It was a slow start to the day and it wasn't until around lunch time I actually left the hostel. I managed to get a couple of tag-alongs to keep me company throughout the day, Laura and Alice (Pommy girls that I talked to when I got home).
So, started the marathon of a walking tour and got to the waterfront of the Pest side (Budapest used to be three cities: Buda, Pest and Obuda). Saw the main things down there: Parliament, Chain Bridge some pretty awesome buildings. Very similar to Vienna and Prague, but lesser impressive, with lots of traffic around.
We crossed along to the Buda side of the Danube and wandered around the Royal Castle Hill, which was quite nice. Hardly any people about, you didn't even feel like it was a tourist destination. It was very peaceful and very nice to walk about.
After Royal Hill, we decided to head up to the Citadell... where the best views of the city could be obtained. It was a bit of a hike, but I'm glad I've still got most of my fitness about me. The views were great! We sat up there admiring the view for around half an hour. There was also this massive statue of a chick holding a feather.
After that we wandered around the top of the hill as there was a nice walking path. Then walked back down the hill and across to the Pest side of the river again... along one of the other bridges. We were taking lots of photos everywhere, as there was quite cool stuff all over the show.
Eventually we made it to the main shopping street. I was the "bad" conscience and gave the girls that little edge they needed to buy some scarves they were looking at :-P
At one of the main metro stations, there was this strange little set-up with all these painted cows! Very artsy fartsy, but cool to see. And a club that had a water fountain above it... so when you look through the roof you see this rippling water, very interesting.
The girls had to book their train for Krakow, so we wandered to one of the main train stations... which happened to be the wrong one, so had to make it to the other one (quite far east of the other one). The train stations themselves were quite impressive. And one thing you have to love about European cities, you can walk everywhere! Everything is centrally located, which is great!
(Train Station)
So after our massive day of walking, we decided to go get some Hungarian cuisine for dinner :-) Met an Aussie girl in our room who had just arrived and she came along with us. The restaurant was quite cheap. For four of us, with drinks, mains and side dishes it cost 9000 forints ($NZD 70)
We got home and the girls went off to bed as they had very early trains to catch: 5:50am and 6:30am.
I started chatting with the Swedish girls and the American guys from the first night. We ended up heading out... just for a drink at a pub on a Sunday :-)
We never made it to the bar as we bumped into a couple of Hungarians on the street. They started chatting with us and we ended up drinking with them on the street! A real random experience. Oh, btw, Budapest seemed really safe at night, even with the molesting prostitutes :-P
It was a fun night, just getting some drinks from the local 0-24 and chatting with them. The two-Americans plus the Hungarians were musicians. They ended up doing some freestyle beat-boxing and rapping on the street. Our group grew when some other randoms joined us, an Irish guy and some Aussies.
The Irish guy was, I hate to say it, very stereo-typical. He was pissed and looking for a fight. He ended up having a bit of a scuffle with one of the Hungarians, which I found most amusing. After that, our hostel-crew left and went home to bed.
Such a random night but heaps of fun. That's something you can't really do in many places isn't it! I'm loving Europe's loose drinking laws.
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