Bubbling Budapest

My first visit

After settling into our beautiful 7Seasons apartment, Keeley organised a delicious pasta dish for dinner, while Kiryn and Stacey opted to go out for dinner. I simply did not have the energy. There was also a pile of washing as high as an elephant’s eye which I offered to do since I don’t do much else. The poor little washing machine was kept busy till late into the night.

I was unbelievably tired but could not get to sleep so dug into my medicine bag for help and slept soundly for the rest of the night waking to the tantalising aroma of bacon, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms and chorizo cooking in the kitchen compliments of Keeley again. She’s a fantastic cook.

St Stephen’s Basilica

Then off to explore St Stephen’s Basilica. It was incredibly beautiful both inside and out. The interior took 11 years to decorate from 1894–1905. The rest of the gang went up the tower, but I kept my feet planted on terra firma. Coffee time at Starbucks — I don’t know what Keeley aka Shelly ordered but it was delicious. We never give our real names to coffee shops — it causes too many issues. How do you spell that? A-D-R-I-E-N-N-E Meanwhile, I’ve passed out from lack of caffeine.

Then off to catch the hop on hop off bus which took us along the Champs Elysees of Budapest called Andrassy up to Heroes’ Square seeing many statues along the boulevard, all of which I have never heard of except for Franz Liszt and Zoltan Kodaly.

Buda

The bus then turned back towards the Danube and crossed over the relatively new Elisabeth Bridge and up to the Castle District in Buda which is the mountainous side. Lorelle jumped off at the bottom of the funicular. She’s addicted to them — we are sisters, but opposites. Everyone hopped, jumped or rolled (me) off at the top of the hill and went to find the wine tasting.

We found the most decoratively roofed Matthias Church named after King Matthias and the Fisherman’s Bastion which lent itself to our photographic endeavours.

We then walked and walked and walked to find the elusive wine tasting, but of course, it was closed. We seem to have a knack for arriving on public holidays of which there have been several in the last few countries we have visited. No wine for us!

Back on the bus to the next stop at the Peace Statue from where we walked, slid, run, hobbled (me) down the mountain to the Gellert Thermal Baths. Oh, what bliss! 38C water-— so relaxing and to top it off, I had booked what I thought was going to be an hour-long indulgent chocolate massage. Sounds delicious, right?

The Chocolate Massage

It turned out to be a salt scrub rub down, a body wrap for 20 minutes, a shower and then a pounding by “Mrs Hitler” who spoke no English, did not smile once, and took her bad mood out on me! I suppose she had had a long day as it was 6 pm by the time she finished with me. I walked out feeling more battered and bruised than when I walked in. Keeley and I climbed aboard a passing tram and managed to alight at the right stop. We were both famished or if there’s a word for more than famished, we were it! Keeley knew where there were some cheap restaurants close by so she led the way. We trundled into one that looked okay with booth type seating, only to discover the rest of our party had chosen the same restaurant and had already ordered their dinner. We quickly ordered something for entree and mains; we didn’t care what it was, and were amazed to find it was delicious and cheap and so huge we couldn’t even finish it! It tasted like tuna crepes for entree, and chicken was done in a variety of ways for mains. And so to bed…

Our last day

This morning, we had to pack up by 11 am even though our train does not leave until 7.10 pm. I dilly-dallied around until 12, so was left to my own devices. I was intending to catch the hop on hop off bus to the boat cruise but ended up walking and walking and walking. I walked down to the Danube and then across the Green Liberty Bridge along the Buda bank of the river past the Elisabeth Bridge, past the Chain Bridge and almost up to the Margaret Bridge, all the time looking for the bloody boat!

I walked back again, thinking I must have walked past (which I did a couple of times in fact) all the time looking for a boat! What I should have been looking for was the empty pier that the boat would pull into! Oh well, that was my exercise for the day! I finally figured this out but was exhausted and dehydrated since I hadn’t brought water with me as I had intended to catch the bus.

The boat cruise on the Danube

I must have looked like I was going to pass out as a lovely Irish couple gave me a bottle of water which revived me. I then hopped on the boat and just sat. When it finally got back to its starting point (on the other side of the river!), Lorelle and Kiryn were sitting on the bank waiting for the 3 pm cruise, so I grabbed our seats up the front and just sat for the next hour enjoying the scenery — The Houses of Parliament were quite spectacular.

We disembarked and found a shortcut through the shopping streets and came out right at our corner due to Lorelle’s navigation skills. I was amazed at what she could do without my functional brain. I would have gone back the same way I came which was much longer. Lorelle and Kiryn went off to find coffee, but all I wanted was water so I stayed in the reception area chatting to the lovely girls who work there until our taxi arrived to take us to the station. It was a 7- seater but there was no way 6 of us AND our luggage were going to fit in so Kiryn and Stacey valiantly offered to metro it to the station.

The metro system is so efficient that they arrived only minutes after the taxi. The train pulled in and we all piled into our sleeping cabins, much better than our Queensland trains. We are off to Brasov, Transylvania on the overnight train.