This is a continuation of my story about our trip to Budapest. Our trip took place in April 2018 and lasted for two weeks. We were lucky to visit Hungarian village Tapolca, to spend a few days in Vienna and to rest in beautiful Austrian village Hallstatt. We planned five days for Budapest. However, notes about each of those days separately may serve as a good guidance for your trip even if you stay in this wonderful city just for one or two days. This article describes a tour that covers almost all the sights in Budapest. Are you ready to walk a lot?
The next 34,5 km walking through Budapest
The next day early in the morning at the train station we met our friend, who arrived from Prague for a weekend to join us. At the picture you can see the main entrance to the train station Keleti-pu.
Together we headed to Heroes’ Square (hung. Hősök tere). We planned to see Dracula’s Castle, the building of the most prestigious bathhouse in the city and the city park Városliget itself. This park is so beautiful in the spring time! I was surprised that the trees that are usually blooming one after another in Almaty bloomed here simultaneously: syringa (both white and purple), chestnut, elderberry, acacia. At the same time there was poplar fluff flying here and there, yellow dandelions were dazzling on the lawn, tulips and forget-me-nots were blooming! What a bouquet!
Walk along Andrássy Avenue
Heroes’ Square is famous for being framed for the celebration of the Hungarian Millennium in 1896.. Andrassy Avenue leads directly to the city centre. It is actually a solemn path to the Heroes’ Square. Along Andrassy Avenue there is a cosy alley. You will see the House of Terror (the museum of fascism) and the building of the Opera House on the same avenue.
The House of Terror (museum of fascism) is designed completely without mercy to anyone’s feelings, they say. They demonstrated everything the way it use to be at real. It wasn’t something I wanted to see, I reread many Novels by Erich Maria Remarque, seeing thing he has described in his books with my own eyes … would be too scary.
The opera house, which we saw a little later, was under reconstruction. We could not find a good point of view to take a nice photo.
Lunch in Jewish tradition
Budapest Citadel
After lunch we realized that we have already completed the day plan for viewing the sights of Pest. Therefore we decided to go again in the direction of the Buda Castle, so we could be there in the the evening time and see the lights of the city from above. We passed by our friend’s hostel, so he could leave his backpack there. Flow Hostel is located on the fourth floor of a residential building, and it was also interesting to look inside. Building is quite unusual. Then we moved to the “Liberty Bridge” (Szabadság híd). It leads directly to the Citadel. Hapsburgs built this Citadel in 1854 after the Hungarian revolution (they suppressed the people, and decided to protect themselves with a wall).
On the other side of the hill there is a big beautiful park! We did not miss the opportunity to lie down a bit on the grass in the shade of the trees. Our feet were tired of walking and 15 minutes of rest in such a quiet park were so pleasant!
After that we climbed to the top and enjoyed the views. Having gone down we approached the Buda Castle from the other side. From the side of Citadel the ascent seemed to be quite fast. By 6 pm we were at the castle. We managed to walk again through the Fishermen’s Bastion and around the Matthias Church. We waited for the darkness on the square in front of the castle and enjoyed the views of the night city lights.
Hungarian national cuisine in vegan version
We were lucky to find a purely vegan restaurant for dinner this evening! YES YES! The dish on the pictures is cruelty-free! However, we are not one of those who miss the taste of meat. The sausages were just as usual ones and that was kind of… weird and not comfortable. Well, we would not cook this at home, but the fact that we were able to try a national dish in a new country without sacrificing our views on the world brought us great satisfaction. On the picture you see traditional cabbage rolls (stuffed with rice with seitan, a side dish of sour stewed cabbage). It was good and special! However, they have varied menu, it is not necessary to order seitan! 😀 And desserts are just amazing! Yammm!!!! At the same time, prices were even lower than in other restaurants with a regular menu (we spent less then 8000 HUF for two). Moreover, the restaurant has many visitors and it is fascinating! So, for those who are just thinking of switching to veganism and who is afraid they will miss animal products – this restaurant will be a godsend, for sure!
Unfortunately, our friend was not as enthusiastic as we were. His choice was pizza Margherita with vegan cheese. “It tastes fine, but after a couple of hours I will be hungry again,” was his conclusion. However he was right, so if you have a strong appetite, better order something more satiating than pizza. Probably, Stas would also order seitan if we explained him what it is. He tried our dish as well and he liked it. Restaurant’s name is Napfényes Cukrászda és Pékség (Address: Ferenciek tere 2, 1053).
As a result, on the second day in Budapest we walked 34.5 km! We arrived at the hotel with a subway very tired but satisfied. Our route is sketched on the map here:
