Budapest Day 5 - Walking to Fisherman's Bastion and Then Some

The day started out normal enough — a morning walk with the goal of reaching Fisherman's Bastion on top of Buda Hill. We headed out after coffee and could already feel that the temperature was up a couple of degrees. It was supposed to reach 30°C later, but even at 9 a.m. it was very warm.

We got to the top of the hill without any trouble. We used the same access steps we’d taken to reach Buda Castle previously, but this time we branched right instead of left. Along the way we stumbled upon Harry Houdini's house who was born in Budapest in 1874. Certainly something I did not know. 

Does everything in Hungary have to be massive? It seems so — especially when you see this church. The church is called Matthias. The bastion was less impressive. We wandered around taking a few photos and some video. We thought we’d be buying a ticket to go up into the tower, but it turned out the ticket was just for access to a short walk along the bastion with a view over to Pest. We decided not to bother. The view from street level was already pretty good.

After viewing the bastion and the church from various angles, we wandered along some beautiful streets to check out the houses. On the eastern side, we were near a geocache, so we stopped to find it. While waiting to put it back, we noticed two guys looking a bit lost — maybe even a little suspicious. It seemed they were looking for the same geocache I had in my hand. 😂 It was a father and son from Slovenia. Lovely to meet them.

We returned to the bottom of the hill, and Sarah suggested heading back to the Central Market. I had filmed it yesterday but had the wrong fluorescent light settings on the camera, which caused crazy flickering — so I was keen to re-film it. The walk there was a bit much in the heat, though, and I could tell Sarah was starting to fade. I quickly completed the re-filming, thinking she was waiting outside in the shade. But once I was done, I couldn’t find her! I had said she might want to come in and get a drink, but I didn’t realise she actually had. She’d tried to follow me, but at my pace, she soon lost me. Oops. Anyway, we eventually found each other back at the entrance.

We made our way back through the streets toward the apartment. I spotted a pub and figured a cold drink might give us a much-needed boost. I had a beer, and Sarah had a lemonade — both very refreshing. It was 11:45 a.m., so we decided to stay and have lunch as well: a shared chicken burger and curly fries (which they call "crazy fries" here). Yum. A $36 rest stop, but money well spent to restore our energy levels.

We arrived back at the apartment at 1pm feeling pretty exhausted and very hot. Time for a cold drink, a coffee — and perhaps a nap. 

The plan was a rinse and repeat for dinner tonight. Pre-dinner drinks at the pub we found a few nights ago and then pizza at the place across the road from the apartment. Tried and tested! But the pizza place was closed on Sunday. So we tried another pizza place but it was an hours wait. We therefore swapped the plan for tomorrow night. Sausages and salad from the Spar.

We had intended doing a Danube sightseeing cruise tonight. The combination of price and the options for locating the boat finally put an end to that idea. Bugger! Instead we waited until sunset and took the metro to the other side of the river, the Buda side, so we could see the buildings at night. 

We were too early at 8:30pm for any lights and it wasn't dark yet. So we sat in the Batthyany ter Park and waited for 9 o'clock. The park is directly opposite the Parliament building. With bugs annoying the heck out of us finally the lights came on and it was dark. Very pretty.

We then walked back across the Chain Bridge to the apartment taking in whatever buildings we could find that were nicely lit up. That included the Castle, St Stephens, and the Opera. We have walked over 15km today so definitely earned the ice cream we enjoyed once back in our street.