Beautiful Budapest

We're feeling a little bit lazy so decide to go on the Hop On Hop Off tour rather than our usual walking tour. The bus takes us around Buda and Pest explaining the history of Budapest before stopping off at the Castle District for people to take pictures of the beautiful views of the city below, time for more selfies! After the tour we hunted down a quiet little cafe in a back street that did all sorts of different flavoured hot chocolate (we went for Apricot and Walnut and Banana, mmm) a perfect place for a rest. We make our way to the central market to see if we can find any bargains, all the food looks and smells wonderful. It's a night cruise next and we see how beautiful Budapest is all lit up, stunning.

Selfie Time!

Central Market - 3 floors of everything

A glowing city from our cruise

The castle (I know, it doesn't look like one!)

The next day we go to Heroes Square which is nice to look at but we're here for another reason...James has tracked down another flea market. Because we're too scared to ask for prices of things in English we only come away with a pin badge for James, last of the big time spenders! Heehee. We hop on the boat again but this time it's to visit Margit Island which is a huge park where only public transport is allowed. It's nice to have a peaceful stroll around the park, seeing the ruins of the old convent and visiting the tiny zoo that they have (think roundabout zoo, league of gentlemen fans!). After a bit of uncertainty staring down the river to see if our boat is actually coming it finally does and takes us back to the mainland, we're treated to another night cruise, we wouldn't get bored of them, its too pretty.

Heroes Square

Budapest's very own 'roundabout zoo'

Massively impressive parliament building. Probably a bit of a waste of money though.

Waiting for the boat back, and what a view.

Time for a bit of culture today so we planned (well James did) a trip to the Victor Vasarely museum and see a bit of Op Art so why not start with some Hungarian food first? We made a bit of a mistake by stopping for a cheap set meal; plum soup, schnitzel and potatoes followed by a weird coconut rice pudding cake (it's got nothing on the one at mark & Anais' wedding). Not a nice meal and another lesson for us; don't eat at self-service restaurants (added to lessons like; don't buy things with no prices, don't try and find our flat with no map and always go the opposite way to what James says). We had differing opinions about the art in the museum, James was interested and Christine was distinctly unimpressed. To be fair some pieces did seem a bit pointless but there were plenty of large colourful pieces to make our eyes go weird! And to end the day? A quick drink in our local...it was literally next door, where the beer was cheap and there was a magic pool table that somehow let Christine win!

Is she enjoying it? Probably not!

They make your eyes go funny

Today Christine is very excited because we're off too...the bear farm!!! Or to be more precise Medve Otthon, a bear and wolf sanctuary about an hour away from the city. It's a bit quiet and we're the only visitors for a while but we don't mind, we get the bears all to ourselves. Unfortunately we were both a bit disappointed as we were looking forward to the chance to feed the bears honey but as it was so quiet, the honey shop was closed. We felt sorry for the bears, they looked so disappointed when they got to us and didn't get fed. Poor bears.

Zombie Bear!

Where did my friends go? 

What do you mean no honey? Stuff you then.

Let me out, I promise not to eat you...

In the evening we went to find some of Budapest's famous ruin pubs. Szimpla was our first stop and it didn't disappoint: three floors of weird and wonderful junk on the ceilings, floors and walls, bathtubs for chairs, bikes for lamp stands and glass bottles for walls. We had to try another so we left for Fogas Haz next (House of Teeth) which didn't look quite so impressive but definitely had the better music. We did have a bit of a scare walking in though, as it seemed to be film night in one room and we walked in right next to the screen but we didn't know. Why are all these people looking at us?!

Bathtub chair

Szimpla bar, well one room. We think Manchester needs one

We're understandably a little delicate this morning but it's not going to stop us adventuring! We've got a train day ahead of us; first its a trip on the cogwheel railway to go uphill. It's a noisy one so there're a few regrets about last night's fun and games but it's all forgotten when we get out at the top and see everything covered in SNOW!!! But what we really came up for was another train, this time one through the woods down the hillside that's run by children. The only adult was the driver, the kids did everything else; tickets, conducting, whistles, paddle waving (to signal stop/go), it was quite an experience. And the view from the train wasn't half bad either! We decided to finish our last day with one last ruin bar, Ellato kert, and sampling their elderberry beer and tacos which went down very nicely!

the noisiest train in the world!

Waiting for the children's train so we played like kids