Day 12 - May 27th - To Budapest, Walking Tour

       Today we got up at 6:00 am and got all packed up and ready to leave by 6:40. Although the hostel had felt like home, we were excited for the apartment in Budapest which was supposed to be roomier. We ate some breakfast at McDonald’s, then rode the train for three hours to Budapest, Hungary. I slept basically the whole way, it was wonderful. When we got here, we had to wander around the station for awhile before figuring out where to go and how to get tickets for the subway. Budapest is not as tourist-friendly as Vienna. We rode two subs to get to the stop nearest our apartment, and the subways were not as clean or smooth as Viennese ones. 

       We got off and walked to the apartment and waited for a few minutes before putting our stuff in our rooms and gratefully collapsing on our comfy beds for a few minutes. We loved the apartment. It had two rooms with full beds and a living room/kitchen with a pull-out couch. 

  Then we reconvened and headed to St. Stephen’s Basilica, which was amazing, to get a quick lunch, then meet with our free walking tour group. 

Putting locks on fences and gates with you and your partner's name means your love will last forever

 

         It really was an awesome tour, and we walked a lot. Our tour guide, Andre, told us that Budapest is actually two cities, Buda and Pest, divided by the Danube river. 

Thanks to Lori for this picture of Andre

         We, of course, toured both sides. We went up the ‘King’s Stairs’, which were kind of like the stairs on Old Main. We saw a lot of stuff, including the very building where Katy Perry filmed one of her music videos and the building where some Nazi leaders had meetings or something. 

This and the next are government/capitol buildings I think

I think this was another black plague statue, like the one in Vienna

         Then we walked home-ish. On the way, we ate at the most amazingly delicious restaurant, I got a strawberry lemonade and it had ice in it, which I haven’t seen in Europe yet, and it was SO GOOD! It also had nice, clean bathrooms, which was wonderful. They also had live piano music and an antique, 50s theme to the restaurant.   

  

        After a luxurious dinner, we went back to the apartment and caught up our journals, blogs, and facebooks, then we got to bed kind of late.