Lake Balaton and Budapest

What a spectacular day we wake to! The fall foliage is just breathtaking. We take a short ride to the shore of Lake Balaton and it is really quite beautiful.

Fot: Balaton Lake, Aneta

We snap a few photos and then get on the road for Budapest. What a spectacular surprise! I had no idea Budapest would be so beautiful. Everywhere the eye falls there is something more beautiful than before. Aneta is disappointed that I seem to like it better than Prague but I have to admit this city really captured my heart and imagination.

Fot: Linda and Alicja at the old bridge

We park in the Buda section and walk across the bridge connecting it to Pest making the combined cities on two sides of the beautiful Danube River Budapest. Did you know that? I didn't.
We can see a lovely castle on top of a very high hill that people are taking a funicular or bus up to visit. We, of course, walk! The hill is 70meters high and it takes us a good while to make the trek. There are many shortcuts with lots and lots of stairs that will get us there more quickly but I avoid stairs at all cost when possible! So we wind our way along the narrow streets and finally the wider and well traveled bus route to the top of the hill. We do not go inside the castle as Aneta informs me, a little disdainfully, that this castle is new and therefore not worth a visit. There was some sort of exposition in the 1990's in Budapest for which a temporary castle was erected. It met with such a positive response from the public that the city fathers decided to build a permanent castle on the hill - or something like that. I could have the dates wrong but whenever it happened it was disgustingly recent apparently and therefor falls into the category of "tourist trap."

Fot: Aneta and Ania at the old bridge; Alicja

So, having made the entire comb up the mountain, I was faced with making my way back down to river level. That was going to involve stairs no matter how you sliced it. We headed down, down, down with Alycia holding onto my arm to keep me from pitching headlong into the abyss. At the bottom, which arrived more quickly than imagined it would, we located a traditional Hungarian restaurant and went inside for a meal. We all ordered Hungarian Goulash, which was very hot and spicy but delicious - that is until I was about a half hour out from lunch when I became quite suddenly ill. Not a pleasant experience. The restroom I tried to get into wanted 1.80 Hungarian whatevers and all I had was Croatian Kuna or Polish Zlotys. The girl was unrelenting (I should up-chucked on her shoes) and Alycia was furiously digging around in her purse hunting for the money. She finally came up with the right coin and I rushed through the turnstile where I was stopped and told by the three gatekeepers to take toilet paper from a giant roll attached to the wall outside the toilet booths! I reeled off as much as I could carry in both arms, to their collective horror, and escaped inside.

Fot: Parliament in Budapest, Linda

Moving right along we walked the length of the Danube water front from the bus station back to the bridge, crossed the bridge and were back to the car after 4 hours of walking. From there it was just drive, drive, drive to get back to Poland at some kind of decent hour. That decent hour turned out to be 10:30 PM after a stop at - of all places - McDonalds! for a quick bite to eat. Frankly nothing ever tasted better to me, I am embarrassed to say. I even got to have a coke with ICE - a full glass.

I fixed my sofa bed in the living room of Aneta's flat and turned out the lights. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow I think. Aneta's husband, Witek came in sometime in the night because I heard the key in the lock, and he was here the next morning, but I have no idea what time it was.

Loved Budapest, loved Croatia, wish it had lasted longer.
Linda