Hungary 03: Budapest - The 'Buda' Side

Monday, January 20, 2025

This was our final day in Budapest – and Hungary – and today we would explore the ‘Buda’ side of the city. We took the metro across the river and got off at the Batthyány stop, which was just along riverfront. From there we could look across the river at the parliament building, giving us a full view of the entire building.

Thinh and I then began the long walk up to castle hill, which required us to climb up several flights of stairs. As we made the walk up, I suddenly remembered making the same walk when I had first visited Budapest 16 years ago. After reaching the top of the hill, we found ourselves at Fisherman’s Bastion, a fortress dating from the 19th century. From there we could look out over the Danube and over to the Pest side of the city. There was a small stone structure with arches where we could stop and admire the view; it was crowded with tourists, but we managed to push our way through the crowds. Descending from Fisherman’s Bastion is the Schulek Staircase, a remarkable series of stone stairs heading down the hill.

Just behind Fisherman’s Bastion was the Church of Our Lady of Buda Castle. The church is not as elaborate as others that we had seen, but it was nevertheless still impressive. The 800-year-old church is also known as Matthias Church, named after the Hungarian king who oversaw the construction of the main bell tower. The Gothic-style tower is the most impressive part of the church.

We had a leisurely stroll down the main street of castle hill, which was full of tourists. Restaurants were located all along the street and we tried to find a place to have some lunch. We stumbled across a German restaurant which looked very good to me, so Thinh agreed to have lunch there. We ended up ordering Transylvania ‘miccs’ (meats) along with a pretzel. I had eaten this Transylvania dish back in 2009 and had longed to find it again somewhere during my travels. They are small rolls of meat, consisting of ground beef, lamb, and port, mixed with spices. It was every bit as delicious as I remembered.

After we finished eating, we continued our walk until we reached Buda Castle. The current Baroque palace was constructed in the mid-1700s, though it was heavily damaged by bombing during the Second World War and was rebuilt in a more simple style. While no longer a royal residence, the palace now houses several museums, including the Hungarian National Gallery and the Budapest Historical Museum.

We first walked through the main courtyard of the palace, which overlooks the Danube. The façade of the palace facing the river was very nice, with columns running across the full length and a large dome towering over the courtyard. Thinh and I made our way into the interior courtyard of the palace, stopping to admire the Fountain of King Matthias en route. This elaborate fountain depicts the king with a party hunting a stag.

Rounding the corner from the fountain, we walked through an ornate archway to reach the central interior courtyard of the palace. This was a huge open space surrounded by the various wings of the palace. It reminded us a lot of the buildings that we had seen in Vienna, which was not surprising since the palace had been built by the Hapsburg rulers during the years of the Astro-Hungarian Empire. While we didn’t go inside any of the museums of the palace, we thoroughly enjoyed our time wandering around the area.

As we made our way out of the palace, we stopped off in a chimney cake shop for a sweet treat. It was a very tiny shop with standing-room only for customers, but the cakes smelled delicious. We ordered one with cinnamon sugar and Nutella this time. I love Nutella and Thinh had only recently discovered how wonderful it is to eat. We both enjoyed the chimney cake and it was a nice treat to have before walking back down to the metro.

When we reached the riverfront again, it was getting dark and the parliament building was lit up across the river. It was great having the opportunity to see it by night. Taking the metro back to the hotel, we ended up going out for Vietnamese for dinner. We returned to the restaurant we’d eaten at on our first night in Budapest, where I again had the bun bo nam bo, and Thinh had pho. On the way back from dinner, we went to a convenience store to get some snacks for our journey tomorrow (they had bacon-flavored Pringles!). The remainder of the evening was spent packing our bags before bed.

Our time in Hungary had come to an end, but it had been a wonderful experience. I asked Thinh which city that we’d visited was his favorite, and he replied that it was Budapest. I was surprised that he liked Budapest so much, but the more I thought about it, I understood why it was his favorite. Budapest is a city full of beautiful architecture, which is enhanced by the Danube running right through the city center. My first visit to Budapest hadn’t left me with a great impression, but this visit had made me realize what a spectacular city it is – one that both Thinh and I would like to revisit in the future.