Budapest, Day 2

Tactile/Braille Map of the Buda Side of the City

We woke up early on Saturday so that we would have plenty of time to explore the city. We started by looking everywhere for an open bakery for breakfast. After we found one, we headed out to the Buda side of the city (where the castle is) for some sightseeing. In order to get there, we crossed the famous Chain Bridge.

Once on the Buda side, we explored the grounds of the Buda Castle. We also watched the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace, we headed down to the Holy Trinity square and the Fisherman's Bastion. Tim held a falcon, and we enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

View of the Chain Bridge and Pest Side from the Buda Side 

Next, we crossed back to the Pest side, and we went into St. Stephan's Basilica. We even climbed to the top of the dome (302 stairs...they counted it for us).

  

After lunch, we headed to the Szechenyi Baths. This is one of the most popular baths for tourists and locals, and for good reason. We spent about 3 hours there, soaking in the thermal mineral waters of various temperatures, going back and forth between saunas and steam baths, and enjoying the beautiful old architecture. I didn't take any pictures, but I did find some on the internet of just what it looked like.

Afterwards, still smelling like the sulfur water we'd been soaking in, we headed to a restaurant (Paprika) that had been recommended to us by our host for it's traditional Hungarian food. It was fabulous, and after we finished, we looked around at some of the nearby monuments...that we still mostly don't understand.

After that, we headed home very quickly so that we could change in time to get to the Opera House to see the Taming of the Shrew. Even though our 4-Euro seats were terrible, the Opera was enjoyable, and after, we went out for drinks with Teppo, the Finnish guy sitting next to us.

me with the poster