I love Budapest!

Prague was cool, but there wasn't quite as much to see as there was in Budapest. And I think the bad weather in Prague put a damper on my opinion of the city. The weather in Budapest was beautiful. We got in pretty late the first night so our only goal was to find a hostel and get some dinner. After wandering around for what felt like forever, we found a really cute hostel and we ended up with our own room. Dinner was interesting. We decided to save some money and get food at the grocery store...so we made sandwiches, ate yogurt and drank wine out of our yogurt containers. Seems logical.



The next morning, we woke up and toured the city. We went up on castle hill, over to Margit Island, saw Parliment and to the big market. Back and forth between Buda and Pest, over the Danube and back.



Castle Hill was another castle but it was a very big one with museums on top. Not sure how much you want to hear about this castle, but it has been rebuilt three times over the past 800 years...damn WWII. Within this castle district is a big church (Matthias Church) and labyrinths that were created naturally by thermal springs. Here is a bird on a leash up on castle hill.



Next we passed parliment and continued on to the grand market. This market was filled with produce, meat products, dolies, souvenirs, everything. Here is a picture of what I bought, which I am sure will come as no surprise to anyone that knows me well.



So you can't go to Budapest and not go to Margit Island. It is in the middle of the Danube and you can get there from half way down one of the bridges...you walk onto the island and it doesn't even feel like you are in the city any longer. There are no private vehicles, just a few public buses that run people in and out of the island. It's adorable. There is this fountain that dances to music just like the one in Las Vegas at the bellagio, but on Margit Island there is chance that you will find a man in a speedo. We sat there watching this man for a little while, I thought he was going to go swimming in the fountain...turns out he was just sun bathing. I got a picture of him to share.



Last for the day, we walked up Citadella Hill. Here is Buda, where you can see the castle district:



And here is Pest with Parliment and we stayed on this side...and of course the Danube in the middle. Also, follow the danube up the river just past the second bridge and there is a foresty part...that is Margit Island.



And Erica made a new friend on our first day...



The following today, we headed a little bit outside the main city center to go caving. Now we have mentally prepared ourselves for some serious spelunking and I am all worried about only bringing my sandals...come to find out, the cave has been completely filled in with concrete steps and everything. Don't get me wrong, it was still cool to see, but a little disappointing that we didn't have to work for it. These caves are about 10 degrees Celcius and they were originally formed by the thermal springs that now source the baths in the city. So what is the next logical step for the day...go to the thermal baths!!! The bath that we went to happened to be located in city park right next to Hero's square so we saw it all. The bath we went to was called Szechenyi. It has floating chess boards in the outdoor pool and then inside are the hot baths. Here is a picture of one side of the outdoor pool from the top. PS I forgot to bring my swimsuit so I was the only one wearing a sports bra and underwear. Embarassing. Although not too embarassing to not go.