Chia and Chocolate: Budapest 2013: Day 1

I finished my degree last Thursday. I don't know what I expected as I said the last few words in my speaking exam - fanfare perhaps? - but when the end came there was a slight anti-climax. I expected to feel more immediate relief or elation. Instead I felt a bit numb and as though I were in shock. I couldn't quite wrap my head around the fact I'd actually finished after four years at university. It was clear I needed sleep, I had my first proper nights sleep in six weeks that night, and I needed to blow off a hell of a lot of steam.

Along with all the stress that had been building up over the weeks and other things that had happened recently, a getaway from real life was much needed. So when my friend Sophie invited me on a spontaneous trip to Budapest, as she was working there, I jumped at the opportunity.

Flights booked, money changed and the day after finishing my degree off I went to join her.

The first thing that struck me about Budapest was the architecture. It's hard to miss, every single building is of this grand gothic style. Most buildings are quite run down, there has not been much upkeep, but every single building I saw was clearly original and had ornate designs and carvings into the brick.

These were typical of buildings down side streets, from what I saw. Down some of the more main roads, for instance this road leading up to Heroes Square, where there are lots of embassies and important buildings, things get a little more grand:

The lovely S!

You could tell just from the fact that this street was tree lined, that this was a posh area. This was the main Andrássy avenue, a bit like Broadway in NYC, that has other main cultural attractions along it, such as the Opera House, the music academy and a large shopping district.

The Opera

Entrance to the Opera.

Along this road were also...old palace buildings (?!). Don't quote me on that. That happened a lot during our trip. We knew we were seeing something of interest...but not quite sure what. This was probably down to a mixture of language barrier and stumbling across some things.

Ornate details in the brick

Neither of us have been to Budapest before, so we thought we better make the most of it and be super tourists to see everything that people say you have to see if you visit.

First: the Danube, which was full of river boats and cruises, the Chain Bridge, the first bridge to join the two sides of the city: Buda and Pest together, the Palace and the breathtaking views of the city.

Click "read more" to see!!

The Palace

Up there on the left is the Citadella...lots of river boats in front.

Walking on the Chain Bridge

Chain Bridge

After crossing the bridge, we took a really old, cute tram up to the top of the hill into the Palace grounds. It was so steep and a little rickety, but SO MUCH FUN!!

S looking the teeniest bit tense...

The palace grounds were huge:

And the sun finally came out to play!

Fun times in the sun!!

The views of the city:

"Ok, now look like you're really having fun!!" - Americans and their picture taking.

The island in the middle of the river, where a music festival is held every year for 5 days. Definitely a new goal of mine to go to the festival!!

These next two pictures are the best I have of the unbelievably impressive Parliament buildings. Unfortunately when we tried to see the Parliament up close, it has all this scaffolding in front of it because of major repair work it is having done. It was so disappointing. We couldn't even get to within 200m of the building because they are developing the area in front of it too. They didn't mention this on their website, so unfortunately that journey was a bit of a wasted trip for us.

We walked along this side of the river a little more and came to a church with the most amazing roof:

So after what felt like an age of walking, we headed back to our hotel. Have I mentioned the hotel we stayed in? It was amazing, it had a spa and great flowers and a turn down service and even SNOOP DOGG has stayed there. I mean nothing says a hotel is great like having Snoop Dogg stay there.

They even had a wall dedicated to special guests:

And Sean Connery and the Real Madrid football team, among others. Unfortunately no one famous or hot was staying there whilst we were.

One of the many restaurants the hotel has to offer

The hotel at night

Although the hotel has some great restaurants, a great way to explore the city was to get out and about and find all the other great (cheaper) and more authentic places to eat.

Being maybe two of the youngest guests at the hotel, we found lots of time to monkey around and enjoy ourselves. I'm sure the older guests disapproved.