Crippled in Budapest

Well have we walked today! With such a short time here we had to make an early start to fit in our planned day.

We met a truly lovely and chatty English/ Sri Lankan couple over dinner last night and they recommended a couple of places to go. We took their advice seriously as they had spent 4 yrs living here in the past. I also went by a guide book in the room which suggested a couple of 'must see' places.

After a further look around the palace up on the hill near us for 3-4 hrs, we headed down the hill (via funicular cable car.. to save the already ailing feet) and crossed the river into Pest. We were very keen for a coffe and snack by this stage but after walking around and around several blocks we realise they do not quite have the 'cafe culture' that Australia now has. The only cafe's were really pubs / bars and not a latte or cake in sight!!! In desperation as we were starving and didn't quite want lunch yet, we grabbed a couple of snacks from a nearby supermarket. We shared a delicious but unusual flavoured pastry. It was like when we get a walnut & cinnamon swirled through the pastry except of the cinnamon they and something that tasted like a mix of paprike and pepper. the result was that it was sweet to start but ended with a bite of pepper. Quite tasty indeed!!

The St Stephen's Basilica was strongly recommended and has been recently restored. Mark was keen to get inside. Also when he realised he could climb inside the dome roof to a terrace around the top he was on his way up. (I happily chose to sit in the sun and wait while he did this) This basilica was heavily decorated with gold and was predominately made of marble. Mark loved it... but I prefer the one near our hotel.

When he got down he told me about the endless spiral stairs and how a woman had a panic attack and the Canadians saying they would rather climb mountains than anymore of the stairs... boy was I happy I didnt go up.

Then it was time to seach for lunch and I had a particular area in mind. There was a write up on this 'forest' area which was popular for lunching, called Liszt Ferenc ter. It was more like a big courtyard with trees down the centre. Many restaurants lined each side. We had a lovely lunch and I just had to include this pic I took of Mark. Does he look like he is relaxing or what??

As we were getting ready to leave it started raining. We thought we would start heading back but didnt realise how far we had walked from where we were staying. By the time we dashed between building awnings and across streets and made it to the top of the hill again (via funicalr again) we were practically limping. Both of us... ok maybe me a little louder... were complaining of how our feet were killing us. The cobbled road and paths are just a killer.

Here are a couple of other pics to note. One is the lovely parliament buildings on the river and the other one of the domed ceilings outside the opera house. Just black, white and gold... so pretty!

As I mentioned we leave early tomorrow morning. This will be our longest day of travel (besides our flights) We will arrive in Zagreb around midday via the train and then cross our fingers we can easily get one of the many buses we are told run very regularly down to Split. This will have us in Split by 5pm and our hosts are meeting us at the bus station to take us to our apt.

If we wanted to get a train all the way to Split we would have to get an overnighter... and this did not seem attractive. Also, we are hoping we get to see lots of the towns along the Croatian coast and get glimpses of the Adriatic whenever possible.

I had not planned to do any blogging from Budapest but anything to avoid walking for a while is a good thing! x D & M