Budapest Part 2



coffee at the Central Cafe before our trip to the Gellert

For the rest of the weekend in Budapest we took our time enjoying the city and its sights. On Saturday we spent the day at the famous Gellert Spa swimming in the pools and thermal baths, and getting massages. The hotel itself is absolutely beautiful with mosaic ceilings, tiled baths, and many pools with varying temperatures. They offer full spa services and it is very reasonably priced. The only downfall was the service at the Gellert Spa. For being world famous, you would think that the staff could at least speak English... Most of the staff members only speak Hungarian. They were all drinking coffee when we arrived, it took 30 minutes to get our tickets to enter (and that was speaking with the lady at the ticket window)... Her computer wasn't working, then the printer broke, etc, etc. When we finally had our tickets, we didn't know how to enter and we wandered around until someone stopped and offered to help us. The experience was relaxing and wonderful, but they need to train their staff to be more helpful, and they need to teach them English since people from all over the world travel there.

the entrance to the Gellert Spa

We all had a massage that day, and poor Josh came away like he was a tenderized piece of steak. He said that a 300 pound Hungarian man gave him the massage, and literally pounded on him at the end. When I saw him later he was in the hot tub trying to relax his aching muscles. The poor guy!

Restuarant 21

I finally bought a hat- it was cold!

After a nice day at the Gellert (I enjoyed it, but next time would go to a different spa), we went back to the hotel and changed for dinner. Josh and I took Marina and Andrea to a fantastic restaurant called 21 in the old town of Buda. We didn't realize until later that it is one of the best restaurants in all of Budapest. Well, we found out why! The service was excellent, and the food was amazing. We had a great time learning new Italian phrases from Andrea, and laughed our way through dinner.

Afterwards, we walked back to our hotel through the lit up city. We stopped for some pictures on Buda Hill before heading back. The city is beautiful at night!!

On Sunday we spent the day with Andrea's friend Peter and his family. Peter was nice enough to be a tour guide for us- we took the UNESCO World Heritage metro system out to Hero's Square, drank a coffee at a nearby coffee shop and spent some time at the zoo where I felt like a little kid looking at the lions, tigers, bears, giraffes, hippos, alligators, chimps, leopards, flamingos, etc. Zoo's bring out the kid in me:) We also saw Vajdahunyad Castle, which is near the park behind Hero's square. The Castle was built to resemble all of the amazing structures that were a part of the Hungarian empire at its most powerful time. Pieces of the castle include the tower in Sighisoara, Romania (we have a painting of that in our living room from when we visited Romania two years ago!), a church in Rome, as well as an Austrian palace, and other structures. Peter also drove us to see St Stephen's Basilica and the Parliament Building. We ended the night around 8pm and said goodbye to Peter, ate some pizza and crashed for the night. We had an extremely early flight to Milan on Monday morning- our flight took off around 6:30AM, and we arrived back at the Bergamo airport at 8AM.

Found another statue!

Hero's Square

The "Founding Fathers" of Hungary- the 7 tribal leaders



We had a great time in Budapest with lots of laughing with good friends, relaxing at the spa, and sightseeing with new friends. I would like to return to Budapest to see some of the museums and the opera house, as well as the other baths, but I'm not sure we will have the opportunity. Budapest is extremely clean, very cultured and has a great relaxed energy- I would highly recommend visiting this city if you are ever in Eastern Europe.



Vajdahunyad Castle



Sighisoara Tower on the left

St Stephen's Basilica



Parliament Building

Budapest!

Welcome to Budapest! It was an early morning...

Looking back at all of our pictures from Budapest I realized that I'm going to need a few blog posts to show you all the pictures! Josh and I went to Budapest, Hungary two weekends ago with our friends Marina and Andrea. This was our first time there, but it was their second time. I found Budapest to have a similar look and feel to Prague, but with a few differences. Both cities have amazing history, architecture, and plenty of things to keep you busy between the old towns and the newer parts of the cities. The energy of the two cities are very different though- Prague has a fast paced, busy feel to the city (which I like). Budapest has more of a relaxed and chilled energy, similar to Amsterdam (I like this too). This could possibly be from the fact that Budapest is famous for its spas and it's amazing coffee shops (and yes... they are real coffee shops, not like the ones in Amsterdam). The coffee culture in Budapest is one that I can definitely embrace! You go to these amazingly beautiful coffee shops in old buildings that look like palaces, eat AMAZING sweets/deserts, and drink excellent coffee. The shops are a place where you can relax and spend the afternoon contemplating life. This is the complete opposite of Milan where you spend literally 2 minutes in a coffee shop standing at the bar. You shoot your coffee, pay your 80 cents, and go on with your busy day.

The market had lots of sausage (apparently Hungary is famous
for it's sausage and this stuff is the "original")

Inside the market- it was awesome! I wish we had something
like this in Milan

Outside of the Cave Church

I have a weird obsession with mocking statues... don't ask

Coffee break at the famous Gerbaud Coffee House

It was super windy and cold that first day and I didn't have a hat...
The old lady had to come out- I was freezing!

On our first day we saw many things!! We walked around town and saw the market in an old train station (or what seemed like an old train station), the Cave Chapel, the Gellert hotel (which we visited the next day), and then we kept walking towards the parliament building, up the opposite site of the river to the Buda Castle which is now a museum but previously was the Hapsburg royal palace, the Fisherman's Bastion, and the old town of Buda. By the end of the day I was absolutely exhausted and we had to take a cab back to the hotel because my feet couldn't handle anymore! But it was a great first day.

The Parliament Building

Looking at Pest from Buda Castle

A really cool fountain outside of Buda
Castle- it was a scene of a hunt

the main entrance to Buda Castle

Andrea found a new car when we were there ;)

The Fisherman's Bastion

Old Town, Buda

A few things about Budapest:
-It is the capital of Hungary
-Budapest was under the Ottoman rule for nearly 150 years before it became...
-The second capital of the Austria-Hungary Empire
-There are technically two parts to the city- Buda on the west side of the Danube, and Pest on the east side of the Danube
-The spas have a Turkish bath influence due to the cities history with the Turks
-The city is impeccably clean!