Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Budapest: Day 3

Tuesday began with uncertainty. We had planned on going to the Cave Church, but ended up getting started a little later and didn't think that it would be open because my Budapest book said it had weird hours. Instead we stayed at the hostel and watched the Revolution Day service out the window. The streets were crowded so I am not sad that we stayed inside. When we left we headed to get some lunch. The waiter seemed to be a bit slow getting to us, but we both enjoyed the food and had strudel for dessert.

After lunch we went to the hostel to plan the rest of our afternoon. We were not certain of where to go because it was Revolution Day, so we went to try to see if the Cave Church was open. We missed the entrance because we were looking on the wrong side of the road, but kept walking anyways and went up a hilly path to a cool looking structure/monument. Buda is very different from Pest because Buda is hilly and has more nature around it. Pest is just like a city, but it has some historical buildings too. From where we were on the hill we could see the Castle District which was our original plan for the day. The Elizabeth Bridge was closed to cars for the day and pedestrians were allowed to walk on it instead of using the regular footpaths (I am actually uncertain if it has footpaths, but I assume it does because the others do). We didn't cross it but went down one of the closed off roads and approached Buda Castle. It was neat from the outside, and also you quickly noticed that it was huge. We had pay to take an elevator to get to the top. The National Gallery and Library are up there inside the palace and because it was Revolution Day we were able to go in for free. It was a good thing that we went to see it.

After the Gallery we walked through a little market until we got to Fisherman's Bastion. There was a really cool looking church there, but we only got to see the outside of it. We walked down the hill toward chain bridge and realized that Buda reminded me more of Halifax while Pest is more like Toronto or London or something. It was dark by that time and all of the city was lit up with lights. Budapest is a very pretty city during the day but it is even nicer looking at night. We explored a little and walked back along the river.

After that we had supper, played some games/read/slept.

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