Day three in Budapest

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Woke up early once again and this time bought our breakfast foods at the Great Market. We ate them in the square across the street again. We then purchased tickets for the "hop on/hop off bus. Normally I think these buses are a great way to see a city for a low price. However, I do not think this is so for Budapest and I do not recommend doing it. The tour was not very efficient and they screwed us out of our "free" Danube cruise that evening. Anyways, we rode the bus around the Danube to Buda Castle Hill. We stayed up there for well over an hour, admiring all the different views of the city. We snapped many photos and also got to see the changing of the guard.

We walked over to Fisherman's Bastion from the Castle, and saw that, along with Matthias Church. We continued our open top tour of the city, heading back across the Danube to the Pest side. We left the bus at Deak Ter in order to get some lunch. We found a little place on a side street, where we could finally sample some local cuisine. We had the paprika chicken. It was ok, but I am glad we tried it.

After lunch, we walked back to Deak Ter. I was feeling cold now because of all the non-movement at lunch and was dreading the open top bus. It was the first time on our trip it felt cold. We rode the bus all the way up Andrassy Avenue to City Park. There, we left the bus at the Szechenyi Baths.

We read some stuff online about it and decided to give it a try! I am sooooooo glad we did! It is something to experience and I think it may have been the highlight of our trip. We purchased three tickets to the outdoor thermal baths, with a private cabin to change in and store our stuff in. We changed into our swimwear and went in! The water felt wonderful!!! Nice and hot!! There are a lot of people in the water and a lot of tourists too, but it does not feel crowded. We stayed in the water for about an hour and a half. When we got out, we showered and changed and went to get the bus. We were lucky. The last bus at that stop was coming by in about 5 minutes. It was also a closed top bus, which was good because it was starting to rain now. We rode in the bus all through Pest, checking out different sights, including the Synagogue. We crossed the Danube again, to go up to the top of Gellert Hill, to see the Citadel. I was bummed because this was the last bus to the Citadel and so we would not be able to see it. Well....I was in luck! The bus driver announced that we would stop up there for about 20 minutes. I got out fast and went to see the views and the Liberty Statue. The rain had stopped by now but it was very foggy. I still had some great views though. The bus tour went all through the Buda side and then back into Pest. We disembarked near the banks of the Danube so we could go on our "free" boat cruise, or so we thought. Apparently the tour company did not give us the correct vouchers for the Danube cruise. The man told us that we would have to pay again. Well, I was not about to pay for something that I already paid for, so we left the dock.

We walked back towards Vorosmarty Square and Vaci Street, to look for some dinner. We could not decide on anything but finally picked an Italian place that seemed to be popular. So, two of our best meals in Budapest were Italian! There was about 20 minutes wait for a table, but it ended up being well worth it. It was called Cucina, and had awesome wood fired pizzas!! I had a pesto pizza with mozzarella and gorgonzola cheeses. I loved it!!!

After dinner, we went to Gerbeaud's for some dessert.

Everything there looked so good but I chose a chocolate royal Valrhona cake. It was so good!! I also had a glass of white Tokaj wine to go with it. Both were so yummy!!

By now, it was past 10pm so we headed back to our hotel. We would awake at 6am the next morning so we packed and went to sleep quickly.

Our time in Budapest was coming to an end. I had always wanted to visit and was glad we did. It is as amazing as it looks. We had great weather also!!

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