Day 6: The Buda in Budapest

Wow— what a full day!

The Pest Side

The Hop-on-Hop-off tour bus was our means of transportation for Budapest. It took us around the city on a double decker bus (we sat up top outside!) This was a good way to get a better view of the city than we had from our skeezy hotel! In comparison to Vienna, the buildings on the pest side of town were less colorful, dirtier, and overall underwhelming. The smoke in the air was about the same as the amount in Vienna, if not a little more. In a lot of places we went, it seemed like Hungarians were much louder in comparison to the Viennese. People in Vienna were very quiet in and calm, but Hungarians were loud and unruly. Overall, I will say I feel much safer in Vienna. If I were to live somewhere, I would choose Vienna over Budapest any day!

Lunch was my favorite part of that side of town. Lucas, Victoria, and I stopped at the Ecocafe. Their adorable exterior seating caught my eye and the fact that they claimed to be eco-friendly was a plus! What does eco-friendly mean in Budapest? Didn’t matter— we were sold! It was super cute and cool inside, and the first one that wasn’t a chain that I finally got to go to! I got a cafe latte, as always, and a ham/mozzarella/tomato sandwich.

The Buda Side

A lot of people wanted to go to a bath house, but my buddy Lucas and I weren’t convinced that we would be able to adequately explore the other side of the Danube River (the nice side, the Buda side) and go to a bath house all in one day. So, we set out to finally cross the Danube! After a few bus stops, we got out right at a foot bridge. It was beautiful! On the other side of the bridge, there were people offering rides up to the top of the hill, saying it would be about a 25 minute walk. We had lots of time to kill so we went for it! I’m so glad we did, because the trek up was easy and so scenic. And by the time we made it up, did a lot of wandering/sight seeing, and took some high-quality photographs… we knew we deserved some gelato from one of the shops at the top. This side of town was much calmer and I felt very safe. The buildings were pretty and well-taken care of, and I got more of a high-class feel while we were wandering around. 

We thought we could make the 8:30 boat ride with half of our crew, but when we made it at 8:20, they had already taken off! It all worked out, though, because we got to spend the boat ride with the other half. By this time it was dark, and the lit up view of both sides of the city from the Danube were beautiful. Sure, I was exhausted from wandering around without a plan all day, and I nodded off for part of it… but it was still worth it! 

The Eye

Our last adventure for the day was a ride on the Budapest Eye, where we split into a few groups and were able to overlook the city from the top of the ferris wheel. It was beautiful, and a perfect way to end the day!