Budapest, Hungary

View from our front door, into the courtyard of the apartment building

Neighborhood building with original bullet holes in the fascade

Sunset behind the Lady of Libery statue

Old ladies at the park, sitting backwards on the bench

This photo is for Wylie P!

Budapest at night

Beautiful mosque with teal tile rooftop

Colorful and unique tilework on the rooftop of the old city's Cathedral

Taken from on top of a tower, looking over at the cathedral on top of Castle Hill

Denton in front of the Denube River, with the Parliament building in the background

Parliament Building, 4th largest Parliament building in the world

They also liked fruit infused liquer... yum!

They LOVED pickled vegetables

at Margrit Island gardens

We arrived in Budapest in the late evening and stayed at a wonderful apartment we coordinated through AirBnb.com. Our host was David, and he left for us a welcome drink (a rose that is famous in Hungary), cereal, and even milk so we didn’t have to buy some in the morning to buy some. The apartment was small, but in a very local part of town which made it incredibly charming.  This part of town hadn’t been gussied up for tourists and we enjoyed exploring the streets.

Budapest was hot. It had been raining for many weeks through Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Prague that we were not prepared for Budapest. While we were staying there the country experienced it’s hottest day EVER at 88F.  Sure, we’re used to high heats in Sacramento but Budapest had humidity and we wilted. Fortunately, the city is famous for its original Turkish baths. We went to the largest bath to cool down and it was amazing. It was a bit expensive to get in ($15/person), but it had 30+ baths and pools. We mostly stayed in the large, outdoor pools but there were several mud baths, saunas, and Jacuzzis indoors.

Because we had been traveling for so long (6 months at this point), we craved to do normal, routine things. All the change, problem solving, and instant decision making takes a toll on you. So… we went to see Batman, the Dark Knight for $3 each. It was an amazing movie to see in the theatre (so many special effects that would be lost on a TV) and we relished the normalcy of it.

Finally, we spent one of our last days at Margrit Island.  The island was hosting the largest music festival in Europe (over 30,000 people), headlining The Killers and Snoop Dogg. The island had a bath, a running trail around the island, a zoo, and beautiful gardens.  There was so much green space and manicured gardens it almost compared to Singapore’s Botanical Gardens. We wish we had found it sooner because it would have been a wonderful place to picnic, toss the Frisbee, and people watch.