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Published: July 12th 2017
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We awoke in our new AirB&B place at around 9am, showered and we both called our respective better halves. I then took some notes on 'Top 25 Hungarian Phrases' whilst Dan plotted a number of attractions, restaurants and bars which our hosts had recommended (via their laminated notes left on the table) on Google Maps. Eventually at gone 11 we headed out for the day.
The first stop was 'Vinyl and Wood' a relatively new coffee and breakfast bar which was number 2 on TripAdvisor for tea, coffee and breakfast in our area. Having prepped myself on Jo Napot (Good Day/Afternoon) for the last 1/2 hour, I confidently(ish) spat it out in greeting when we walked through he door, it seem well received. Sadly they didn't have much of a selection of food (we later overheard that it had been a busy morning, and they had sold out of a lot) so we settled on a cheese roll and a yoghurt pot with granola and a coffee. When asking what we wanted (in Hungarian) they seemed surprised when we responded in English, the lady serving us said that when we came in and said hello it sounded spot on so
she thought we were Hungarian, obviously this pleased me no end :-D The food and coffee was good, if a little on the small side, and the staff were really helpful.
Once we had finished up we headed down to the river via a quick stop off at H&M. From here we could see lots of the sights and attractions Buda and Pest (the two sides of the river bank) had to offer. We got our hands on a tourist map and headed up the river. The FINA swimming championships are in Budapest next week so there lots of temporary stages around and some people were rehearsing as we walked past. The first notable stop for us was Parliament, which was very impressive indeed. It was a very regal building and was blocked off from the road on all 4 sides by either a wall or large stone borders, so it was just pedestrians and cycles which made it seem quite quiet and peaceful.
Once we had taken our photographs we walked on some more and halfway across one of the main bridges which was a good stop for a panoramic pic of the city. Behind us was
a small island in the middle of the river which was accessible by road so we walked down that way past some parks, running tracks and a pretty impressive fountain come paddling pool which was putting on a little show with its water cannons. As we walked on we found a restaurant/bar called Hippy Island, by this time it was coming up on 2pm so we stopped here for some food before walking back up to the bridge and over to the other side, Pest.
It rained quite heavily again for 1/2 and hour or so, so we took shelter while it passed, then we walked inland but inline with the river a bit past some nice looking churches before finding what looked like steps up to the 'Fishermans Bastion' an almost Disneyland looking place with cone shaped turrets and a large church within the walls. We made the accent and were Please to find we were in the right place. The Bastion was really nice and offered great picture opportunities of both the architecture itself and views over the city. We took our time up here and wandered around the surrounding area reminiscing about some funny Uni stories.
When it was time to head back down we made our way back to Buda by crossing the chain Bridge, completing the little loop we had been walking. We then headed back towards parliament to see 'The Shoes on the Danube' a memorial made up of many little brass shoes on the river wall signifying all of the Jews, Gypsies, Blacks, Homosexuals and other groups of people who were executed on this site by the Nazi's by being told to remove their shoes then being shot in the back of the head, leaving their bodies to fall into the river. On our route home we passed another funky little fountain and St Michael's Basilica, where I grabbed a coffee to keep me going, then we headed home showered, changes and panned our evening.
We had selected a couple of options for dinner and for bars based on our hosts recommendations. Our first choice for both fell through and we end up with our plan B. For dinner that meant a nice little place called Köleves Vendéglö which was in the Jewish district and served some traditional Jewish and Hungarian dishes. We shared a vegi mezze platter to start,
then I went for Hungarian lamb with spinach and sweet potato which was really nice. We finished off dinner with a double shot of the local spirit 'Unicum' which was a bit like Jägermeister before heading on to find a bar.
Our first choice seemed a bit too much like a club for us so we moved on and found a party hostel called Fogas Haz es kert. On the way we passed a memorial to the Jewish district in WWII which, through peep holes in the wall, showed the different streets as they were back in e early 1940's, which was quite cool. The bar(s) in the hostel were never ending and the whole place spanned 3 floors over about 5 buildings all filled with higgledy piggledy furniture. Unfortunately, being that it was a Sunday night, it was fairly quiet (at least when compared to its capacity), it would have been nice to see e place heaving, nevertheless we enjoyed a few pints and then headed home at about midnight to rest up.
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