Day 1:

We took the metro M1 line from Oktogon stop to Deak Ferenc Ter and switched to Bus 16. The bus crosses the river Danube and turns by the Funicular and goes uphill all the way to Buda Castle.

Chain Bridge & Hungarian Parliament on the Danube – View from Buda Castle
Buda Castle, Budapest
Karen @ Buda Castle in front of Matthias Fountain (Mátyás kútja)

After exploring Buda Castle for a couple of hours we walked towards Matthias Church. The exterior structure of this church is simply stunning and even though you can see it across the Danube from Pest side, nothing beats seeing it up close.

 

Matthias Church
Parents in front of Matthias Church

From Matthias church we walked across the street to Fisherman’s Bastion.

Fisherman’s Bastion, Budapest
Karen @ Fisherman’s Bastion

After spending some time taking pictures we walked downhill from Fisherman’s Bastion to Chain Bridge (Széchenyi lánchíd).

Funicular to Buda Castle

We crossed the Chain Bridge to the Pest side.

Me with my parents on Chain Bridge

By this time it was past lunchtime and I had researched that the October 6 utca had lots of nice dining options and we made our way over there. My parents ended up having some thai food at Padthai Wokbar while we had some middle eastern at Hummusbar.

 

Budapest Beer Bike

After lunch we walked back to the hotel for some rest. After a couple of hours rest we took the M1 line again from Oktogon stop to Hosok Tere stop which is the metro stop for Heroe’s Square. Over here we saw some beer bikes where a group of tourists would paddle a bike while drinking beer.

Heroes Square, Budapest
Heroe’s Square, Budapest

After spending about half an hour in the square we walked to nearby Vajdahunyad Castle. This is actually a combination of 3 separate castle structures and had a distinct charm to it.

Vajdahuniyad Castle, Budapest

The famous “Anonymous” statue is located in the castle grounds.

Anonymous Statue @ Vajdahuniyad Castle

After spending about a couple of hours here we took the metro back to Deak Ferenc Ter. From there we took the 16 bus again to Chain Bridge. We walked around by Danube Promenade where a lot of people were watching the Champions League Final between Real Madrid and Juventus.

Chain Bridge on the Danube at night

The Chain Bridge at night was just magical with all the lights (as well as the Buda Castle lit up). We spent about an hour there and were going to stay longer but the mosquito assaults forced us to quit. We went back to October 6 utca and all of us had some more falafel and pita at Hummusbar.


Day 2:

We took the M1 line from Oktogon to Deak Ferenc Ter and walked over to St. Stephen’s Basilica.

St. Stephen’s Basilica – Budapest
St. Stephen’s Basilica, Budapest
St. Stephen’s Basilica – Interior

The sunday mass was about to start in half hour but unfortunately we had a Danube cruise in an hour and could not stay much longer. We walked from Deak Ferenc Ter to the Dock 7 where the Legenda Cruise departed.

Danube boat cruise by Legenda

The Legenda cruise went great and had very good audio commentary. The next 1.5 hours just flew by while we were snapping away pictures on both sides of the Danube.

Panoramic view of Gellert Hill by the Danube
View of Buda Castle on Danube Cruise
Parents posing on Danube Cruise with Hungarian Parliament in background

After cruise we went back to the hotel after lunch. After a couple of hours rest we took the metro to Kossuth Lajos Ter stop. The metro stop is right beside the Hungarian Parliament building. As soon as we exited the metro stop it started to rain heavily and had to go back inside till the rain subsided.

Karen in front of Hungarian Parliament Building
Parents by the Danube

We walked across the Hungarian Parliament building and then walked by the Danube until we came across the ‘Shoes on the Danube bank’ memorial. It is a very touching memorial to honor the people (mainly Budapest Jews) killed during World War 2.

Shoes on the Danube Memorial, Budapest

Next we took the metro back to Astoria stop and walked to Street Food Karavan. It seemed like a very popular place for the younger crowd and it was kinda packed. Me and Karen tried the Hungarian Goulash a second time but this time I did not care much for it (More stew compared to the soup we had in the morning).


Day 3:

We took the metro M1 to Vorosmarty Ter stop. We dropped inside Cafe Gerbaud for a quick peek as I had read lot of reviews about this iconic building and was amazed to see the selection of cakes and pastries inside.

Cafe Gerbaud

It was too early and none of us were in the mood for eating anything after having breakfast just a while before.

Parents @ Vorosmarty Square

We walked by Vorosmarty Square to Vaci street. It is a long street with souvenir shops on both sides.

Beginning of Vaci Street from Vorosmarty Square

Although there are souvenir shops lined end to end of this street, we did not find many good deals as the pricing was on the higher end than what we had seen in other places.

Karen @ Vaci Street

We reached the Great Market Hall at the end of Vaci Street and much to our dismay it was closed that day. We were really disappointed. we took the subway to WestEnd City Center mall which ended up also being closed (the shopping stores were closed but the food court was open). We all had our lunch in the food court and went back to the hotel as it was getting close for our train to Prague.