Weekend in Budapest

I am convinced that something must happen to me whenever I travel. For this trip, one of our tour mates was left behind at Stansted airport because she was marginally late for the boarding. Of course, one could say that it was her mistake to try to do some last minute shopping... Anyway, the rest of us reached Budapest safely despite worrying for our lost friend. Although I have been to Budapest before, I could not recognise the sights. Perhaps it was because it was winter back then. That be said, I remembered that it was difficult to find english translations and that was still the case. Luckily, we did some research before coming. 

Sure enough, bad things followed one another. We were late for the checking in into our apartment and were told to return by another timing. As a result, we only managed a short tour about the city centre. After dumping our bags in the beautiful apartment, we went to the park where the Szechenyi bath house was located. Again, time was not on our side. With our half an hour to the closing of the thermal baths, we were not keen on just the 'public swimming pool' at 2k HUF.

Szechenyi Bathhouse

One thing I must compliment, the streets in Budapest were really clean and spacious.

Heroes' Square

St. Stephen's Basilica

Of course that night was the UEFA finals and what better way to soak in the atmosphere (good or bad) other than at a pub. At this stage, our friend was still uncontactable. Talk about worried sick. It was a little dampener on our trip.

Watching UEFA finals at a pub

Luckily, we decided to check our vicinity for another time. This time round, we managed to meet up with her. As WY said, case was solved and that was the end of a tiring day. Then again, we have effectively only a single day to complete the city...


And the next day began under the leadership of our food IC, JK. With barely anything in our stomach, our first trip was to some pastry place where we had ice cream among others for breakfast... To be honest, Hungarian sponge cake tasted a bit similar to Tiramisu and equally yummy. With a calorie-heavy breakfast, we joined the free walking tour to walk it off.

At Gerbeaud

Crossing the chain bridge

Lots of walking and explanation and the best part was, it's free! A lovely (maybe a little too hot, but definitely better than London's) day for a walk. The last stop of the tour was at Mathias church and finally, this was one location which I remembered. LOL. The scenery during Winter and pre-Summer can be so different.

Looking at the Parliament building from Fishermen's Bastion

Sunset over Danube river from Gellert hill

Although I have been to quite a couple of places, this was one of the few where I could watch the sunset cast its final shadows over the river. Simply relaxing and magnificent.

Goose leg confit

A long tiring day deserved a treat in the form of a goose leg. Perhaps the treat was too sinful as I ended with a sore throat straight after. We tried the palinka as well (something similar to vodka but surprisingly less fiery) at a cost of 1100 HUF (we got cheated somehow...). This dinner bankrupted most of us. LOL.

Guess what, we overslept on the day we were supposed to catch an early flight back. Luckily, we still managed to catch our taxi. This weekend trip has turned out to be quite an adventure indeed. Something I wasn't expecting.