Trip to Budapest

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Well I won't write too much here cos I've told you all about my trip in the group email. But I'll just say that Budapest really is a beautiful city! The people are really friendly, and even though not many people speak much english, they knew enough for us to get around no probs, and it's always more fun when not everyone can speak english! :P
I've put some pics up, so i hope you like them! I seriously got so excited by the view down on the Danube River the first time i saw it at night that i took about 60 photos then decided that was probably a little excessive so had to delete a lot! haha, but it really is so gorgeous. I've also put some up from the little town i visited just out of the city...this was definately one of the highlights of all my travels as i felt like i really got a feel for what the small hungarian villages are like and i reckon if hungary wasn't so far away from everything and everyone i'd seriously consider living there - such a relaxed, sleepy town vibe 😊 And a gorgeous location for a little village on the banks of the Danube and surrounded be the hills. For everyone who i went to school with, remember the book 'Elli'? At the start she describes her little Hungarian town, and i just kept thinking thats exactly what it was like. Definately worth the day trip from Budapest 😊

So it was a great long weekend, and I've decided i really like eastern europe cos it has so much culture and character. And the cities themselves are so beautiful! I hope you like the pics! 😊

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Photos

Chain Bridge
This was the gorgeous view at night of Chain Bridge over the Danube River (with the help of some awesome photography of course..) :P you can kind of see the castle in the background...

millenium monument
The Millenium Monument in Hero's Square. Behind this monument is the city park and the outdoor hot baths we went to...

The Royal Palace
Looking across the Danube to the Royal Palace up on Castle Hill was so beautiful! The Chain Bridge is just to the right, it really is a breathtaking view...

The Christmas Market
The cute chrissie market was full of little stalls selling christmas gifts, souveniers, traditional hungarian food, and hot mulled wine. It smelt so good!! There was also a little stage with live irish music. Very festive!!

Matthias Church
Taken from Chain Bridge, up on the hill is Matthias church...a beautiful gothic church over 900 years old and where they used to crown the Kings...

The view from castle hill
This was the view from in front of the royal palace overlooking the 'Pest' side of the city. The gothic building on the left is the parliament building...pretty impressive parliament hey??

Parliament
Another picture of the parliament building from outside the matthias church...awesome views of the city from here!!

Just hanging out...
Don't know who this guy is suppose to be...but hey...

'Buda'
This is the view off the other side of castle hill...this side of the river is known as 'Buda', while the other side is 'Pest'...

the metro
The trains on the Budapest metro certainly had an old 'communist' feel to them...

cool photography...haha...
Was quite proud of this photo, lol...not exactly sure what this statue is, but it stands on top of the hill over looking the city and looks like it's probably something pretty important...

a touching memorial...
Stumbled across this touching holocaust memorial while on my way to parliament building.

Visegrad
This is the gorgeous little village i went to one afternoon...about an hour from Budapest, it was so so beautiful. On top of the hill is the Cittadella ruins...

From the ferry...
It was so fun..i had to catch the ferry across to Visegrad, and the village looked so pretty across the river.

Little Visegrad Houses...
The village itself was so cute, with little cottage-like houses and pine trees everywhere...

Sunset over the Danube...
I was lucky enough to see one of the most beautiful sunsets from this village i've ever seen...