Done Pest, Now Buda

Budapest is split in two by the Danube. Before the two sides were united, one was called Buda, the other, Pest! Surprise surprise!

Most of our exploration had been focused on the Pest side of the river (except maybe part of our river cruise the night before), so we decided to spend the afternoon that we might otherwise have spent bathing on discovering Buda.

Not before petting every elephant we could find, naturally.

Oh, and admiring buildings. Have I mentioned that I'm into that yet?

OK, there were quite a few important tasks to be completed as we made our way to the river. Another was testing giant pencils.

And pulling the moustaches of... yetis?

And you may be relieved that we did eventually make it to the river.

Tom had to consult the map to make sure we were crossing the correct bridge...

There's a funicular that takes you up to the top of the hill, where there is a castle (which we'd taken many photos of from the river the previous night). We weren't too impressed by the price, so decided instead to catch a local bus (which was covered under the 24 hour public transport ticket we'd bought the previous day to get from the train station to our hotel).

And we were thrilled to discover another of our little tricycle motorbike scooter car thingies at the top!

Along with a dragon.

And some pretty great views.

We couldn't pass up the opportunity to try these rolled doughnut things.

Oh, and I rediscovered my passion for doors.

And lamp posts.

And giant teapots. And actually here's where I need to make a confession. I am a bit of a collector of teapots. In fact I love them so much that Tom now has to carry my clothes in his giant suitcase in order to make room for a few china teapots in mine. Carrying china teapots around during a 3-month trip in Europe? Totally sensible!!!

We found a gorgeous church.

And its little replica.

And nearby, the so-called Fisherman's Bastion, which makes me dream of Rapunzel in her tower.

We decided we just had to sit and enjoy that view at the little cafe.

While being serenaded by these gypsy musicians (who convinced us to buy their CD for 10 euro - not bad, really).

Doesn't get much better! Fantastic view, great live music, coffee and an apple strudel.

We eventually managed to get up off our butts to see more of the place.

We admired the reflection of the beautiful church in this modern monstrosity's windows...

Which actually turned out to be the marzipan! As in cake icing! This absolutely enormous cake was in their window.

And in case you can't read this, its absolutely incredible list of ingredients is:
1400 eggs
84 litres of cream
34 kg sugar
40 kg flour
28 kg chocolate
15 kg decorating mass
54 kg sugar covering
250 marzipan roses

Total weight: 250 kg
Preparation time: 350 hrs

On that astounding note, we decided to climb down the stairs from the Fisherman's Bastion and make our way back towards the river, although it took a while, because I had to keep stopping and taking photos of what was behind us.

Or above us.

You get the idea.

This is the parliament building on the Pest side of the river.

This isn't.

We had to make sure we made it back to our hotel reasonably quickly once we reached the hotel, because we were booked to board the 8pm overnight train to Prague. So, we managed to find a restaurant across the road from the hotel that would make us a quick dinner (well it was supposed to be quick, it was actually finished with about 5 minutes to spare), and we wolfed down the first dish in record time. Chicken Kiev with rice, I think.

We had decided not to take any chances with Tom's ailing suitcase (see here), and got the hotel to book a taxi for us to take us to the train station. Here I am making a start on our second take-away meal while waiting on the footpath for the taxi (well actually I'm hiding in a little entry-way so that the wind doesn't cool the food so fast). This one was some kind of pappardelle with sour cream and ricotta. It was completely tasteless. Not the best.

Our taxi was ten minutes late, so we made it to the train just in the nick of time, and settled in for a VERY long night.