Budapest Day 1

A came to Liverpool to meet up with me before we made our way to John Lennon Airport. I can't believe that she still managed to buy clothes from Topshop while I was hunting for money changer in town before catching our bus to the airport.
Reached Budapest around 7pm but we had to wait for B whose flight from Bristol was 2 hours later. Luckily a bank was opened at the airport and A went to buy some chips to calm our empty stomachs.

Our apartment was really nice. Over here, they use gas for heating and cooking. We were lucky that the heater was very powerful and we didn't feel cold in the night.

We covered the Buda area on Day 1. Above are some of the pictures of the transport system. There's trams, buses and underground metro. However, all the vehicles were really ancient and really needs changing.

One of the nicest building was the Parliament. You can even see the reflection on the surface of the water.

Budapest was really really cold. I was wearing so many layers inside and yet still felt cold. The place seemed deserted as well. I wasn't used to going to tourist attractions and find them lacking of tourists. We thought we were at the wrong place due to the number of people we see there. Even the main streets lacked of cars most of the time. I guess everyone is still busy celebrating Christmas indoors.

We were making our way to Fisherman's Bastion when we came across this church. I really liked the architecture. There were even two small chairs just outside for use to take photo.


Finally, it was our first time seeing tourist buses parked outside an attraction. This area was the Fisherman's Bastion located on Castle Hill. Seems like the name originated as this was the place where fishermen guarded Castle Hill a long time ago. We could take photo of the Pest area from here too.

Its design does look very fairy tale like. However, I still like Neuschwanstein Castle in Fussen.
Our first stop for food. I ordered boiled vegetables which doesn't look that nice but tasted nice and some meat which was wrapped with bacon. It did tasted salty at this point but I wasn't expecting anything worse. Shortly after, A and B went to buy more armors against the cold. A bought a cute snow cap and B bought a pair of really thick wool gloves.

Next, we went to Buda Castle Royal Palace. I think part of the palace has been converted to the Budapest Museum.
The only reason why we went in there twice was to use the washroom and to ask for directions. I guess we've grown tired of visiting museum after so many Europe trips, especially art museums.

To get down from Castle Hill, we tried walking down at first, but after 15 minutes, we gave up and went back to Budapest Museum to ask if there was a faster way. There was a funicular but we didn't want to pay extra for that short distance.
In the end, we took a bus down. It was really weird cause the journey was really long, where we were zig-zagging down the hill, then went through a really long tunnel to emerge just at the bottom of the hill. So near yet so far.

We were hungry again by that time and decided to try some of the cakes. Don't they look tempting? Presentation was 9/10 but the taste......it was the worst cake I've tasted in my life. I ordered the white and brown layered cake. The whole of the white but was hardened cream. This was the first time I could barely finish even half of it. The other two cake were no better, they were so dry, too sweet, too horrible. Looks can be really deceiving.

It was only 4.30pm and yet it was already pitch black. I wanted to go up Citadel to see the tall standing statue and Statue of St. Gellert as I thought it was the gate that looked like Brandenburg gate in Germany but that wasn't the one. We took a bus up to Citadel, but at the last stretch of hill before we came to the tall statue which was called the Statue of Liberty, we had to walk about 8 minutes. Luckily for the kind old lady who told us where to get down, or else we definitely be lost. Seriously, the streets were so empty and the whole place was so dark. Hungary's Statue of Liberty

The panaromic view from there was really beautiful. It's so hard to take nice night view photo. Anybody wants to buy me a SLR camera?

Finally, we made our way back to the Pest area. We went to Vaci street which was the main shopping street and had our dinner at Casablanca restaurant. I had Asparagus soup and Monarchy Goulash which was strew beef with mash potatoe. Both were highly concentrated in salt that I wondered how many percent of the population suffered from hypertension. It was really really extremely salty. I didn't enjoy it.

In a nutshell, Budapest was Cold, Empty and Salty. Will continue with Day 2 in my next post.