Buda, Pest, and the Danube

The next morning, Matt and I woke up bright and early to do and see as much as possible since this would be our last full day in Budapest. We left the hostel at 9am and walked to the Parliament building to purchase tickets for a guided tour. Matt purchased our student discounted tickets since only one of us could go in "Gate X", tight security if you know what I mean. Our tour would be at 11:45, so we had lots of time to spare. Matt wanted to see the Dohany Street Synagogue, since it is the third largest in Europe. To be honest, it was a cold day and the walk took longer than expected. Let's just say we were less than impressed when we got there. The building itself didn't seem as special as we thought. We ended up deciding not to go inside.

We still had over an hour to kill, since it was 10am. We walked past the Christmas Market that was just across the street. The Christmas Market just started for the season the day before, so we agreed to come back that night to take a look around and see what a European Christmas Market is like.

The first few minutes of the Budapest Christmas Market...pretty desolate

Since it was very cold outside and we hadn't sat down in awhile, Matt and I went to the a coffee shop across from St. Stephen's Basilica to warm up. Ironically, the place we popped into was called 'California Coffee Company'.

There's no warm California sun to be found here

After warming up for a little while, Matt and I headed back to the Parliament building.

Who knew Playboy made energy drinks? That Hef is cashing in on any opportunities that come his way. I guess those Hungarians need the energy to stay awake at 4am.

We had to wait outside in the cold for about 30 minutes before we were escorted into the building. After going through security, we waited in a fancy hall. The floors were covered with red carpets and everything was gold and shiny.

I made Matt take a picture with me

Our tour guide and a replica of the Parliament building

The Grand Stairwell

The Royal Crown of Hungary

Dome Hall

Assembly Hall of the House of Representatives

To be honest, the tour was a bit of a letdown. It only lasted about 30 minutes and all of the information that the guide spewed at us could be read off of Wikipedia. Before we knew it, she said to us "thank you, and now my colleague will take you outside". Matt and I looked at each other, confused, and said "wait, that's it?". I'm still glad that we got to see the inside, but for what we paid it was a bit of a rip-off. Oh well.

After our brief tour, Matt and I decided to cross the Chain Bridge into Buda since we spent all of the previous day and that morning in Pest (in case you don't already know, the city of Budapest is split into two, separated by the Danube River. Buda is on the west-bank and pest is on the east).

Matthias Church

Chain Bridge and Buda Castle

Once crossing the bridge (I felt like I was on a more tame Golden Gate Bridge) we climbed the hill to the Buda Castle. There was a cable car tram that people could take to go up, but being able bodies youngsters, we figured why not walk!? Haha.

Walking was a great choice. If we had taken the tram, I wouldn't have gotten this view...

We started at Buda Castle.

Buda Castle

The Matthias Fountain, sometimes referred to as the "Trevi Fountain of Budapest"

Then, we made our way to Matthias Church...

The streets of Buda

What you might think is a normal car, however...

HAHA, only in Hungary would there still be money in this makeshift money holder (on our way back from the church, we actually saw someone donating to the "cause")

Matthias Church

 We ended up not going inside, instead we explored the outer walls around Matthias Church...

Afterwards, we were pretty hungry and across from the church there was a small shop that released a sweet smell of cinnamon into the air. Matt and I were curious to see what was being made, so we went inside and watch a woman prepare what looked like swirled chimney. Of course, we were tempted and decided we had to try one.

Rolling out the dough

Brushing out the butter

And finally, into the oven

We sunk our teeth into the Hungarian pastry called a kürtőskalác. Matt wanted to try the cinnamon covered one (there were several different choices) and it was tasty!

Yum!

We stopped for a late lunch at Tarnok Cafe, which is right down the street from where we bought our kürtőskalác. Matt ordered the goulash and I had a chef salad.

Afterwards, we made the trek back down the hill and over the Chain Bridge to Pest. It was finally time for the Christmas Market and I was very excited to finally experience a European holiday tradition. Upon arriving, it was still light out, but it quickly became dark. That is when everything lit up, people came out, and the Market looked alive.

There were so many vendors selling leather handbags and wallets, Christmas ornaments and decorations, sweets, meat, food, mulled wine...and the list goes on. Many of the stands we passed as we snaked our way through the market were repeats of the ones we had already walked by. But it was still fun to look around and see what a Hungarian street market during the Christmas season looked like.

Before it got dark

A man playing the glasses...I think he may have picked this up from watching Miss Congeniality. No?

Budapest's Christmas Market

And then it got dark...and crowded

Christmas lights!

After walking through the entire market, Matt and I headed back to the hostel. It was cold and we still had a few things to do before our flight in the morning. So, we found an internet cafe to print out our boarding passes, bought our train tickets for that morning, ate dinner at the kebap place a few doors down from Tiger Tim's, and paid Tiger Tim for our two nights stay (he was so nice and didn't make us pay for the last night since we would be leaving at 3:45am). Then, we crawled in bed for a "nap".

When we left the hostel that early morning, we were surprised to see how many people were out on the streets and in the clubs still partying. Some adults were just walking into the club next door to the train station. We did catch one man taking a little snooze in a chair inside the train station platform, it seemed necessary. We only had to walk across the street to catch the train leaving at 4am. Both of us were happy that it would take us straight to the airport...no transferring or walking.

The train itself had cabins and Matt and I got one to ourselves..Matt, of course, referenced Harry Potter when we got in and sat down. We were on our way to Hogwarts. Well, not really. The train was packed with exhausted adults who, we guessed, were taking the train home from a long night of dancing and drinking.

After a few, "where are we"s and "did we miss the stop?", Matt and I made it to the airport (thanks especially to the kind lady who told us where to get off). And then we were off the ground and in the air.

We landed in Bergamo and took a train to Florence. This is where we ended our weekend adventure. But, for me, my Italian vacation was about to begin...