Budapest!

I booked my tickets to Budapest, the Paris of eastern Europe. My colleague Frederik had been there once and kept telling how beautifukl he found that place to be. He gave me the rough guide and a few subway tickets he was left with from his trip. I reached Budapest at 8 PM. I had got the currency exchange done at Forex, Gothenburg itself. I took the train to my hostel in Budapest. I bought the ticket in the train itself as the ticket counter was closed. Compared to Sweden or any other place I had visited, I found the tickets to be quite cheap. In fact the HUF were almost a quarter of an INR. The hostel was not easy to locate. I had to wander for some time as they had closed the street for some repair work. At last I was spotted by an elderly couple living in that area and they came to my rescue. The hostel was nice and located by the blue Danube. It was quite hot in Budapest. I took shower and had a sandwich for dinner. I slept immediately to make sure I have an early start of the day.

Day 1:

Got up at 6 in the morning and gorged on heavy breakfast provided by the hostel. Got the map from them and headed to the most famous attraction of Budapest, the Chain bridge. It was a sheer pleasure to see this bridge. It had quite unusual architecture and the palace on the side added its grandeur. I clicked a few pictures and headed to the castle. One side of the river is the older city of Buda and the other is Pest, the newer one. I walked up to the Castle. I was on time to see the change of guard ceremony that’s done at 12 PM. From the top of the castle the view of city was beautiful. The most eye-popping attraction was the Hungarian Parliament. A neo-Gothic jewel it looked so well-architected and unique in the plethora of structures around it. On the adjacent and much taller hill there is the statue of liberty. This statue is to mark the Hungarial liberation of 1955 which ousted the Russian control of Hungary. It was extremely hot so I decided to go on top of that hill in the early morning next day. Castle was nice and looked much alike the one in Stockholm.
On the same hill there is Fisherman’s wharf. That was a nice spot to relax and take pictures of the city. The nearby Mathias church meant I had to see that as well. I got off the hill and crossed the bridge towards Three Seasons hotel. A short walk from there took me to the Basilica which looked like the St. Peter’s basilica in Vatican. I was starved and decided to try the Hungarian goulash soup. Frederik had suggested me to try goulash and langos in Budapest. Goulash soup had mutton in it and tasted like Roghan Josh we cook in India. It had to be eaten with a thick and soft bread. It tasted good and quantity was good enough to appease the hunger. Took metro to the Hero’s Square (Hosok Tere) which was built in the honor of the martyrs of freedom fight against Russia. Not even half a kilometer away was this old castle which had very pretty flowers around it.
I took the train to Ference Tere and walked to the Parliament. It looked even better in the twilight. There had an artificial grave to mark the end of Russian exploitation. The parliament looked like a diamond under the lights. On the way back I clicked more pictures of chain bridge which looked magnificent under the neon lights.