Discovering The Buda side of Budapest: post 2 of 3

On our first morning we woke up from our hostel, Caminito Hostel, which I would highly recommend to anyone, and headed out the door for a full day of traveling through Buda. After losing a full day and a half we were ready to cram in as much as we could, eager to make sure we got everything done in our 3 night stay. We received excellent help from Alex who ran the hostel desk and had our whole day planned out.

The following are the different things we did and sites we saw within Buda, with a bit of information about each. I would highly recommend doing all of them but there are still handful of sites that are nothing less than marvelous in addition to these...

The Marvelous Market (note: on the PEST side): While this is actually on the Pest side, we headed to this Great Market Hall down the road to grab some amazing, cheap food for breakfast before our adventure. This indoor market hall is three stories of sausages, strudel (recommend the Apple and Cinnamon!), paprika, any kind of meat and produce imaginable. In additional to all the food you can eat, there are stories of the perfect souvenirs and nick-knacks to bring home. Open from about 9 am until 3ish this definitely worth a good portion of your time. Just prepare to fight through the hustle and bustle of tourists, and locals with their wicker baskets loading up on groceries.After grabbing some of the best strudel I have ever had, we headed across the 'green bridge', one of the three connecting Buda and Pest over the Danube River.The end of this bridge takes you practically to the base of our next destination, The Citadel, which is the former fortress on top of Gellért Hill (Gellérthegy). With many different paths leading to the top, this hike offers an amazing 360 degree panorama over Central Budapest including bank of the Danube River, Buda Castle and Pest city. There are several outposts along the walk which offer good photo opportunities. Make sure to wear comfortable clothes and shoes, and bring plenty of water on a hot day!

The top statue is the final look-out destination that we hiked up to. The statue was built after the second world war with the main figure being a woman holding an olive branch, the symbol of peace in her hands.

Underneath these rocks are a Rock Church within the hillWhen you get to the main base of Gellert hill there is an underground Cave Chapel that deserves at least 5 minutes of your time. This chapel is not your typical holy place and is actually built within a cave in the underbelly of the hill. The traditional church elements and natural beauty of the cave's rock complement each other perfectly. It was founded by Pauline monks in the 1920s but was only reopened around 1989 after being closed for 50 years as part of the unsuccessful attempt of Communist leadership.

After walking through the chapel you can take a variety of different paths, stairs, or hills which all lead in various directions up toward the top statue. I would recommend devoting a good amount of time to leisurely walk through this area, as on a clear day you will get remarkable photographs and have the chance to sit beside amazing scenery and watch the world go by.
Once at the top there are a collection of different statues, look out points, and a few stands to buy (way overpriced) souvenirs. The best purchase we made there was Nesta ice-tea. Needless to say it was a very warm day!

On the way back down we headed toward the direction of the Buda Royal Palace.

The Royal Palace dates back to the 13th-century and is basically a stones throw away from the base of where we came down. Part of the palace is half in ruins as the original structure, where the rest has been renovated to its original beauty.


Once we made our way over toward the newer Palace area, we decided to have a break and bathe in the sun for a while. We enjoyed a light lunch on the glass where we listened to a man play music on an instrument similar looking to a recorder, but much prettier sounding.

Not much long after our little break we headed into a smaller town area right beside the palace. Many of the religious sites where closed due to the Easter holiday and on going services closed to visitors. So we came across a horse and carriage and after converting the price back we realized it would be less the 10 American bucks (beat that London!) for a ride around the quaint area. So we hopped on and gave our feet a rest.

A bit farther down from the Palace you come to Fisherman’s Bastion in the Castle District, which has one of the best views in the whole city. The Castle District as a whole has a ton to do all with incredible history and architecture.

Once you exit the Royal Palace area, or walk back to it from the Castle distract, basically in front of you will be another one of the three bridges that cross back to Pest, The Chain Bridge. This suspension bridge is one of Budapest's most famous landmarks. The bridge is 123 feet long (375 meters) and 16 meters wide and was opened in 1849. In 1989, the people of Budapest lead a demonstration on the chain bridge for their freedom and Independence and since then the bridge itself has become a symbol of Hungarian liberty. We took this bridge at the end of our day to head back to Pest and unfortunately leave the medieval and older atmosphere of Buda behind us.Stephanie not sure if she's in Buda or Pest at the moment

When we ventured back over onto the Pest side, the bridge dumps you off right in front of the Roosevelt tér which is an open grass area. This is where we continued our day, but MORE ON THIS IN TOMORROW'S BLOG.

Even though we were able to spend most of the whole day to wondering within Buda, we definitely would like to have spent more time to explore this area. We hoped to make it back before the end of the trip but the rest of Pest kind of ate us up over on that side. But just another reason to go back and visit again!

