Today we decided that we would spend it on the other side of the bridge, in Buda. We crossed over the Chain Bridge as we were walking up then hilltop I turns around and was taken away by the view. I just can’t get over how beautiful the Parliament building is! When looking down I could see the changing of the guards or at least that is what I thought it was. They were six guards and the all performed sequences while playing then trumpet entering and circling the fountain outside the building. The both us gave up trying to guess what they were actually doing and kept going up to the top. Once we finally got the the top we saw lots of stags and bachelorette parties going around the palace. We circled the palace, we weren’t able to go into the gardens since they were hosting a private beer garden. We walked out to the back and saw the ruins from bombing in WW2 and also we got the view of Buda. Now apparently Buda is the more expensive side of Budapest to live in, but to me the only good thing about living in Buda would be the view of Pest, other than that it seemed rather run down and out of the city centre.
After viewing the what we could of the place exterior we headed over to see the ?!? Church. It is certainly wedding season as since we have been walking around we saw at least four different wedding parties and three different couples getting photos taken. I am sure that both Andrea and myself have photo bombed them, not on purpose though it was just enviable to get in the shot! The building are so prestigious all white with columns and detailed tiled roofs. I can definitely see the Turkish influence. We saw Matthias Church and the Fisherman’s Bastion at the heart of Buda’s Castle District.
After sightseeing we wandered our way to the Mall in hope to find Andrea a skirt! The mall had a mammoth/ caveman theme. It was so strange! There was one part where there where mammoths on the ceiling! We weren’t able to find a skirt but that malm visit was quite a unique experience!
We headed back to our hostel to make dinner and rest up. We head from other travelers around that Liberty statute was awesome to go to for sunset. So away we went to cross the river once again and climb up an even bigger hill! A twenty minute workout later after walking at basically a 90 degree angle we walked all the way up. What is really interesting is that the Nazis use to use it as a watch tower when they occupied Hungary. We continued on to find a bench a wait to watch the sunset behind the city. The others were right it was beautiful. Before the sun completely set we went back down the hill and by this point the lights along the bridges, parliament and the castle went on. Budapest is just stunning!