Europe 1012: Day 6 - Budapest

I'll start this post with a picture of Anya sleeping one morning in Budapest. It's too cute not to include:

We got up and had breakfast at the hotel buffet, which was amazing, once again.

Then, we headed to Buda, which is the other side of Budapest. It is built on a hill so we rode the funicular up the hill. The view from Buda is absolutely amazing. We were able to find a couple of people who spoke English and agreed to take our picture...

We utilized yet another Rick Steves tour of Castle Hill, as Buda is sometimes known. There is a lot of history to the hill, but supposedly the reconstruction of the sites doesn't do it justice. We stopped and got some snacks and more streudel, of course. Then, we visited St. Matthias Church. It was beautiful from the outside and seemed to have a beautiful interior, but unfortunately, it was under some heavy construction, so I'm afraid we did not get the full effect with our visit.

When we were finished visiting Buda, we headed to St. Margaret Island. St. Margaret Island is located in the northern part of Budapest and is one large area of green. We saw lots of bikers, runners, and walkers. We stopped to let Anya play on a playground for awhile and got some ice cream. Then, we headed back to Pest where we were staying. In one of the squares, we decided to stop and have more langos though it wasn't as good as the langos we had at the Great Market Hall. Next, we did some shopping at a market. We bought Anya a new doll dressed in traditional Hungarian clothing. She wanted to hold and hug each doll they had until she finally chose the first doll she picked up. Later that night, she told us she had named her "Hugs."

After dropping some things off at the hotel , we had dinner at restaurant recommended by Rick Steves. We got to sit outside because it was a beautiful night with perfect weather. We had bread, goulash, pork with braised onions and corn mush, wine, coffe, and chocolate cake. Once again, the food was amazing, though we decided that goulash wasn't our favorite. It is one of THE dishes to try in Hungary but, while we liked it, some of the other dishes we had while in Budapest were much better. During dinner, we sat across from a couple from Australia. They had just come from Vienna, which is where we were going in a few days. It is great to sit and chat with other tourists from other countries to understand their perspectives of European cities.