Day 2 - 5th December 2023 The Chain Bridge, and Margaret Bridge over The Danube

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Day 2 in Budapest

I woke up this morning at 8:55, it did seem like a bit of a sleep in, but to be honest, I had such a rubbish nights sleep last night! I went to sleep about 10:30, I was definitely tired at that time. I woke up to quite a bit of noise outside, and we are on the 5th floor! I looked at my watch…. It was only 12:30…. I had only been in bed for a couple of hours!! I laid back down p, but was tossing and turning for what seemed like an age!! Realistically it was an hour, or so. I got up to get a drink. It felt so hot in the room that my mouth had fully dried up. I was so jealous of Kerry, she seemed so snug and hard fast asleep. Thea next time I woke up, my nose was completely blocked, I couldn’t breathe, I blamed the heating again. It was still so hot, and dry. Another hour had passed. It was now about 2:30am. The next time I woke up, again I needed more water, and also had an extra strong menthol locket. I needed all the help that I could get! I decided to watch my iPad for a while to see if I could tire myself to sleep. I did that until about 4am, but was so tired…. And frustrated… still jealous of Kerry who looked so comfortable in comparison! Finally, I did get back to sleep….hence why I slept until 8:55!!

The problem with getting up at 8:55 is that breakfast finishes at 10am. We both got up, and got straight on it. Kerry was very pleased with herself because yesterday, she had thought that her contact lenses and make up had been left at the airport, which would have been a huge problem for her, but 15 minutes later she found them exactly where she had packed them! So getting ready this morning was much easier than she had anticipated!

Breakfast was minimalistic, but adequate. The baked beans were interesting, they had sweetcorn mixed in, but they were… ok. I managed the beans with a variation of what resembled scrambled eggs. It didn’t look like it, but did actually taste like it! This was accompanied with toast and butter. Kerry played the safe card, she had toast and butter with jam!

With breakfast completed, we went back to the room to get ready to go into the town centre. Today’s plan is to enjoy the Christmas Market, taste a chimney cake, and maybe see the shoes. As we left the hotel, we both agreed that we both wanted a decent coffee. At this point I have gone approximately 20 hours since my last decent coffee. Anyone who knows me would know…. That’s not good!

It is lovely strolling around the Christmas market, it is broken up with parts of the market scattered across different areas in the town. There is plenty of mulled wine, drinks stalls and so many varieties of foods, both sweet and savoury. Kerry and I are very similar in that we tend to eat with our eyes…. I have to say…. The pork knuckles are not helping either of us! The general food smells are lovely though.

We walked over to The Chain Bridge. The Chain Bridge is the oldest suspension bridge in Budapest and is the Danube’s most renowned, connecting both sides of the city, Buda and Pest. The bridge’s real name is Széchenyi, in memory of the Count István Széchenyi, who helped build it, but is commonly known as the Chain Bridge. Before the iron structure was built, the Danube river could only be crossed by boat or by foot when the waterway would freeze over during winter. On the right hand side of the bridge are the shoes. ‘Shoes on the Danube Bank Memorial’. Sixty pairs of shoes mark the site in Budapest, Hungary, where fascist Arrow Cross militiamen shot Jews and threw their bodies into the river in 1944 and 1945. It is a trail of iron footwear stands as a monument to the thousands executed along this riverbank during WWII. So sad to see.

We walked back up the the bridge to cross over to the other side to the other side. The Western side. Buda is the Western while Pest is the Eastern side of the Danube river. Buda and Pest used to be 2 different cities and were united only in the 1870s. The city was usually referred to as Pest-Buda from the late 1840s until the unification. Therefore it is now known as Budapest!

We stumbled across a really tiny, quaint coffee shop, and we were ready for a sit down and a toilet stop! We ended up randomly chatting with a Canadian girl who was out in the world on her own. It’s great to chat with strangers, you can learn so much!

This side of the Danube is so hilly compared to the other side, the steps are so high, it is actually putting us off going up there…. I mean… crazy high!! We trekked to where we had pinpointed on the map, then headed on to the next Bridge which is Margaret Bridge or Margrit Hid (sometimes Margit Bridge) is a three way bridge linking Margaret Island the banks. It is the second-northernmost and second-oldest public bridge in Budapest. This made it a long walk back, but with it! When we arrived back at our side we mingled straight back into the Christmas. Market. Now is my chance to taste the Chimney Cake. It is everywhere,! It smells amazing… I simply have to allow my curiosity to have a taste……. Well…. That was disappointing! It was ok, but not all that they lead you to believe it is. It was very dry, but the cinnamon and sugar tasted nice!

Then it was Kerry’s turn to treat her tastebuds, her choice was to have a slice of pepperoni pizza, which she did actually enjoy! I’ll be more careful next time…. They sat that curiosity killed the cat!! As we headed back through the town centre we focused on the shops. We bought a couple of trinkets, nothing major. I got a bit excited about Moonboots making a comeback! It was an easy meander back to the hotel for a bit of a relax after doing a lot of walking today. We have clocked up 19,749 steps today….. so far!

We decided to pull ourselves together after a very lazy hour relaxing on the bed! Much needed time on both parts! We set off on another walk to check out the escalator close next our hotel where there is a sign that leads you to believe that you are heading into a market. It was a slight exaggeration… although there was a couple of shops down there! So it was worth the detour.

On we march…. We have chosen to go out for a cold drink… for example… Kerry would like a glass of cider. After about 20 minutes we came across, ‘The Pointer’. It is, allegedly, an English pub. Well, maybe… very loosely based on an English public house!! But it was still a really nice, easy environment to sit and relax, and chat in. Kerry managed 2 glasses of cider, which she enjoyed. We sat and sorted out the world again… then planned tomorrow.



Tomorrow we are going Houdini’s house and The Great Market Hall. There is quite a bit of walking planned, but we are both up for it! We finished up in the pub; we both agreed that we weren’t, full meal, hungry, so we decided to walk near to the burger place that we went to last night as there is a pizza place next door. They sell individual slices of pizza. Perfect.



It took us about 10 minutes to get there…. and it didn’t disappoint! Now back to the hotel, and hopefully a good nights sleep tonight!

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