We landed in Budapest around 2 pm and settled into our hotel, Starlight Hotel, which was very centrally located in Pest.
Technically, Budapest is two different areas, Buda and Pest. They were joined together officially in 1873. However, throughout our trip people like tour guides referred to the areas separately. Buda is lusher with pretty hills, while Pest seemed more metropolitan.
The weather was beautiful! 73 degrees and sunny!
We headed out right away to the State Opera House to buy tickets for a show during our trip. We had heard that the Opera House was a must-see and that seeing a show was the same price or cheaper than a guided tour. I read that this is possible because the arts are heavily subsidized so tickets are cheap. We wanted to see an opera playing Sunday night, but it was sold out so we bought tickets to see the ballet Swan Lake that night.
The money here is crazy! Hungary is a part of the EU, but is not allowed to join the euro until it makes improvements in their economic structure. So they use forints instead, which are like using pesos. 233 forints equals 1 US dollar right now. Therefore, my Swan Lake ticket was about 6,500 or about $28. Let me tell you, one feels very cool withdrawing 10,000 from an ATM.
After securing out tickets we headed over to St. Stephen’s Basilica.
We couldn’t go all the way into the church because there was a wedding ceremony going on. But, I did manage to get a few good photos....We also went all the up to the top of the dome for great views of Budapest!
We headed back to the hotel to get ready for the evening. We dressed up especially for the opera!
We grabbed dinner at a café between our hotel and the opera house. I got a delicious traditional Hungarian potato and egg dish.
The ballet was amazing! The opera house was so opulent. The entrance was very elegant with a grand staircase. The theater itself was gorgeous as well with a beautifully painted ceiling and beautiful gold (probably fake) everywhere.
It didn’t matter that I had seen Swan Lake in London about a month earlier, it was still so entertaining. I would say that the costumes, sets, music, and dancing were all on par with the Russian Company I saw perform in London. I would only say that the group synchronization was more crisp in London. The two performances had different endings! In London, the main characters performed suicide because they could never be together, while they ended up happily ever after in the Budapest one. I think in the London performance, the princess is stuck as a swan, but in Budapest, she was transformed back into a human.
Sunday, April 26 we grabbed our hotel’s continental breakfast and headed out to see the Hungarian Parliament building. First we walked along the Pest side of the river and took lots of photos of the Buda side, including some of us on the Chain Bridge in front of the castle.
The Parliament building is less than 100 years old but really has an old eastern European feeling to it. The only way to see the building is by joining a guided tour. So we got on the first tour of day. The tour was great because of the information about Hungary’s history, which I am pretty fuzzy about from my high school days. The beautiful was beautiful and very lavish inside. The Hungarian Parliament has 486 members for 10 million people, while the United States has 580ish for 300 million people, very interesting.
After the tour we walked across the Margaret Bridge to check out the Buda side. We first took lots of photos of the Parliament because it best viewed from across the river.
Then, we headed up to find the Matyas Church and the Castle, taking lots of photos of the Pest side of the river and the Parliament.
We grabbed lunch at a cute café and we both ordered spaghetti carbonara. The weather was once again so warm and sunny that we headed around the corner and grabbed some ice cream for dessert!
We first came across the Matyas Church. The church has an awesome entrance structure that looked over the river and across to Pest. The structure was really fun! A particular part of it reminded us of a giant sandcastle!
Then, we headed into the Matyas Church itself. Unfortunately, the famous bell tower was under construction so we could not see it. However, the church was very different from others I had been in. The interior was made mostly of wood that was painted in with lots of patterns and colors. The patterns kind of reminded me of a Byzantine feeling.
We headed over to the castle where there were more magnificent views of the Danube and Pest.
The castle now houses some museums including the National Gallery. We thought about going in, but there was a admission fee so we decided to skip it.
We took a nice walk around Buda and then crossed back over the river over the Elizabeth Bridge back to the hotel.
That night we headed out to dinner to Vista Café, which was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel. We originally had planned to hit some bars that night, but the sun and walking had really worn us out so we had an early night.
We had a very relaxing day Sunday, April 27. In the morning we visited Margaret Island, which is basically a very large park. We stopped to sit at a Japanese Garden and saw ruins of an old church.
After the island we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the baths! Budapest is famous for its numerous thermal baths so we had to go to one. We went to the Szechenyi Baths. The building was beautiful and the baths were so relaxing. First we swan in the outdoor baths. There were three large pools. There were lots of people out enjoying the sun and weather. There was this fun area of one bath that turned into a whirlpool every 10 minutes or so…it was like being on an amusement park ride!
We also checked out the indoor baths, which were all different temperatures. Some were freezing! But we went into one that was really hot, it felt like my hot tub at home, except the water was still. We were disappointed in the lack of lounge chairs though. Everyone just sat on benches. But we sat on benches for a while and enjoyed the sun.
That night we headed to an the Irish Pub Beckett’s for dinner and packed up all our stuff to go to Vienna the next morning.
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