Seeing Everything!

Fishermans Bastion
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Going to bed early definitly has its advantages... we were able to get up somewhat early to start our full day of touring!  We got ourselves a day travel pass for all public transportation around Budapest.  They check your tickets regularly on the metro, so we didn't want to take any chances.

Our first stop was the City Park.  This is located about a mile or so away from the Danube River on the Pest side.  We walked around the park visiting a palace with an ice rink behind it and Vajdahunyad Castle.  We continued our walk around the park to see the Széchenyi Thermal Bath.  I was surprised by how it looked inside the bathing area.  I expected to see something very luxurious, but didn't quite get that feeling.  It would have been neat to visit one of the baths, but the bodies quickly running around on deck changed my mind real quick.  I am already having a hard enough time adapting to the cold with a winter jacket on!

Andrassy Street facing Heroes Square
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From the park we headed to Heroes Square and saw the famous statues.  The statues start the beginning of Andrassy Street, a main street in Pest.  There we visited the Terror Museum.  (Read review to find out about my experience there!)  From here, we got some quick lunch before heading back on the metro to do a bit of shopping.  We found a shopping strip for tourist on Vaci Utca, but not as many souvineer shops as we liked. So we continued our walk to the Great Market Hall.  Inside you could buy candies and fresh fruits and vegetables.  On the upper level they had souvineers and other trinkets for customers to buy.  The place was shutting down when we got there around 2, but it was enough time for Natalie and I to find ourselves a souvineer to bring home, both purchasing shot glasses.

Me posing with bridge
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From there, we crossed the Green Bridge giving us great views of both Buda and Pest.  On the other side of the bridge was a journey up a rather large hill to get to Citadel, a castle in Buda.  The hike up was rather easy with many great views along the way.  Once on top, we took a few pictures than headed down the otherside to make our way to Fisherman's Bastion.  The journey down took rather long as I found a detour of a way to get to public transportation.

Going to Fisherman's Bastion was another hike up a hill, but more stairs this time.  We walked through a more residential area, which was neat to see.  Fisherman's Bastion was gorgeous, one of my favorite sites in Budapest.  The architecture looked like a castle in stone that a fairytale took place in.  Behind Fisherman's is the Buda Castle that was getting repaired.  Seems like a lot of stuff is getting repaired during the winter time!  Up on this hill, we enjoyed some dessert.  I got a strawberry sponge cake and Natalie endulged in a chocolate mousse/torte thingy.  I am not too sure what it was.  Both were very sweet and difficult to finish.  After the sun set, we took some pictures of Budapest at night.  We then headed back to our hostel in hopes to find a Hungarian restaurant to eat at.

City view of Pest
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With little help, we picked a place and headed that way.  The choice we made was pricier than we wanted to pay, so we headed to the same strip we had been on the night before, but picked a different restaurant.  Here we ate, drank, and talked for I would say over three hours.  It was quite relaxing taking our time and ordering in different sequences.  Not sure our waiter enjoyed that too much though.

We walked home that evening and before turning in, we walked along the Danube River and up to the Parliment.  It was beginning to get windy, so we decided to be losers once again and head in earlier than we had planned.  The overall trip though had been wonderful!