Kert. It was honestly one of the most unsual things I have seen in my life. Each room had a different theme to it, some were playing House music and had a rowdy crowd, others were more like a dark coffee shop with people at tables having casual conversations. We hopped from room to room trying to see it all and take photos along the way. It was fairly busy but not as packed out as some of the clubs and bars we’re used to in the UK. Had we wanted a drink it wouldn’t have taken long at all to get one as the bars were mostly empty. It was only around midnight at this time though, and with many of the ruin bars closing at 4am or later this was probably early doors.  

Post ruin bar tour, we began heading back to Buda taking a bit of a detour through side streets and eventually into a very large food court of sorts. The most unusual thing I found about Budapest pest is the lack of street lighting down the backstreets compared with the illumination of the rest of the city. Going down what were just flats and restaurants at night was as creepy as anything, but the rest of the city was blindingly bright. Whilst it is a relatively safe city, I wouldn’t recommend wondering down these streets alone. We passed through the numerous restaurants and bars, enjoying the scenery and headed back towards Margaret Bridge. 

On our final night we took the opportunity to take the last boat trip of the day (8pm) that was included in the cost of our Hop on Hop off bus ticket. The queue was huge and there were two boats that were filled up. We managed to get seats on the front half of the boat but the sun was only mid way through setting so it was still fairly light. We got a good shot of its final descent and some great views of the Hungarian Parliament – it’s just a shame we didn’t get to travel up the River Danube a little later in the evening. We could have stayed on and gone all the way back round, but that would have meant walking right from the other side of Pest to the top end and over to Buda, so we decided to get off at the only stop along the route, Margaret Island.  

Budapest is truly mesmerising by night and just beautiful in the day time. I'll soon be sharing my posts about what daytime activities we got up to!

If you'd like to view any of the videos or other photographs (if you haven't had enough already!), visit my Instagram! 

MissIsGoode