Budapest wasn't quite what I was expecting it to be. It was a very big city, and as we were camping on the outskirsts of town it meant a lot of public transport, which meant that we perhaps didn't enjoy the night life and city as much as we could have. However, our camping site was pretty cool all on it's own and I'm glad we stayed there. It really reminded us of 'never never land', with lots of tired little spots up a hill for individual tents and with a very 70s style hungarian farmhouse which was a restaurant by night and and common area for campers by day. The owners of the camp site were also very friendly and helpful.
Budapest is broken up into two main parts by the Danube that runs through the centre of town. We were staying on the Buda side of the city which is the older side that has the old walled town on it. The otherside, Pest, is all newer and much more happening.
On the first day we were there we explored the Buda side and the old town. It was again a very cool old medieval looking old town with a beautiful old church - St Matays - being the highlight. The church was amazing inside, absolutely every surface was covered with painted patterns and murals and tiles and stained glass. The church had been used in past times by people of different faiths, when you looked around you could see the Star of David and lots of Turkish symbols painted in the patterns. Today it is used as a Catholic Church and we decided to go back there the next day for a full latin mass, which was a pretty cool experience; such a massive and incredible church with the organ playing and people singing.
After we'd checked out the church we headed to a cute little traditional tea house across the way that Beth had recommended...thanks Beth, it was great. Awesome coffee and delicious hungarian cakes! We then wandered down to the Palace, which has now been coverted into an art gallery, and got some great views of Budapest and looked at some of the hungarian impressionist works in the gallery.
We then walked down the hill to 'Chain Bridge' where we found ourselves in the midst of a summer festival with food stalls and bands playing and lots of markets all the way along the bridge. So we spent the afternoon there just enjoying the atmosphere and walking our way through the markets.
That night we went out to celebrate the birth of my little niece Eloise. We found a great restaurant with amazing champagne cocktails (we had to have Champagne to toast Eloise!!) and fantastic hungarian food and had such a fun night! Thanks for the excuse to spoil ourselves Eloise! :)
After Mass at St Matyas the next morning we went to the Pest side of town to the Old Synagogue (the biggest Synagogue in Europe apparently!) in the Jewish quarter then looked at the Jewish museum there. After that we went to Heroes square which is a massive and amazing tribute to all the past Hungarian heroes, with massive sculptures for each of the most important ones. After that we walked back to the city down the main boulevard which has many of the now heritage listed houses on it. That night we strolled along the banks of the Danube and enjoyed the city scape by night before heading back to our cosy little tent in 'never never land'.
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