A weekend in Budapest, Sunday

(back-posted to keep chronological order)

Sunday we visited Saint Stephen's Basilica, wandered down to the water (where we ran into a marathon, or rather you could say it ran into us!), and then turned back to spend the day in Pest, which except for some shopping and lunch, we'd neglected the day before.

Saint Stephen's Basilica

Saint Stephen's Basilica

A marathon! Oops, run!

Heading the other direction, after checking out the great Széchenyi Medicinal Bath (unfortunately we were unprepared so had to skip a soak), we quite accidentally stumbled upon the Pannon Bországgyülés (wine festival) in the Városliget (city park). This turned out to be a great way to spend the rest of the afternoon, as we wandered from stall to stall tasting local wines and sampling local foods. It couldn't have been more perfect.

The Pannon Bországgyülés in the Városliget

After the long walk to the park, we decided to try our hand at the metro back to the hotel. It's an ancient system but apparently working quite well, and we only got yelled at in Hungarian once that we were going the wrong way!

Budapest Metro

Overall we had a fantastic, albeit too short, weekend in Budapest. I can't wait to go back and dig deeper into this beautiful and fascinating city.

This is the PUBLIC photo gallery; (this same gallery is linked on all Budapest posts)

This is the PRIVATE photo gallery; please email me for the login and password (this same gallery is linked on all Budapest posts). This gallery contains all the photos from the public gallery as well.

A weekend in Budapest, Saturday

(back-posted to keep chronological order)

After a divine breakfast at the hotel, we spent Saturday morning wandering around the local shops. We stumbled upon a hidden plaza; a veritable treasure trove of collectibles, pottery, historically traditional clothing and naturally, a gorgeous wine shop. We purchased a bottle to sneak into the spa at the hotel, later.

A cute shopping plaza and the Présház Borkerskedés Winestore

After a quick stop back at the hotel to drop off our treasures, we headed back over the bridge to spend some time on Castle Hill. Occasional rain torrents chased us up the hill, but it just added to the fun as we ducked into the museum to escape the worst of the rain, or just walked around getting wet!

Vista from Buda Castle

A fountain at Buda Castle

Finally we made our way back down the hill, across the river and past the hotel to look for lunch. We took our chances in a dark bar down a dark street, partially out of desperation to find somewhere to avoid the rain. The food was fine, but on the way back to the hotel we were absolutely soaked!

Rain!

But it made for the perfect excuse to visit the hotel spa for a hot soak, and to drink our contraband wine.

Sneaking wine into the spa… shhhh!!

The evening closed with a gorgeous twilight view of Saint Stephen's Basilica, and dinner at a little Italian place, Trattoria Mamma's.

Saint Stephen's Basilica

Tiramisu at Trattoria Mamma's

This is the PUBLIC photo gallery; (this same gallery is linked on all Budapest posts)

This is the PRIVATE photo gallery; please email me for the login and password (this same gallery is linked on all Budapest posts). This gallery contains all the photos from the public gallery as well.

A weekend in Budapest, Friday

(back-posted to keep chronological order)

It's been too long now since my trip to Budapest so I'm not going to detail the restaurant reviews like I normally would. I didn't take copious notes and frankly it's not the most interesting part of that weekend. It's more important now to get the stories and photos up!

In the middle of my world tour, I had a weekend off that I chose to spend in Budapest. My girlfriend met me there, and of course we had a fabulous time. We both arrived Friday; myself by plane from Berlin in the morning, and her by train later in the afternoon.

We stayed at Le Meridien Hotel on Erzsébet tér, a gorgeous hotel in a fantastic location. Right on a metro stop, we were walking or subway-ing distance to everything.

Panoramic view from Le Meridien Hotel

While I waited for her arrival, I took a long walk from our hotel on the Pest side of the river to the train station on the Buda side. It's a beautiful walk that takes you across the Széchenyi lánchíd (Chain Bridge) over the River Danube.

Széchenyi lánchíd

Half-way across the bridge, I met an animated gentleman by the name of Mr. Erdely, a Transylvanian photographer selling his images precariously wedged into the stones of the bridge, and very eager to discuss the history of his homeland.

Mr. Erdely, Transylvanian photographer

I bought a photo of Dracula's castle from him that you see displayed here. I may have to visit Transylvania one day just to see this castle; it's quite a sight.

After a rapid climb up Castle Hill and an even quicker descent down the other side, I finally found the train station. From there we enjoyed a tranquil afternoon and a nice, albeit expensive, dinner at Rézkakas Vendéglö. Probably not quite worth the expense but it was enjoyable, and we were entertained by a live "gypsy" band (a bit of a misnomer, if you ask me… gypsies playing in an expensive restaurant… ha!), and were educated on the finer points of Heimann wine, a Hungarian favorite.

Gypsy band at Rézkakas Vendéglö

Delicious Heimann Syrah

This is the PUBLIC photo gallery; (this same gallery is linked on all Budapest posts)

This is the PRIVATE photo gallery; please email me for the login and password (this same gallery is linked on all Budapest posts). This gallery contains all the photos from the public gallery as well.