Last weekend we went to Budapest, Hungary. It’s a 2.5 hour train ride so we decided to stay overnight. We left early Saturday morning (nothing says Trip like the alarm NOT going off at 4am when you have to leave by 5) on the 6am train. I was a little anxious about Skye and the train ride, but she did great on the way down. On the way home, though, she was a lot more restless and we had our stuff piled all over our cabin trying to keep her happy and entertained. Seriously, we had a cabin to ourselves, until the last 30 seconds a single guy comes in with a reservation (since it was a holiday weekend). Poor bloke.
Anyways, since we got there so early, the city was still waking up and it was pretty quiet as we made our way from the train station through the quiet, quaint neighborhood streets of Budapest. On the map we got, it said there were some really yummy pastries in this one part of town. We slowly worked our way across town to this destination. Once we finally made it to the tourist trap area, it was like someone flipped a switch and all of a sudden there were swarms of tour groups around us. It was very strange going from serene local streets to crowded touristy areas. But alas, we are tourists and can’t see everything in a couple of days, so we sorta have to hit these areas first. And for good reason, the historic sights and buildings were stunning and amazing. We spent most of the day at the Buda Castle district. The Danube splits Budapest into two; the Buda side on the West and the Pest side on the East. As we were strolling along the Palace grounds, (a lot of the pics), we didn’t realize how expansive it was until we saw it sitting on the hill, from the Pest side across the river. We saw the grossly ornate Parliament building and the golden accented Basilica on our way to our hotel, where our feet were begging for a reprieve. Budapest has famous baths and swimming pools, but it seemed more trouble than it was worth since Skye hasn’t been swimming yet. I was a little disappointed for not patronizing one of these baths and also for not seeing Budapest all lit up at night. But with a toddler, we just couldn’t do it all.
Skye had her first swimming experience, and unfortunately, she didn’t like it so well. When we first got in the water, it was a bit cold (which is odd for a place famous for it’s hot spring spas). So I tried dunking her in and out of the water (which usually helps me when the water is cold). But then I think she noticed that the bottom was not within reach, and she never got over that. She had a bit of fun while I was helping her splash, which might have gotten her mind off of not touching the bottom, but it gradually got worse and worse until we just gave up and pulled her out. I was a bit disappointed, I was hoping she would love it, as she usually loves bath time and splashing around in there, but she didn’t go for this. Maybe next time we’ll go somewhere with a kiddie area where she can touch the bottom until she gets used to the idea of being in the water.
And here are a ton of pics, and I’m not really going to write about all of them, because there was just too much. It was a cool place.
And here are some links of places in the pics for those interested:
Fisherman’s Bastion
Matthias Church
Hero’s Square
Vajdahunyad Castle
Google Maps
Yay, I have been waiting to hear about this trip. The pics are amazing. Can you give me an idea of what a trip like this cost? I can’t help but be so excited for all the adventures Skye is getting. She will love these pics when she is older. I know it probably gets lonely, but what an awesome experience that her and you guys will have to cherish forever. You will have a lot of great photographs for your house when you get back. Don’t worry about the swimming, they more you do it, the more she will like it. Your hotel looked nice.
A trip like this for us from Bratislava cost about (I use $, but I mean €, so multiply by ~1.3 to get USD) $16/each for the train, hotel was $100, bus/metro was $1/each, and we transferred about $180 to forints (Hungarian dollars, which gave us about 48,000 Huf, it was weird walking around with 5,000 Huf bills) and used it all, so grand total was about $330. So yeah, pretty cheap when you’re already in the area. We have a friend that can do the same trip for a lot cheaper (staying in hostels, using the bus instead of train to get there, etc.)