Buda-Pest

Hi all!
A little departure from normal posts, this post is going to be about my holiday to Budapest. Hope you all enjoy it!
I'll be writing this up, day-to-day and will give a description of the places that I and my beloved (who shall be named RT in this post) visited! I'll write it up over a few posts so here's the start!

Saturday:
Left Dublin at 3:30 ish with Aer Lingus and arrived around 7:50 Budapest. Budapest is an hour ahead of Ireland and England, so the time change isn't much at all to the body. Arrived in and picked up the bags and went straight to the information desk. My GF bought two Budapest cards - one each. The Budapest card allows you to use most of the Metro, Trams and buses lines during the lifetime of the card. The card can be bought in 24hr, 48hr and 72hr and starts when ever you want it to to the nearest hour. My GF selected it to start the next day at 11am (the start date is written on the card and you sign it). We then got a taxi from the airport to the hotel The Golden Park Hotel. The taxi has the maximum cost that it can be on a receipt by the company at the airport kiosk so you can't be charged more than that. The trip to the hotel took about 30mins. Got to the hotel and was given room 208. It was tiny room. Across the road was Mcdonalds, KFC and Burger King. We went to Burger King. Then went into the large rail station that was beside us. Really beautiful building. Damned if I can remember the name of it.

Sunday:
Awoke to people being loud (very loud) in the corridor. RT asked to get moved rooms, which we did after we explored a little. We got moved to room 201 which was much larger and nicer. Before the move, we went exploring - we went up the street from the house, got on the metro and ended up at the Main Jewish Synagogue for Budapest. Outside the synagogue we met Maria (if memory serves). She runs an one-hour course for Hungarian called Fungarian. I really do recommend it for you, having some easy to use phrases really helps when you're going around. After the course we went around the Synagogue in a tour and the attached museum. Beautiful building, tragic story, and very eery to me, but i would say to do to it. Maybe not do the tour but have a look around yourself. To enter the synagogue they give you a temporary Jewish hat called a kippa. The museum is on a tower beside the synagogue and has lots of pieces to look at. A memorial garden is to the rear for the victims of World War II.

Monday:

Went exploring the city. We were looking for the Chinese Market, but it was closed. Went down the tramline further and we found a lovely promenade along the Danube. We walked it and came across a lovely little gem of an area. There was a small bush labyrinth which of course, just had to be explored, and a large circular building tower. We went up to the top and had a look around. At the top, you get a brilliant view across the river and some of the surrounding area.

We then got the number 2 train which was just a walk away alone the Danube, lovely views alone the way. We then changed to the number 2 tram and continued on our way. We stopped before the Parliament building so we could visit the Shoes on the Danube memorial. I was kinda unsettled to be honest to be standing there. The shoes are made of metal and are permanently fixed to the stone in memory of those who died in World War II, falling into the river dead and their shoes left behind.  

We then walked up to the parliament building. Big imposing building, lovely gothic architecture. We didn't go in but had a walk around it. Well worth a visit. There's a park infront of it with very big statues and a memorial to those who died in the uprising against Communism.

We then returned to the hotel and moved. After I went for a walk and found the Avenue shopping center, a large monument to American mall capitalism. All the shops you want from home are here.

I think I'll leave the rest for my next post. This one is quite long with the pictures and all. Hope you enjoyed it so far.