BUDAPEST - A rose bud in Eastern Europe

Many people when coming to Europe from abroad tend to visit the usual London, Paris and well known cities. My advice would be to visit cities in Eastern Europe for they are just as, if not, more interesting in terms of history, culture, language and food.  Budapest in Hungary is one of those cities and I once stayed a short week to get to know it. There are  monumental buildings  on every street corner, a palace, a national museum, massive freedom monuments, a castle, and beautifully designed and maintained stations and theatre buildings, all with the River Danube as the dividing line between the old and new part of the city.    

 I was fortunate with warm weather in early spring so even rode on the Danube on the river boat in summer clothes.  The river divides the new and old part of the city, the Buda and the Pest.  It's easy to get around and I would thoroughly suggest getting the two or three day hop-on hop-off bus as the city is fairly large and there is much to see but it is not quite as compact as say Amsterdam.  Budapest is clean, spacious and runs very efficient public transport. Prices are reasonable and it has a charm of monumental buildings but alongside it also authentically Bohemian style apartment blocks and cafes.  

                     Aerial view across the river from the Freedom monument (below) on a hill on the Buda side. The statue by the way is sky high and the trip is worth taking at sunset.

The big highlight in Budapest is obviously the palace which is actually the parliament building. All in white and immaculately kept with its many steeples, it is even more beautiful at night when all lit up. The tourist bus has a night tour which is special when all the bridges light up too so don't miss that.  Of course you can also hop off where ever you want to along the way.

 At night

 

 

Budapest obviously has quite a few bridges over the river and they're quite a feat in architecture.  Here are a couple and then of course the majestic ones. 

The Margaret bridge

  

Liberty Bridge 

 

 

 

Chain bridge from the side with the castle on the hill on the Buda side 

Chain bridge from the front with its giant lions guarding the entry

A visit to the famous New York Cafe is a must, just for the gorgeously rich interior. It's so beautiful you'll have to stay for a meal, including a good Hungarian goulash soup just to soak in all the detail around you.  The picture is but just a tiny caption of it and doesn't display the full horizontal and vertical view in detail of the ceiling right down to every brass knob as the place is quite big. It is actually the restaurant of a lovely hotel. 

There are many Baroque churches but also synagogues and this one below is right in the centre of Budapest, which is on the Pest side (same side as Parliament), about a twenty minute walk to the river.  The Buda side where the one statue freedom monument is, (photo above) has more hills, winding and leading to suburban areas. 

 

The stations and parks are also worth visiting. Architecture everywhere is a mix through the ages as remember Budapest was one captive to the Russians and Germans so they have had a few revolutions and the city displays their freedom movements and monuments in grand splendour. Another highlight is the castle up on the hills on the Buda side. You need at least a day here as there is so much spread over quite a large area and lovely views over the river. There are super restaurants and it's a busy beehive little city in this castle area so stay for lunch and when you're ready, take a walk down to the river instead of the bus to see more. 

There are also the famous baths in Budapest which I just didn't get around to seeing. I enjoyed touring on the river boat down the Danube and walking around all the lovely sidewalks and visiting Bohemian cafes and coffee shops just watching life and locals. The Hungarians were friendly, spoke good English and seem hospitable to foreigners.  If you take this river bus by the way, it will also take you to a little island, which is a nature reserve and park for locals. I don't have good pictures of Hero's Square but here again are wonderful restaurants, a park where you can canoe on the water and the monument itself deserves at least thirty minute space to admire. Budapest is a wonderful city to visit and you need at least five days so put it on your bucket list if you haven't been.

 One thing about the language, although I always learn a bit of each country's lingo before I go, Hungarian, like Turkish is extremely difficult and the words are very long and all jammed together!

The river bus