If you ever plan on heading to Budapest I do recommend all of the above, plus some, but it's all about you as the traveler to make your own path, mistakes and destination memories...

Tomorrow I will continue on with 'Pest'!

The Hard Road to Budapest: post 1 of 3

Hi Everyone! Sorry it has taken me so long to update this but I didn't have any access to my computer after Budapest. The battery cord had short circuited and I had to wait until I could receive a new one from DELL, which proved to be a pain, but all-in-all I am up and writing again. So as you know I ventured to Budapest for our Easter holiday and the following blog will go over our adventure the best I can explain. We had a nightmare of a day trying to actually GET to Budapest but you will read about all that in time. The first part of the blog you will read is something I wrote in my journal on the bus...the first bus of many to come, on the way to the airport. It is mostly written in present tense because, well it was happening in the present. The rest will vary.

Written April 9, 2009
It was one of those mornings that just suck (sorry mom, but it really did). You try and convince yourself everything is okay because you're on your way to Budapest, but the first thing you manage to say to your Canadian roommate is, "this is not my happy face!" It's 6:15 am Thursday and you peal your eyelids off your vanilla-colored pillowcase only to hear the worst sound ever. Now in San Diego I would have looked out my window and thought, "oh crap, El Nino is back!" But here...No. I just realize of course my luck is another typical Irish day. Wind blowing in multiple directions around you so hard that you can practically see the little rain tornado that surrounds you.

Now of course the only thing making me happy is knowing for the first time I will be in at least 70 degree weather since December. Take that Ireland! But at this moment you can't help but feel that the Irish weather Gods are playing you for their fool since in 45 minutes you will be walking to the bus stop in that rain. Typically a 20 minute walk into town we leave extra early considering we have our backpacking bags. This might be a good time to mention that if ever you plan on going into a smaller town in Ireland, be aware that taxis don't run in the mornings and if you try to arrange one to pick you up they will agree to it, but just won't show up. Taxis here are run personally and not through like a business really. It's like they wake up and decided, 'ah screw them I want to sleep longer.' (We have learned this the hard way previously)
So 7 am comes and Steph and I toss on our jackets and head out the door. My hoodie, sweatshirt and jacket manage to keep me pretty warm but just extremely wet. My chucks on the other hand, well they are currently finding refuge on the heated paneling along the bus floor. After finally making it to the bus stop we hopped on the bus and headed for Waterford where we would transfer to Dublin....where the next problem occurred.

Now 9.30 am:
After changing buses in Waterford, I am now sitting in the middle of nowhere on our broken-down bus waiting for the rescue one to come get us in about 30 minutes. It all started as we were riding along and just on the outside of Waterford city our bus just happened to stop automatically as if it had stalled. After this happened a few times the bus drive (who never said a word) pulled over and checked all the side doors and inside compartments. Never saying a word we thought everything was OK until about the 5th time it stalled and all the "do-dads" had been checked.
Now, we are sitting on the bus, in the rain, in the middle of no where and Stephanie has just walked outside for a smoke...in the pouring rain.
I just keep sitting here thinking "Budapest, Budapest Budapest," if we ever get there.

Stephanie upset at the broken bus

10.24 am: New bus picks us up an hour later and we are on our way to Dublin...again.

Now, this is the time where my journal writing ended because given the next few chain of events I didn't really feel much like reliving the experience at the time.

Once we arrived at the Dublin bus station, shoes still wet and all, we had lost the extra hour and 30 minutes we were going to have for lunch and decided to just head straight for the airport and get something there. Very smartly we had checked-in online the night before and printed our boarding pass, so all we had to do was go through security since we had planned to pack in a carry-on. We arrived a bit later then we wanted to, but had enough time to pick up a few magazines for the flight, go to the ATM, exchange our money into Hungarian, and head through security. We had to search for the right exchange counter, as only one in the whole airport had Hungarian money stocked. After finally finding the counter we then had to go back to security to find our right boarding gate (as we so frantically forgot to do so). Once we found the right terminal and found the gate, we decided to relax and get some food since we hadn't eaten anything all day.

4 pm: Our boarding gate

Since our budget airline, RYANAIR, didn't have assigned seats we were really upset to notice as we approached our gate that the line to board was extremely long already. The next 15-20 minutes or so were spent with Stephanie talking about how we hoped that someone was going to be nice enough on the plane to move around so we could hopefully sit together. We were so distracted with the possibility of not getting to sit next to each other that we didn't even see the bomb that was about to be dropped on us.

