Zara vs. The World: Budapest has a special place in my heart

My last day in Budapest was just the best. One of my favourite things about travelling is the people you meet along the way and today I met some of the of the best, Berni and Ákos. Berni is Simon's cousin's wife's sister. She is from a small town in Hungary and her husband Ákos was born in Budapest. We arranged to meet up for lunch and our meeting point was Heroes Square. It was so nice to see some friendly faces with some connection to home. As we walked through the square to our cafe for lunch Ákos was a fantastic guide and explained the importance of the statues and the square to us and the changes it had gone through in Hungary's recent history. He also took time to explain other important sites in the city we'd seen on while we were out by ourselves on the other days. You could tell he loved his city by the way he talked and I fell even more in love with Budapest the more I found out.

For lunch we dined at a lovely cafe in the park that overlooked the lake. They recommended various Hungarian dishes and we were both feeling brave so tried everything they recommended. One thing we were both a little worried about was the goose liver on bread. The bread turned up and just looked like bread cover in clear goo with a sprinkling of red onions (Hungarians love their onions), so not very appetising. I broke a small piece off and closed my eyes as I put it in my mouth, chewed and was pleasantly surprised! It tasted like bread dipped in oil (YUM!) so I happily finished the rest of it. I also tried another type of pate which was even more delicious than the goose liver. Everything there was sooooo good! For drinks we had coconut lattes and homemade lemonade and then for a main I had camembert wrapped in bacon (OMG!) and Annalisa had some pork which was also very tasty. By the end of the feast I was satisfied and stuffed. A great feeling.

Good goose liver!

What a feast!

Ákos, Berni and moi!

We then took a walk around the park. We passed by a man made lake that turns into an ice-skating rink in winter (I think I will have to come back to see that) which was very cool. If we had of had time we'd have loved to have gone to the zoo, especially after hearing the two of them talk about it, they love it there! It's one of the oldest zoos in Europe and all the enclosures were designed by prominent Hungarian architects so would be pretty spectacular inside. Over the fence we got a glimpse of the elephant enclosure with it's fairytale tower. The hippo there might be one of the luckiest in the world because it gets to bath in mud pumped up from the thermal springs that are under the city.

You can ice-skate here in winter!

Our next stop was a castle that was built around the same time as Heroes Square and is a combination of many different castles throughout Hungary. You could see many different architectural styles present and what made it even more beautiful was that it was surrounded by a moat. It was postcard pretty. Outside the castle there was a funny old man playing a violin and somehow he managed to get our attention. He was very hard to understand and at times I was unsure if he was speaking English or Hungarian. At one point he put his violin in my hands and then made Annalisa block her ears, it was a funny picture. He then played a few tunes and one was a Hungarian peasant song that he made Berni and Ákos sing along to. That was potentially the sweetest thing I have ever seen or heard!

Castle across the moat, pretty!

Two of the best :)

Ducklings!

Beautiful!

Gorgeous!

Girls having fun

Adorable!

What is he up to?

I got the giggles!

On the way out they asked if I had tried another Hungarian speciality, a sweet dough concoction which I had not so they got me one of those to try. This was another yummy find.

Yum!

Next we stopped off at Berni's work for a toilet stop and she gave us a quick tour of her work place. She is an accountant and works in a gorgeous building complete with its own chapel, library and garden. I could happily work there. They were so kind and offered us a ride back near our hostel and on the way to their car we took some shortcuts down some alley ways and got to see some more beautiful buildings.

They were so kind and dropped us back near our hostel and on the way Ákos kept telling us interesting things all the way back and even took small detours to show us specific places in the city. When the time came to say goodbye I was a little sad but just felt so lucky to have had such a great experience. Thanks Berni and Ákos, it was just the best!

Annalisa and I were buzzing after our afternoon out so we thought very hard about how we were going to spend our final night in Budapest to finish on a real high. In Vienna we met a girl from California, Brianna, who's travelling by herself and said we'd meet up with her when she got to Budapest. We arranged via facebook to meet her and then took her up the Citadel and waited to watch all the lights come on in the city. On the way we stopped off at our favourite gelato spot and the gelato gave us enough energy to climb to the top of the small mountain. Niki, Berni and Ákos had recommended this spot and said it was the most romantic spot in the city and I think it may have been the most beautiful thing I have seen on my trip so far. Wow. We were all mesmerised by how beautiful it was, what a view! I couldn't think of a better way to end my time in Budapest.