Budapest: The Buda side and our last day
When you are traveling in such a beautiful city I think it is important to take in all the best views, even if that means waking up at the crack of dawn to have a photoshoot with your best friend.
Fisherman’s Bastion was built in 1895 and it’s Neo-Romanesque style architecture makes for a stunning place to visit. However, the real view is being able to see the Pest side of the city from the Buda side of the river. Directly next to the bastion is Mátyás Church. This church was built from 1255 – 1269, and then expanded upon in both the 15th and the 18th centuries. It holds a lot of history, and is a beautiful sight to see in the early morning.
Skylar and I woke up and were at the Fisherman’s Bastion at around 6:30 AM and we still not the first ones there. We walked around, took in the views and then headed down to see Budapest’s Royal Palace. We may have gotten lost in this area, and the uneven cobble didn’t help with the amount of walking we’ve been doing, so I would suggest a map before visiting the palace area. The palace area and Fisherman’s Bastion both give you fantastic views across the river of both Liberty Bridge and the Hungarian Parliament.
This was the most picturesque place we visited in Budapest, and I would say it is for sure somewhere I would visit again.
Next on our lovely day’s agenda was our first ever wine tasting! We went to Tasting Table Budapest which is housed in a wine cellar. This was an amazing experience, and right after we booked another wine tasting in Prague because we loved this one so much. The professional sommelier (aka wine genius) mixed just the right amount of history and knowledge about the wines with how to pair them. The last wine we had was a dessert wine, and it was so sweet I didn’t think I was going to like it but the sommelier paired it with a blue cheese and blew our minds. The other travelers at the tasting with us made it even better, everyone told us we were so young and they found it hilarious we can’t even drink legally in the States yet.
On our final day in Budapest we decided to visit the Gellért and Széchenyi thermal baths. The water from these baths is supplied from spring water, and honestly I don’t think Skylar and I know exactly how we felt about bathing with all of Budapest, but we did it! Gellért is a more traditional thermal bath than Széchenyi. The Gellért thermal baths were smaller and not as many tourist were visiting when we went.
Széchenyi was a tourist paradise, their outdoor pools offer beautiful panoramic views of their yellow colored building. If you’re willing to spend extra money on your thermal spa visit, both offer a range of spa treatments. But if you’re also on that student traveler budget like us, the tickets are cheaper online than buying at the bathhouses.
After our spa day, we were starving. So we headed back to Gozsdu-udvar and visited the Street Food Karavan. Finally we ate a langos after everyone telling us to all week long. It’s basically fried dough and ours had sour cream and cheese on it, it was delicious and I wish we would have tried it sooner. We also ate chimney cones for dessert and those were very sweet. It was more fried dough (we tend to go for these types of foods) with sweet toppings on the top.
So after we ate our fill of Hungarian bread, we headed to St. Stephens basilica for our final view of the city. We paid the extra fee (about 3 dollars) this time so we could head to the top for what would be the best view of the city yet. It was a great final stop of the trip as we could not point out all the different places we had visited the past few days. There is something satisfying about knowing something about a city you are only just visiting for a short while, I think we felt the most local after this day than we had all week.
One thing Skylar and I agreed on was in order to be treated like a local, and not be targeted by the many tourist seeking businesses, you have to dress like a local. Although the weather was around 60 degrees all week, most people were wearing leather jackets or heavy coats (which us girls from Kansas found ridiculous) paired with dark colors. So pack layers, and dark clothing and you will be able to blend into Budapest easily.
Currently, we are on our train ride from Budapest to Prague four our next stop. I just hope the Czech Republic treats us as kindly as Hungry did.
