Read ahead to hear about visiting the Parliament buildings, the shoes on the Danube and climbing Castle hill. We ended the day with the amazing Budapest Gala concert!
We allowed ourselves a lie in this morning and treated ourselves to some pastries from the supermarket next to our hostel. Once we managed to drag ourselves out of bed we headed over to the Parliament building, which is truly beautiful. Having seen it the previous night all lit up it was nice to see it looked just as stunning in the light of the day.
From the Parliament building we walked down alongside the river, stopping at the 'Shoes on the Danube'. The monument remembers the Jews that were killed in WWII by fascist militiamen. It was a touching memorial on a misty winters morning.
We then walked across the famous Chain Bridge, crossing from Pest into Buda. Our aim was to get the funicular up to the Buda Castle but the queue was quite long so we headed up on foot. It was actually a very easy walk and gave us some fantastic views.
At the top of Castle Hill there was lots to enjoy and a day could easily be spent there. Matthias Church was incredibly stunning and I couldn't stop taking pictures of its stunning architecture, it was really breathtaking.
Right next to the church was Fishermans Bastion which offered some wonderful sights over the Danube. The architecture was very charming and made for some interesting photos. Just outside, by the statue of St Stephen, a man sat stroking his hawk.
We stopped for lunch at 'Gastro Origo Bt' which was right by the church. It was very reasonably priced, with a set menu at 3000HUF (about £7). For that we got some Goulash soup, chicken paprikash with dumplings and a warm berry cake to finish. The food was really nice and the service was very quick.
We also had a walk around some of the little souvenir shops, the only shops we visited on our trip. Lace seems to be a big seller in Budapest, as does little dolls dressed up in folk outfits. They still had quite a lot of Christmas decorations out so we picked up a painted wooden egg for our tree.
It was really lovely walking around Castle Hill, there were lots of statues to take in, I think if you did it with a guide it might be better so that you have more of an understanding of the history.
We then went for an early dinner at the 'St Andrea wine bar'. Holy Moses it really was an amazing meal. Despite stating as we'd had a large lunch we'd probably only have something light we ended up going for 3 courses. Adam fancied soup so we both had a parsley cream soup. For mains Adam had pheasant whilst I had wild boar. Both meats were absolutely beautifully cooked. We both went for a chocolate dessert to finish. The decor and atmosphere of the restaurant is really nice and the service was without fault. Our waiter made recommendations, talked us through any menu queries, it was first class. The price was probably expensive for Hungary but still amazing value. For the two of us the meal, including wine, champagne, whisky, water, soft drinks & palinka came to about £60 (including service charge)! I want to come back again and again.
We then went to the Vigado Concert hall for the Budapest Gala concert. It was something I'd seen online, for quite cheap and thought it was something a bit different. The concert hall is a very beautiful building and the show was really enjoyable. There was singing and dancing and although I didn't understand the Hungarian language used in the songs we had a really great time.
So that was our Budapest trip. After the concert we went back to our hostel for 2 hours sleep before getting the transfer back to the airport. Budapest was so beautiful and impressed me with its hospitality, its culture and I'll certainly be returning!
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