Trip to Budapest (part 3)

Well, here we go with the second day in Budapest, although in reality we could say that it's the first day, because it was the day that we started to explore the city and move around a bit, since the day before, the only thing we did was find the hotel, have dinner and relax for the following day.

We got up at 8:30 in the morning to shower, tidy up the room a little bit and find somewhere to have breakfast, since the day before we had seen in some brochures in the hostel where we were staying a mountain of catalogues and the free tour that we wanted to do started at 10:30. So at 9:30 we left the hostel to go and find breakfast.

It just so happened that on the same street where we were staying, on the corner, there was a bar that looked good and furthermore, the menus that could be seen on the sign that was hanging over the entrance seemed good, both in regards to the quality as well as price. So we decided to go into this place.

It was a nice surprise that when we went in they told us that they speak English, at last! Hahaha

That morning I didn't feel much like eating so I ordered a croissant with a chocolate drink and my 2 friends ordered the menu, one of them ordered a cappuccino, an orange juice and a sandwich (which was huge) and the other ordered an espresso, an orange juice and a salami omelette.

My surprise when the waiter brought me a croissant with a pan full of chocolate, just like the one that they bring you butter in. I just thought that this is what you get when you order a croissant, but no, because after a while, my hot chocolate still hadn't come... so I went to tell the waiter that he had forgotten my chocolate and he brought me another dish of chocolate, so I told him no, that what I wanted was a chocolate drink hahaha.

Everything was truly tasty, but what I didn't like much (which is something they also do in Belgium) is that they make the chocolate too hot, I'd say that it was burning hot, and therefore, impossible to drink and you have to wait for a while until you can drink it.

When they brought us the bill I was a little surprised, because my order was more expensive than my friends' even though they had ordered more things... but I'm sure that it was because of the chocolate as I had seen on a menu of the different types of chocolate that they were specialities and they were more expensive than everything else. I had also been charged for the first dish of chocolate that I was given with the croissant.

Once finished, since the waiter spoke English, we asked him where the starting point of the free tour was because we didn't really know how to get there, so the friendly guy told us, at it turns out we were only 5 minutes away.

On the journey to the starting point, we were offered the typical tour which is on a bus and it would cost 20€ but we didn't get the bus because we wanted to spend as little money as possible and the free tour is honestly the best way to do this, since you don't really know what you'll end up seeing. I'm explaining to those who don't know or haven't heard of it before.

So, the free tour is made up of volunteers who dedicate themselves to showing the most famous monuments in the city, they tell you a little about the history of both the monuments and the city itself, and at then end of the tour you pay them what you want, it's voluntary, so you don't have to pay anything (although that would make me feel a little bad).

When we got to the starting point, there were 2 girls, one spoke Spanish, that is to say that what she was explaining in the tour was in Spanish, and the other spoke English. We went for the free tour with the girl that spoke English because we were with our Polish friend, so that was the only way that we all would have understood what was going on and also it helped us to improve our English.

After a little while a girl who looked Chinese but was from New Zealand arrived, and because no one else was coming, the four of us and the guide set off on the free tour.

In all honestly, the tour was really, really good because she showed us practically all of Budapest although the area that we saw the most was Buda. Carrying on, I'm going to tell you some of the most interesting little facts that we were told and secondly, I'm going to put up the photos that we took so you can appreciate the facts more.

I will start by saying that Budapest is the capital of Hungary and according to what the guide told us, it has around 2 million inhabitants and you have to know that it is one of the biggest cities in Europe, in particular, I remember her telling us that it ranked 9th place on the list of the biggest cities in Europe. On the other hand, she told us that the Hungarians are very proud of themselves for being in central Europe.

Budapest is made up of Buda & Pest, they were two separate cities in the past that became one because of the numerous bridges that you can still see today. They are separated specifically by the famous Danube River.

The main bridge, or most well-known bridge, is the one in the series of bridges that was the first one to exist in Budapest, and therefore, the first one that united the 2 cities (Buda and Pest). According to legend, a very important man, I believe he was a Count, had a very sick Father on the other side of the bridge and when he died, the count could not be by his side due to the fact that there was no bridge, so after that, he ordered the construction of a bridge so similar situations would never happen again.

As you can see this bridge looks a lot like Tower Bridge, it's very similar, but I think this one is a bit smaller. This is because it's based on British architecture.

During the Second World War, this bridge was destroyed and it had to be rebuilt, and this is why today it's one of the symbols of Budapest. In fact, I remember that the girl told us that this bridge is found on some of the Hungarian paper money as a symbol of the city.

The girl also told us the legend of the lions which you can also see by the two entrances on the main bridge. The legend says that a man said the lions were not realistic because they didn't gave tongues and the sculptor explained that they did have tongues but he had hidden them behind their fangs. It's said that the sculptor who sculpted the lions threw himself into the river after the embarrassment of having to explain the missing fangs.

As for the weather in Budapest, if I completely understood what the guide told us, it's very similar to the weather in central Spain, which is where I'm from. That is to say, very cold winters and very hot summers.

Honestly, during our time there, the weather wasn't too bad, because even though it wasn't great, I mean it was cold, but there was no wind or rain or anything of the kind.

Once over the bridge, you can see a funicular which the majority of tourists get to go up the mountain but the guide told us that it was better to go up on foot, one of the reasons was that the funicular is expensive and the tourists are taken advantage of, and the other is that going up on foot is worth it because of the views that you see on your way up the mountain (that isn't actually too high).