I hand my boarding pass to the check-in man, he double checks my passport is the same on my boarding pass and he scans it. I hear the bling of the scanner as I am already walking toward the plane to board. As I look back to make sure Stephanie is behind me and I hear the dreaded words called out to me, "excuse me miss, you need to come back." At this point I am looking at Stephanie not able to pass forward and I should have ran onto that plane! We go back only to find that the horrible airline of RYANAIR has within the last month made a new policy that even if you do online check-in you have to STILL check-in at the airport and get your passport/visa checked. EVEN though my boarding pass has my same passport number on it, immigration, AND airport security had no problem with it. At this point it was if we were on candid camera and I start balling my eyes out (reliving a similar HORRIBLE experience with this same airline when I was snowed-in into France..check out the past blogs). Stephanie on the other hand is now cussing, not at the man who is telling us this (because we know its not his fault, as he feels really bad for us now that I'm crying) but cussing at the chances of everything going wrong today and RYANAIR as a whole. So we gain composure and I ask what it means now. What do we have to do? He tells us we have to go back through security, immigration and back to the ryanair desk and get them to validate it. Clearly not going to be able to make this flight---along with about at least 30 people this has been happening to over the day.

We do like the man says, freaking out knowing there isn't another flight out to Budapest for another 24 hours and pissed off at the world. But, one of the best images that sticks into my head that day was the moment we had to go through Irish immigration, even though we technically never left the country. I was in front and I couldn't find my registration card to go with my passport since we were going through the EU-passport lane (beacuse I have a work visa we are allowed to take the 'fast EU lane') It's at this moment while I am dumping my purse out on the immigration Gard's desk-window balling trying to explain to him that I can't find my registration card at the moment but I didn't even leave the country because Ryanair changed the rules on me. The nicest, white-haired 60-year-old man was the first one to feel genuinely sorry for us and was just as confused as we were. He told us he saw a lot of people go through this today. He gave us some advice on how to approach Ryanair and told me its okay he doesn't need to see my other ID. He added for us to try and have a good Easter holiday regardless....meanwhile I'm trying to pick up Stephanie's things as she has dumped out her whole carry-on onto the floor of the immigration line trying to find her documents.

After waiting in a 40 minute line BACK at the Ryanair desk we only find the most UNhelpful girl there who said there is nothing they can do and it was a new policy but we will have to buy a new flight out if we want to go. We play both good-cop and bad-cop making sure that they know exactly how we feel about them, in a very constructive way (after all, kids were around and we did manage to watch our language...well I had to help Steph with that a few times.) Ryanair lady informs us she cannot help us any other way and we will have to go upstairs and look online to book anything under 400 Euros --one way!

So three hours later and God only knows how much money in coins we spent, after getting advice from parents, coworkers and every other flight desk operators in the airport (except ryanair) we decided to book a one way ticket to our destination of Budapest. We got 260 Euro something on-way flight, roughly $400 (ouch), to Budapest leaving the next night....three times the cost of our original return ticket. It was the Easter holiday and we had looked over our other options and decided we had our hearts set on leaving the country of Ireland. There was no way we wanted to stay there for the long weekend anymore.

Stephanie getting advice on what to do...at the internet which took all the rest of our money

So with a nice final kick in the pants to our visa credit cards, we booked out flight leaving Ireland the next day, with the very same flight number. At this point there is only so much you can do, and I will never do another flight with Ryanair as long as there is another option I can take. The worst part was even after all this we still had to book our one-way with them, since they were the only ones with flight availability still. Yes we should have read the fine-print, but don't have online checking then- plain and simple. If your going to change the rules on everyone WITHOUT giving any notice or heads-up, then the least you can do is have the decency to compensate when things go wrong.

At that moment I didn't think it was possible, but I fell more in love with Southwest airlines than I ever have before. Now if only they flew international.

That night we took the Bus back to the city, found a hostel to stay in and treated ourselves to some much needed beer. We returned the next day (bus number 6 within 2 days) with enough time to do airport check-in, verify over and over again that we would be able to board, and finally sit down to read our magazines from the day before...finally on the plane to Budapest!

What an extra $400 boarding gate looks like

NEVER use this airline!

We have finally made our flight!!

Tomorrow night I will post on our adventures in the fabulous country of Budapest!

Night before Budapest!

Hey guys, so I was planning on posting a new blog about the last few days with pictures, but my computer has recently died and it will take a few days to figure it out. So I'm using the roommates computer to post you this quick message.

Tomorrow morning I will be heading up to Dublin for a flight around 4pm my time to BUDAPEST! Stephanie and I will be there until the night of the 13th and then fly back into Dublin. I will be back into town/home around the 14th in the evening, but may not have computer access by then. As soon as I can get pictures up and my computer working I promise to update you all!!

Have a fabulous Easter and I will post you all on my return home!

xoxo