Budapest: The Happy Accident

We discovered Budapest by accident. Not really. It was not a part of my original itinerary but when it came time to book the flight home it was an extremely inexpensive alternative than flying home from our original last stop in Kraków. Oh what an incredible surprise!!!

Budapest is centered around the Danube River which is an enormously crucial part of the city scape. (In fact Budapest used to be two different cities, Buda on West and Pest on the East bank. The river unites the two into the now united Budapest.) 

Let me just throw somethings at you. Spas, river cruises, gothic gorgeous buildings, a humorous mocking of cruel governments that used to rule, and a gigantic pinball museum with unlimited game play. Sound good? That's Budapest!

I strongly recommend beginning your Budapest journey with a river cruise (especially one of the many offerings that serve dinner, live entertainment, and champagne!) It's a great way to orient yourself and two of the most breathtaking land marks are right on the river! Plus everything is lit up at night for an entirely new set of beautiful pictures. 

Next you must decide if you are ready to soak away any muscle tension you have accumulated in the past 20 years. You are? Great! Take the metro to one of the several natural thermal baths. We personally LOVED Szechenyi which is also the largest. The entire establishment is a stunning royal palace-like building with 18 pools of varying temperatures, 10 saunas, massage rooms, facials, really anything you could want to turn your muscles to a texture similar to melted butter. You pay a small fee for entry and a locker then you get free roaming to tip your toes in all different experiences. Seriously, prepare to release that anxiety you had from getting a pimple before the 8th grade dance. That's how deep the relaxation goes. 

Feeling relaxed? Great! Throw on your walking shoes and check out Buda Castle, Parliament, and St. Stephen's Basilica. Imma just drop these pictures right here for ya...

Unfortunately, Budapest had some seriously rocky times with government. They went from Nazi regime immediately followed by oppressive communism until 1989. 1989!!!! Hungarians don't want to forget that terror, plus they have an excellent sense of humor.  Far out of town (you still can get there easily by bus) is Memento Park where they took down all the monuments built under communism/Nazi regime and put them in a park to mock. Don't you just love Hungarians? Boy I do.  Here is one of my favorites. 

Don't forget about the pinball museum. That's right. For just a small fee you can look at rooms and rooms of pinball machines from the very beginning of pinball to now and of course they are free for unlimited play! They even have a snack bar and awesome t-shirts. This was a ridiculously fun afternoon and Justin was very pouty that he couldn't beat my high score. :-)

There is so much unexpected joy we found in Budapest. Check out my "Central Europe" itinerary if you want to follow in our footsteps.