Don't Be A Pesht

First, I'll explain the title - the correct pronunciation of Budapest is actually Budapesht.  Now onto the blog...

We arrived in Budapest late Saturday evening.  Our train kept getting delay after delay, so we didn't get into Budapest until 11:30.  We heard from many people and many guidebooks that Budapest is beautiful and they weren't lying.  Salzburg is still my favorite city so far on this trip, but Budapest is a very close second!  Compared to Vienna, Budapest has much more character.

On Easter Sunday, we grabbed tickets for the Big Bus hop on/hop off tours.  We splurged and bought a multi-day pass so we could also do the tram tour that evening to see the city lit up.  The tour on the bus was great and there are three routes total.  Due to some scheduling issues, we weren't able to do any other routes besides the main one (red route).  We also made time to go to the House of Terror, which was interesting, but 2/3 of the museum was not in English.  We got the idea of what was going on, though.  We also had about an hour wait to get into the museum.  Had I known that and had I known about the scheduling issues, I would have just skipped it to see more of the city.

We were under the impression that we had all day in Budapest today so we saved the other two routes for today.  This is where the scheduling issues come in.  Viking has been awesome in every way possible so far, but one thing they could have been more clear about was our time in Budapest.  All we could do today was the free excursion in Budapest with Viking, which was a brief summary of what we learned on the Big Bus tour and some time on the Buda side of the city.  After that tour was over, we were bussed to Visegrad where our boat was waiting for us (about an hour outside of Budapest).  So what we thought was going to be 2 full days here was really only one day on our own.  I'm not completely let down because the Viking tour was really good, but I would have preferred that communication before we bought a multi-day bus tour.

The other thing Viking did was require us to be on the boat by 8:00 pm last night so that we could enjoy a cruise down part of the Danube to see the city lit up from the river.  At first I was a bit sad since we splurged on the multi-day bus pass specifically for the evening walking tour.  But, I wasn't let down at all - Budapest is still gorgeous all lit up from the river!  This really was a treat!

Now we are cruising to Vienna which is a long haul - we won't be docked in Vienna until around 8:00 tomorrow morning.  Steve and I are considering setting an alarm for 2:00 am to hopefully see the scenery while cruising through Bratislava.  We'll see if it really happens though.  Steve and I aren't sure what we'll do in Vienna tomorrow because the weather is supposed to be rainy, which is preventing us from pulling the trigger on a kayaking excursion in the Danube wetlands.  We don't really have an interest to go see the city anymore, so I'll blog if we do something interesting tomorrow.  :-)

Enjoy the pictures from Budapest!  They'll be a bit out of order because I'm trying to do this quickly before I lose wifi (it's not very strong).

Train Station

Parliament building all lit up on our cruise on the river

Steve and I went to the House of Terror

Parliament and the Danube - we were crossing the famous Chain Bridge for this picture

Viking boats

Middle boat is ours

On the night cruise - Fisherman's Bastion all lit up in the background (I forget which church is in the foreground)

Chain bridge and the palace

A cool fountain that would change colors

Budapest Skyline

A little closer on the Chain Bridge

Easter present left in our room by the Viking Easter Bunny

The shoe memorial - during the Holocaust, Jews were lined up on the banks of the Danube, told to remove their shoes and then they were shot to death and their bodies would fall in the river.  Somber way for us to start the day, but we learn history so we don't repeat it.

We went to this memorial very early in the morning and a local man was standing there when we got there.  He came up to us and said he wanted to show us something.  Then he pointed out the toddler shoes.

I didn't notice this the first time we went here - notice that "Terror" is shining through on the building.

Heroes Square

Fisherman's Bastion

On Easter Monday, it's a tradition for young boys to sprinkle perfume on the women in the town.  The women are supposed to give coins or Easter eggs to the boys.  We didn't get sprayed by them...

...but our tour guide offered to sprinkle us, lol!

On top of the Fisherman's Bastion overlooking the Pest side of the city (we are on the Buda side; the Danube separates the city).

Steve and me

Parliament through the window

The oldest bakery in Budapest

Cakes at the bakery

Dobos Torte (this was our second breakfast)

Hard to see in the picture, but there is a stone "0" to the right of the red egg.  All things in Budapest are measured from that "0"

Canola fields

April 22 was Sara's birthday.  Our servers came over with the cake and sang happy birthday to her (the whole ship joined in too!).  One of the servers was joking around with us and said that the Vienna Boys Choir was going to sing to her (since we were on the way to Vienna).  We all had a good laugh about that.  The rest of the night, we enjoyed the music in the bar and had a lot of laughs and dancing!