Buda and Pest

Central Market

Central Market is a short walk from the piers, so that's next. It's a big market. First floor is all fresh vegetables, and lots of paprika and chilis. Second floor is knick knacks and clothes. I got some stuff and tried to negotiate, but the lady laughed at me, maybe I'm terrible or it's not negotiable. I said hello in Hungarian?! :)

Lunch is there, I had veal schnitzel and grilled veggies. Which I'm pretty sure is German, not Hungarian, but I tried. 

Ok, now you go across a bridge and hike up Gellert Hill. Gellert was killed there a long time ago. It's a pretty steep climb, so you know the views will be great. There's a Statue of Liberty at the top and sure enough, the views are spectacular. In fact, there was a wedding being held at the top of the hill. I'm still not sure how she got up there in that dress? 

Gellert Hill

Now walk to the huge Buda castle, which is also on the Buda side. Evetytingbis pretty much on the water, but it takes a little maneuvering around small streets. It costs money (forint) to go up the lift, so I paid and got up there fast. There's a whole little city up there in the castle. And it's a museum now too. Great views. Photos coming...

In planning, I thought that would be all the time I had, but nope, there was still time! So I walked to Fishermans Bastian, which is just a little further up the river on the Buda side. It's another cool town in a castle type setting. And guess what, another wedding! This one had a live singer belting out from the top of the castle, pretty awesome. Amazing views up there too. 

Then I walked across chain bridge, which was the first bridge to connect Buda and Pest. There's a KM statue right there, we'll pretend it's for knowledge mgmt.

Chain Bridge

Now walk up Andrassy ut (street) to Heros Sqaure. Andrassy is the big, expensive shopping district. So fancy that Jude Law was right there filming "Spy" with about 20 tractor trailers, no exaggeration. I didn't see him though. 

Heros Square is a wide open space with fancy statues in it. Photos soon.

That's where I ran into the Nats couple again, cool. They were looking for metro and I had just seen it, so it felt good to chat and help them.

I ended the day with a public thermal bath because they're famous here, I think I heard there are more than 70 or something. I did one at night with a dj and laser lights and all, but I was pretty old for the crowd so I left really early. Still fun to see it. 

I rode the metro back, which is always fun in a different city. I had to pay extra attention because everything on the metro is in Hungarian. And there's not much use of credit cards here, so it's very helpful to have forint.