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'!