Buda & Pesht = Budapest

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Buda & Pesht = Budapest

Europe » Hungary » Budapest
April 29th 2008 by wildcat007

Budapest Castle
On Castle Hill which is on the Buda side overlooking the river.

Sorry folks for the delay in posting. Internet access in Eastern Europe is not as cheap (as in free) or accessible as we had hoped. Anyhow....Buda and Pest are split down the middle by the Danube River. Our hotel is on the Buda side atop Castle Hill. Near our hotel is an old church under going some repainting. There are great views from the top of the hill.

The weather here is delightfully warm and sunny, a treat after nearly a week of chilly rain and drizzle in Poland. Perfect walking weather and so we took advantage. North of town is an impressive set of Roman ruins,part of an ancient village. It took us some effort and the accosting of several strangers for directions before we found the place. After this. we wandered around Pest's Jewish Quarter and the buildings of Parliament. The Parliament complex is huge and half the space is unoccupied, literally empty.

In the afternoon, we headed toward one of the unique experiences of Budapest, the public baths. There are 3 or 4 of these establishments where one can go for a soak in the geothermal pools of varying levels of warmth. Some pools were indoors

Parliament
Parliament buildings, Budapest

and others were outside. Although a public space, the bath had a spa-like feel to it. We relaxed for a bit and chatted with a mother and daughter fom Argentina. We stayed about an hour and a half.

The rest of the day was spent seeing the highlights of the city including the Budapest Castle, monuments, City Park and Market Square. We saw paprika everwhere for sale. It also occupies its own shaker right next to the salt and black pepper. There are different varieties of paprika but the main distinction is between the sweet and the spicy. Unfortunately, we did not bring any back with us. Still, even the spicy kind is pretty tame to the peppers found in Indian cooking.

We saw the most of Budapest that we could during the 2 days we were here. Then it was onward to Vienna by train, a 5-hour trip. We had the option of stopping a brief time in Bratislava, Slovakia but didn't want to take from our time in Vienna. Our travel guidebook warned us that Bratislava is a yawn so we didn't feel to bad about it. Next stop: Vienna, Austria.