What a fantastic weekend I had (we had (Kate and I)). About 2
weeks ago, our school announced we wouldn't have school on Friday, June 5 because of elections - we had already booked our flight for the crack of dawn on Saturday morning (5:35 am to be exact) so we took this opportunity to go to the beach with Miah, Dwain and Miah's sister Johanna. It was great as hardly anyone was there!
Saturday morning Kate and I got up at 3 am and were out the door by 3:30 and on the bus by 3:45 am! The flight to Budapest (pronounced Budapesh) was 2 hours but they are an hour behind Athens, so we arrived 6:30 am their time! We hopped on the shuttle which dropped us off at our hotel called Hotel Museum Central - which is in a fantastic location. Right across from the National Museum and about a 5 minute walk to Grand Market Hall and the Danube River. So that is what we did after we dropped off our luggage. Grand Market Hall was packed full of fruit and vegetable "farmers garden" products, plus strudel shops, salami, paprika, cheeses, chicken and other goodies. On the second floor was a tourists haven of Budapest souvenirs - we did a little damage here!!!!
I have found that the best way to see a city is on one of those hop on and off tour buses - so we found one! But we only hopped on and didn't get off - we took the entire 2.5 hour tour around Buda and Pest. Our "bus" had no roof which made it quite hot when the sun was shining and quite wet when it rained on us - twice! Luckily we had our umbrellas and they provided ponchos! You wear a head
set and listen to all the historical facts and figures of the buildings as we pasted them.
After we finished that it was only 2pm! We happened upon a Hungarian Festival - got some food, listened and watched Hungarian dancers and then headed back to the hotel for a well-deserved nap!
After the nap, showered and dressed we headed for the river for our free boat tour which was included in our bus tour. So we rode the boat up and down the Danube River seeing the sites at night! By 10pm we got off the boat and walked to a popular "Hungarian" restaurant called Fatal where the portions are large and served on wooden platters. Let's just say the roast beef that I got for myself was so large that the people next to us had to take a picture of it because they also had ordered it yet split it between 4 people! It was yummy though I hardly put a dent into it.
Sunday, we tested out the metro - which was old but not too bad. Took it two stops to St. Stephen's Basilica - grand old Catholic church. It was extremely hot, bright blue sky so we thought we should grab a coffee before crossing the river and going up the hill to the Buda Palace. As we got walking though, it became cloudier and cloudier and of course I didn't bring my umbrella this day because the sky was blue when I left the hotel! Needless to say, I had to buy a poncho because it actually didn't stop raining until about 9pm!
Trending forward we took the tram up the hill and walked along the outside of this huge palace. Then walked around "old town" - saw the outside of Matthias Church and walked through Fisherman Bastion then back down the hill, across the river to our hotel. Since we had "worked" so hard we decided it was time for the thermal baths! We grabbed our bathing suits walked across the Danube River again and went to Gillert's Bath House. We relaxed in the 38 degrees Celcius bath water in the "women's" bath house and then went to the co-ed swimming pool with cathedral ceilings. This was relaxing! Went to Italian restaurant for dinner Sunday night.
Monday morning we were very productive! We awoke, walked across the Danube River again back to Gillert's for some spa treatment. Kate had a pedicure and I splurged with a mud treatment and a body massage. The mud treatment consisted of this large Hungarian man scooping and slabbing this dark gray warm mud on my major joints. He began with putting the mud down my spine, then I laid down and he put it on my shoulders, under and over my knees and elbows and on my stomach. Then wrapped me in a sheet and left me there for 20 minutes - I was wondering if he was going to come back! Then he spread the mud over more parts of my body, then I showered and headed into the next room for a full body massage. Life is good!
Then I stopped by the Grand Market Hall for a few more souvenirs and spend my Forint (currency) and grabbed another strudel!
What a great weekend!
weeks ago, our school announced we wouldn't have school on Friday, June 5 because of elections - we had already booked our flight for the crack of dawn on Saturday morning (5:35 am to be exact) so we took this opportunity to go to the beach with Miah, Dwain and Miah's sister Johanna. It was great as hardly anyone was there!
Saturday morning Kate and I got up at 3 am and were out the door by 3:30 and on the bus by 3:45 am! The flight to Budapest (pronounced Budapesh) was 2 hours but they are an hour behind Athens, so we arrived 6:30 am their time! We hopped on the shuttle which dropped us off at our hotel called Hotel Museum Central - which is in a fantastic location. Right across from the National Museum and about a 5 minute walk to Grand Market Hall and the Danube River. So that is what we did after we dropped off our luggage. Grand Market Hall was packed full of fruit and vegetable "farmers garden" products, plus strudel shops, salami, paprika, cheeses, chicken and other goodies. On the second floor was a tourists haven of Budapest souvenirs - we did a little damage here!!!!
set and listen to all the historical facts and figures of the buildings as we pasted them.
No comments:
Post a Comment