19th June: Budapest exploring!

A good day starts with a good breakfast. That's what our hostel owner think so too. The morning was started with not very fancy but filling breakfast. 2 breads, assorted cheese, coffee, tea, or milk and cereal. More than enough to fill us up.

Today is free tour day. Well, as budget travelers, we are always on the look-out for free walking tour. Although the tours are free, the quality is not taken for granted. The tour guides are usually friendly and very informative. Usually, we will look for Sandemann's walking tour. But unfortunately, they don't have it for Budapest, so we have to search for alternative. Lucky for us, 2Night hostel is very informative as well. So we had a brochure to a free walking tour by Free Walking Tour Budapest. Our tour guide was a very friendly girl. She gave us loads of information on the history of the city. I need to admit that I really forgotten most of the history (yes I have gold fish memory!), but I do know that Budapest is a relatively young country, achieving their independence around 1990s. But the growth and development of the city is really much better than where I came from which has almost 50 years of independence but still in the same growing phase as Budapest.

Well tour guide girl ( I really can't recall her name) lead us through the city, pointing out landmarks worth visiting and cafes, bars and restaurant worth spending money in. She introduced us to the lock tree/bridge concept which rumored to have started in Budapest. So, loving couple will buy a lock, engrave their names on it, lock on to the tree, throw the key together somewhere where they can never get it back and voila your love is locked forever. Interesting!

We will not be apart even till death

And half way through the tour, we have an "adventure" with this homeless guy who tried to attract attention buy hitting some pebble against a lamp post. Well, nobody actually gave him the attention that he wants, so he left!

Tour guide with homeless guy demanding for attraction

A church in Pest area

View from Castle Hill. All the effort hike up was worth it

Synagogue

After the tour, we just went around the town for a while before heading back to the hostel to get more information about Turkish bath. Turkish bath is a main attraction in Budapest. They have a few around town. But we decided to go to this largest Turkish bath in the Pest area. But before that, it was dinner time. This time round, we decided to give wikitravel a try. Under the budget recommendation, we went to Pozsonyi kisvendéglő which is just few blocks away from our hostel. I really recommend this for people on a budget. Their servings were really huge. I got full by just having a small beef goulash (which is supposed to be a starter for the locals).

Pork stew with potatoes

Beef Goulash - the traditional soup-based

Our dessert - Apple pie with custard. We ended up having it for supper.

Outside of the cafe

We were so full after 1 course that we needed to pack up our dessert as they cannot cancel our order. Yes, Hungarians are big eaters and surprisingly they are still quite fit.

Tour guide looked fit but Mr. Policeman's tummy said otherwise:D

Back to the Turkish Bath. In the Turkish Bath, there is a hot pool and a cold pool. And you can choose between unisex pool or mixed (requires swimsuit). But in some other places, they have alternate days for different sexes, so you can enjoy all the spa facilities comfortably. We went to Széchenyi Spa which is located in a city park. The building was magnificent, with very strong Turkish influence. And not forgetting, it was huge, that we couldn't locate the entrance. Since we were late, we can only have access to the hot pool, which reminds me of the hotspring when I went to Taiwan. The warm water just kicks off all the tiredness after all the walking. We paid 3400 HUF each for a changing room facility and the entrance fee. You'll be given an electronic wrist band which acts as a lock to the changing room and also give you entrance access.

The Bath

Hot pool

After the relaxing bath, it was time to head back to the hostel. Long walk back but we were super recharged so we didn't really mind. In the middle of the night, boyfriend had his crazy crave to take night shots. So we went towards the Danube river, across the bridge to get to the Buda side, just to meet other photographers, trying their best to capture the best of Budapest night. Chain bridge looked gorgeous with all it's lighting, the Parliament building looked as majestic as ever at night and the Castle on the Castle Hill will remind you how hilly the Buda side was. No regrets walking in the cold (strong wind when you approach the river) to catch such beautiful scene.
For night scene photos, please refer to this link : http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150252014371544.344925.626001543&type=1

After one hour or so, it was bed time. Must get some good sleep tonight as tomorrow night we will have the longest train ride ever!