Zara vs. The World: Falling in love with Budapest

We had such an action packed fun filled day in Budapest yesterday and thankfully it was a good 10 degrees cooler. It even poured with rain in the morning and I haven't seen or heard rain in a very long time so that was quite nice.

I think that the best way to start a long day of exploring is to get a good coffee. We were recommended a coffee house called Gerlôczy by Niki and it was really great, full of locals and off the tourist path. I had a 'Coffee of the House' which had honey, americano, whipped cream and cinnamon. Yum! I also treated myself to an almond pastry which was absolutely to die for! Great spot! Thanks Niki!

Heaven in a cup!

We weren't going to let the rain get in the way of our plans so with our raincoats on and hoods up we set off to look around the old city on the Buda side of the river. By the time we'd walked to the top of the hill the rain had gone and the sun was coming out. This spot had another great view if of the city, particularly parliament, and there was some nice architecture, churches and a palace to admire up there. We had a bit of fun posing for some photos up there ;)

Coats on by the chain bridge

Chain bridge

At the bottom of the hill

Outside the palace

Can you see parliament in the background?

Beautiful spot

Parliament

Church on the hill

Serious guard, I got a smile out of him though :)

Parliament from across the Danube

From there we crossed back over the Danube and stopped off briefly on Margaret Island. As we got there the huge fountain was dancing to music so we were lucky to see that. Then we spotted some cute little cars that you could hire so we were all over that and hired one for 30 minutes. Any longer would have killed us because they were powered by us cycling. It was great fun and we had a lot of laughs, Annalisa loved ringing the little bell to tell people we were approaching.

All set to go

Smooth driver

First time I had been behind the wheel in nearly 8 months and it felt good!

Cute!

We picked up some cheap lunch from a small supermarket and sat by the river near parliament and admired the views while we ate our food. Then we went and saw a tribute to the Jewish people on the side of the river; bronze cast pairs of shoes on the side of the river. These were to remember the Jewish people that were lined up and shot into the river...

Heartbreaking

Unfortunately we couldn't go into the parliament buildings because of all the construction work but we got to look around the outside and it is a beautiful building. As we were walking down a street we came across St. Stephen's Basilica. We tried to take some pictures of us jumping outside it but it didn't quite work out and we ended up with some funny shots. The inside was extremely ornate and we were lucky enough to see a couple inside who were getting married.

Attempt number 1

Attempt number 2

Attempt number 3. Oh I give up!

Our next stop was the most harrowing experience yet, 'The House of Terror' which is the museum of communism and the occupation of Hungary by the Nazi's. It was such a well put together display and very provocative. It was like an art exhibition. The actual building it was housed in was the headquarters of the Nazi and Soviet leaders so that made the spot even more chilling. When we left neither of us could talk to each other for a while.

The House of Terror

The walk from the museum to our next destination was very pretty because it was along the street that Hungarians called their Champs Élysées and did have quite a French feel with all the trees lining it. We had to rush through Heroes Square to get to the baths on time but that's ok because we are heading back that way for lunch today. We got to the Széchenyi mineral baths just on 6pm, perfect timing because that's when admission closed. This was a huge indoor and outdoor bath complex decked out with saunas and everything. One of our favourite spots was the 60 degree sauna, it was crazy hot! After we couldn't handle it anymore (a few minutes was all that we needed) we jumped in a small cold pool. We had a lot of fun!

We made it in time!

Nice spot

We were quite pushed for time there because we had to make it to the train station for 8pm but when we got there turned out we had to wait for a good hour to be served. It was quite an ordeal (trains in this part of Europe are not that efficient) but out of it something quite magical happened. While we were waiting Annalisa and I were playing the drawing game, a game where you draw each other. Turns out I am VERY bad at this game and when we did the big reveal we got a few giggles from the people around us. One of these people was a lady who then got her friend to translate and tell Annalisa she liked her hair. I'd done Annalisa's hair that morning so naturally asked her if she wanted me to do her hair, we had a long wait after all. She agreed and the rest is history. Never did I ever think I'd be doing a Slovakian girls hair in a train station in Budapest! Her name was Lucy and oh boy it made her happy! It was a very special moment, one that I will remember forever!