We < 3 Budapest, part II

Second day in Budapest, and we're still in love.



Our day started off, as it would every day, with a trip across the chain bridge.


Obligatory stop for photos



We wandered down Vaci Utca, a pedestrian shopping street, admiring the architechture. One of the first things I noticed was that everything was so big! A lot of the city reminded me of St. Petersburg, from the huge ornate buildings in the downtown to the enormous apartment blocks we saw driving to and from the airport.



First stop of the day was the Central Market Hall, and we wandered the aisles admiring the produce, salami and paprika stands. Upstairs there were some food stalls, but it was still too early to eat, so we headed back across the Danube to look at the famous Gellert Baths (beautiful), and a small cave church (meh.).




What should I have for lunch?



Back to the market we headed straight for the now busy food stalls. Surrounded by a large group of Japanese tourists, we shared a table with both a French family and many locals. Karina and I enjoyed the local sausage, and Erik tried the stuffed paprika. We might have also had beer. It was all delicious.




And for dessert this pancake thing that was basically a Beavertail. Yummy!


Going to the Opera or going for a swim?

By now we were sufficiently tired, and headed back to the hotel to pick up our swimming stuff. It was time to experience a typical Hungarian bath! To get there we rode the Millennium Metro, the first metro line built on Continental Europe. Just a short trip, and we were standing in front of the Szechenyi Baths.



This was the most extensive series of indoor and outdoor baths I've ever seen! We started in the outside one, heated to 38 degrees it was nice and toasty. Eventually we realized that there was something going on inside too, and checked that out. A maze of rooms containing different pools of different temperature waters, saunas, and a very fun pool with current that pulled you around the pool, we tried them all. There was an outdoor lap pool, and an indoor one with an aquafit class going on. People of all ages and sizes were lounging and relaxing, there was even a chess game going on in the outdoor pool. It was just what we needed after a busy day!



Back downtown we had hot chocolate and beer at the famous Gerbeaud Cafe, which was beautiful inside.

Then we were off to dinner at Fulemule, and back home to rest up for day three.


We never got tired of this view!

We < 3 Budapest

I don't know how anyone could not love this city. After a two hour delay leaving Paris, we arrived in Budapest in the early evening. It was getting dark, and the city was beautifully lit up, so it was pretty much impossible not to fall in love at first sight.


We walked across the famous Chain Bridge from our amazing hotel, Lanchid 19. You can see the hotel in the first picture, it's the one lit up on the left, below the Palace.



While searching for a place to have a snack and drink before dinner, we stumbled upon this beautiful Basilica, but I'll tell you more about that later.

We were further charmed by the incredibly low prices at our snack spot (good bottle of wine for the equivalent of 11euros), and had a delicious dinner at Dio, the kind of meal that we would never be able to afford in Paris. All for the reasonable price of about 30euros per person.




Less than 12 hours in and we were sold. And it really only got better...