Yet another gorgeous city to fall in love with, I’m fickle I know I spend a couple of days in new city and I am in love again. I have been humming George Ezra’s melody over the last few days.

Monday started with a visit to the Great Synagogue which was just down the road from our hotel. The synagogue in Budapest is the biggest in Europe opening in 1859, the largest is in NYC. Having never been in a synagogue before I left it to the experts to discuss the differences between this one and the many others throughout the world. There is a residual sadness at this place and we learned that 70,000 Jewish people had been locked in a small synagogue (or ghetto) that sits next to the Great Synagogue. This small Synagogue is now called the Heroes Synagogue and can hold about 250 people normally, I can’t even imagine how dreadful the conditions must have been. There was a large population of Jewish people here in Budapest in the late 1930’s early 1940’s but by the time the Russians “liberated” Budapest 600,000 of the 800,000 Jewish people had been killed either here in the “ghetto” or at Auschwitz.

It is not customary to have a cemetery next to a Synagogue however on the discovery of many bodies the Russians buried people in a makeshift cemetery. It is quite a beautiful place with a memorial that depicts a weeping willow and has the tattoo numbers and names of the dead. There are many stones in this cemetery and no flowers except those that are planted, as is the tradition that goes back to Moses that a Jewish person will bring a stone to a cemetery.

We then headed toward the Danube, we didn’t manage to see much of it whilst in Vienna, but we have here in Budapest. We walked across one of the eight bridges that span the Danube. We crossed Budapest’s first stone bridge now, known as the Chain Bridge, to get to the Buda side of Budapest. Work on this bridge started in 1839 and the inauguration in 1849. It’s a beauty, when it was built it had the second longest span in the world. I love the lions 🦁.

We took a walk along the Danube and then headed back to the hotel via the wonderful air conditioned shops (yikes it was hot).

For dinner to a really cool little restaurant that wasn’t to far from the hotel (maybe a 20 minute walk), called hummusbar. It’s catchphrase is handmade, heartfelt. It was so yummy.. I had chicken grilled with special spices with a side of hummus and salad. Dinner for both of us was $25 AUD including a big Hungarian beer each. We are staying in the party zone of Budapest, so there are lots of pubs, hostels, cheap food and booze. Our hotel is kind of on the fringe so you don’t get all the noise but you certainly get the benefits including for me another fantastic massage. 😀

The next morning we had an almost private four hour tour of Budapest with a wonderful local man Zoltan, who picked us up from our hotel. It was the two of us and a lovely woman Sophia who was doing a 24 hour visit to Budapest from Egypt, ten countries in twenty days was her mantra. If we go to Cairo she wants me to look her up (and I will).

Above is Heroes Square that was built in 1896 to celebrate the thousandth anniversary of Hungary. The square is really impressive with Archangel Gabriel standing at the top of the center pillar, holding the holy crown and the cross . The seven chieftains (photo above) who led the Magyar tribes to Hungary are commemorated, as are the kings and other important historical figures all on top of the colonnades on either side of the center pillar.

When the monument was originally constructed, Hungary was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. When the monument was rebuilt after the Second World War the Habsburg emperors were replaced with Hungarian freedom fighters.

Whilst we were here we also visited the largest park in Budapest, City Park. The first trees were established in the 1750’s. Inside the park is the Vajdahunyad Castle which is a replica of a Transylvanian castle by the same name. It was built using various architectural styles including Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance.

The castle is surrounded by an artificial lake that is used for recreational boating this time of year, but in winter is transformed into an ice skating rink. It was opened in 1870. I would love to see Europe in winter, not that I can ice skate. My only experience of a European winter was a coup,e of years ago in Ireland and France in early December.

From here we headed for the Houses of Parliament.

We then headed up into the mountains overlooking that this extraordinary city. Our first stop is Gellért Hill what a view.

Here stands the Liberty Statue, it was erected in 1947 initially in reference to the Soviets liberation of Hungary. Let me just say that we have been told a few times that the Soviets forgot to leave until 1991.

The statue is 14 metres tall and bronze, and is holding a palm leaf with smaller but just as impressive statues at the base. The original monument consisted of two more but have removed from the site and relocated to another park.

This is also where the remnants of citadel are which was built in 1851 by the Austrian Empire ( the Hamburg’s) using forced Hungarian labour. The site was selected as it was a strategically sensible place to be able to shell both Buda and Pest. The walls being demolished by the Hungarians in 1900. During the Second World War and during the Hungarian revolution in 1956 Soviet Tanks fired from this location on this beautiful city.

From here to Buda Castle this historic castle was first completed in 1265, but the massive palace of today that occupies a huge site was built between 1749 and 1769. No one lives in the castle today however it houses the Hungarian National Gallery and The Budapest History Museum. Here are some snaps of the church and statues within the walls as well as the very impressive walls themselves. There is heaps to do here but unfortunately we only had 40 minutes, this is a place we certainly would have come back to if we had the time.

Our final full day we spent at the Gellért Thermal baths. What an extraordinary place to help ease our tired legs and feet. We purchased a cabin for the day, which really just meant the we had a place to leave our gear and get changed. It was the best, our photos won’t do this place justice.

Our final night (last night) was on a cruise down the Danube where we saw many of the awesome sights with the glow of great lighting. It was included as part of our ticket from our city tour the day before and was well worth the extra $20.00 AUD, I know crazy right.

Our trip to Hungary was so inexpensive (relatively), we had some of the greatest food here and the hotel whilst not really central was well placed, close to the metro and bus lines (we used both), with great local food, wonderful staff who served you champers with breakfast ( I declined) and the two tours we did were really informative. As booking trains to Hungary was a bit tricky we almost didn’t get here, but we are both so pleased we did. Add this one to yours lists, there is so much to see here and we only scrapped the surface. Mmm actually so far there is no where I wouldn’t recommend each of our stops have been highlights for us… Prague here we come.