Summer in Budapest: Day One

 Read ahead to hear about our return to Budapest, touring the Parliament building and strolling along the Danube...

We visited Budapest back in January (which you can check out if you look at the travel destinations tab) and we so fell in love with the place. In fact we loved it so much that when some friends of ours started talking about taking a break together we suggested it instantly. So in June we returned, excited to how different the place would be with a 35 degree temperature increase! We flew from Luton at 8am and arrived at Budapest airport around 11.30am.

We were staying in an apartment, Apartment Harmonie, owned by the wonderful Eva. Eva had been very accommodating and had arranged us a car transfer from the airport to the apartment so the process was very easy.

Apartment Harmonie was wonderful, we had a large lounge area; a kitchen with dining table; a good size bathroom with an amazing shower and 2 large bedrooms. There was air conditioning throughout as well which was much appreciated. The location was really central as well. We had a quick refresh and headed straight out.

Our first stop was going to be the Parliament building but first we had to get something to eat. We pretty much stopped at the first place we saw, the Grey Goose Restaurant and Bar. We lucked out because the food was so incredibly delicious. We all had their set menu which started with goulash and went onto venison stew. The set menu worked out really great value.

We then continued onto the Parliament building. It is stunning, it's the largest building in Hungary and it has such gorgeous architecture. I had booked us onto the Parliament building tour, which worked out about £5 each. It was so worth it because we got taken around such insanely beautiful rooms.

From the windows we were able to see wonderful views of the Danube and there were very interesting snippets of history to see like the old red communist star that was removed from the top of the building in 1990. I also liked the old cigar holders, where people would keep their cigars whilst they went to vote. If you have the time I would recommend the tour.

As we left the tour we continued walking along the Danube, stopping to take note of the famous memorial, Shoes On The Danube. The memorial was created to honour the jews killed by the fascist military during WWII.

By this time it was about 5pm and we were absolutely exhausted. Due to our early flight we hadn't really slept the night before and the 27 degree heat had worn us out a bit. We walked back to our apartment for an evening in, stopping first at a supermarket to pick up a serious food and drink haul. Adam cooked us dinner that night, some yummy pasta, and we settled in for a lovely evening of wine and laughter.