Once we got halfway, we could already see beautiful views and we took some time to relax while the guide told us some more about the history of the city.

When we got to the very top we could see the sculpture of an enormous bird that also had a legend. According to the legend, this giant bird, well I don't actually know if it would be classed as a bird, but we'll call it a bird...

So, this bird represents new births and it's supposed to take care of their souls. A bird that guards the equilibrium and order of the universe. It's said that when the parents were expecting a son, this bird would appear in their dreams and grant success to the baby.

We were really lucky because we just arrived on time to see the changing of the guard and the ceremonial ritual that they do whenever this happens, we could see the steps they take and how they exchanged their guns.

Around the buildings you can see the beauty of the city, it's impressive how you can see the whole city from that altitude - you can literally see the whole city. This has never happened to me in any of the cities that I had been to, because in a lot of them you can see a big part of the city but not the whole thing. You could clearly distinguish between Buda and Pest.

If you carry on walking you will see a museum which, at the entrance, there is two dolls dressed in traditional Hungarian folk-dancing clothes. The guide told us that we could go to one of the shows where they teach the traditional dances, but we didn't have enough time to do that.

I'm going to tell you an anecdote that made us laugh a lot. As I already told you, the free tour was in English, and when the guide was talking to us about the folk-dancing, the Polish girl who came with us had heard F**k dancing - it was so funny.

A few meters away you come to a special market aimed at tourists, which is expensive, as the guide already warned us, so you have to suppress the urge to buy things that you will find in any other market for a cheaper price.

We carried on walking and the guide was showing us some very famous churches, of course they were gorgeous, because they didn't have any of the features of a typical church, they had roofs decorated with orange and reddish colours that made them very special.

A little later she told us the story about a statue of a horse which has worn down testicles thanks to all the university students and students in general touching them before an exam for good luck. As you can see this is another legend, because I don't think that it's true...

Finally, we got to a shop where they make traditional Hungarian sweets, some were filled with cheese, others with apple, others with red pepper... and they were actually really tasty!

This is where we finished our free tour, after 2 hours where we were given time to see the biggest part of the city and we got to know each other better. In fact, the girl from New Zealand joined us for the rest of the journey. We decided to pay her, each one of us gave her what we wanted, I personally gave her 2000HUF (around 8€).

Just after, we crossed the river in search of a market that the guide had recommended us so we could buy some souvenirs which were cheaper in this market, according to what she told us, although when we arrived we were rushing to the traditional fridge magnet that we always bought and later we found one for half price in another market place.

The market was huge, on the first floor there was all the food and wine stalls. I have to say that one of the specialities in this country is hot wine (mulled wine), don't ask me what it was like, because I didn't try it... I hate wine if it's not cold, well not cold, but just at room temperature.

On the upper floor there are all the accessories, decorations, clothes etc. In general it's a tourists market.

After that, we went to find somewhere to eat, and this took us quite a bit of time. This was because we tried to go to one of the places that the tour guide recommended to us and it seemed like it was close to the market which we were at, but when we arrived to the place, it didn't look cheap... (although supposedly, with the free-tour brochure they're meant to give you a discount). So we decided to find another place to eat.

The truth is that the place wasn't too expensive and it seemed and turned out to be very "home-made", I mean the food was home made so it was beautiful. My friends and the Kiwi girl ordered the menu which consisted of chicken, rice with peas and leek soup. But I don't like peas, nor leek soup, so I ordered a meat stew with potatoes and it was amazing, but for a change there was less food but it was more expensive. I imagine that it was because I didn't order the menu and because I also had a fanta orange and the other ordered the menu and a glass of lemonade.

After eating we went to have a wander around the city looking at different churches and monuments that we found along the way.

Finally, we finished by looking for a Rossmann that we had seen the first day when we arrived which was close to a McDonalds where we had eaten. A Rossman is a cosmetics shop which is characterised by its cheap prices.

But we didn't find it... almost as if it had been swallowed into the ground, so we decided to kill some time in the McDonalds by having a pie, well in reality it was a café that was joined onto the McDOnalds, I don't know, it was a little strange.

From there, we asked the waitress if she knew where there was a Rossmann and she told us, we had just been stupid and not seen it even though it was right in front of us (typical).

After buying some things, that of course I cherished as I had been looking for "Essence" make-up products since I had heard that they were cheap, we went to a shopping centre opposite this shop because our Polish friend had forgotten to pack her bathing suit and the following day we wanted to go to the thermal baths.

In the shopping centre we didn't find any bathing suits that suited her style, although from my point of view there were some nice ones, but for people who like a lot of colour...

I loved the shopping centre because it was decorated all over with Christmas decorations, lights and a huge Christmas tree with pink decorations. Beautiful.

In general it was more like a shopping centre, it was enormous with loads of shops from expensive brands to brands that are more affordable.

After this we went to the supermarket to buy a bottle of wine to drink at night, because the boat party that I mentioned had been cancelled... we bought a bottle of Lambrusco but red (very strange, but it turned out to be really nice) and we had dinner in Burger King. After, we went back to the hostel.

After eating dinner, we took a little nap to relax so we could start drinking and having a good time. After that, we went to bed because the next day we wanted to get up early again.

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