Third and Final Day in Budapest

On the agenda for the day was the entire Buda side. We hadn’t ventured over there in the previous two days, so today was the day to explore that side...known for its castles and monuments (it has the reputation of being the less modern of the two sides). 

liberation monument

We started the day by hiking up a hill (this was Lauren’s strategy to tire ourselves out for the train ride). At the to was the Citadella and the liberation statue. There were lots of viewpoints all along the way that gave a great panoramic of both cities and the Danube River. We took advantage and did a camera swap with a group of men that were also hiking up. 

overlooking Pest

Finally we reached the top and did a little lap around to see what we could, but the Citadella, which was the main thing up there wasn’t accessible, which was a little bit of a bummer. We took in the views and planned our next move while we were up there, and then headed down.

Next, we went to the castle. It took us about 30 minutes to find the actual entrance but once we did, I realized there was TONS inside the walls. It was pretty much like a separate city in there! We walked around for a little while trying to find all of the buildings in there, including a cave/labyrinth that we didn’t end up going into. Here are some of the things that were up by the castle:

fisherman's bastion

bastion |ˈbas ch ən|

noun

a projecting part of a fortification built at an angle to the line of a wall, so as to allow defensive fire in several directions.

• a natural rock formation resembling such a fortification.

• figurative an institution, place, or person strongly defending or upholding particular principles, attitudes, or activities : the last bastion of male privilege.

ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: from French, from Italian bastione, from bastire ‘build.’

in case you didn’t know what a bastion was (because I sure didn’t)

courtyard castle

church

in the castle

We leisurely made our way down and walked through more residential areas of Buda and then crossed the bridge back over to Pest. There was still about 5 hours to kill before our night train, so we took the opportunity to find a nice, traditional Hungarian restaurant. There was a street with lots of little cafes/restaurants and we went to one and ate chicken paprika (the famous dish of Hungary). It wasn’t my favorite by any means, but it was nice to sit down and have a nice meal for a change. We then headed back to our hostel and said our goodbyes and gathered our things. 

Somehow, we slightly miscalculated how long it would take to get to the train station. It was partly due to missing the metro, but anyway... we definitely ended up being THOSE PEOPLE who are literally running to make sure they don’t miss their flight/train. I usually think it’s stressful when I see people running and I say a little prayer they’ll make it. But let me tell you, it is MUCH more stressful when the person running is you!! We made it in plenty of time and got on the train. Phew!

I was really excited for Istanbul, but definitely NOT excited about riding on a 24 hour train to get there.