It’s hot in Budapest!

June 20:
I slept very well! The guesthouse is really quiet and we had our own room, so no one walking in or out at all! There is even a little kitchen right next to our room, which meant oven rolls this morning :) A nice start of the day. One look out the window and I could see a bright blue sky staring at me!

Today, we explored the district called Boeda, yesterday we had seen most of Pest. We had to cross the bridge over the Donau to reach this part of the city and climbed the Gellért Hill for a great view of the Parliament and Pest. The Royal Palace at first glance didn’t look that impressive but the view from the hill is simply amazing! We tasted some typical Hungarian snack there and continued walking. Only a few minutes later we stumbled upon the Matthias Church with a remarkable colourful roof. Right next to it is the Fisherman’s Bastion, which looks like a Disney castle, but was built as a wall in order to defend the city. Really a must-see if you ever go to Budapest!

Even the parliament looks better from the other side of the river! We walked along the Donau for about an hour and enjoyed the sunshine. Our great guide book informed us of a ‘superb’ walk along another area of the city, where we would encounter many ancient buildings, great statues and amphitheatres. Of course we were very interested to see all those things, so we decided to just do it and walk another 3 hours….The walk was absolutely boring…the streets we passed were depressing, no sights in sight for miles and after 2,5 hours I got 3 blisters. Our moods were going downhill and we couldn’t even find a normal supermarket or anything else were we could buy some decent food. After another hour or two we arrived at Margrit’s Island or Lover’s Island as it is often referred to because of the many young couples we enjoy a romantic moment together on the island. No bar…no supermarket…no bloody anything at all…

And then there it was! A stall! We ordered the ‘warm sandwich with pineapple, cheese and ham’ thinking that we would get some sort of small toasted bread. But no, we got an entire pizza-like thing! We hung out at the park for an hour and walked back to the guesthouse via Gerbaud, which is a traditional Hungarian coffee house. Really a great day in Budapest! Our feet are hurting having walked for nearly 17 kilometres, but we did see a lot of the city.