Hungary: Budapest

An Italian town close to the border with Austria

After two days of driving we finally got to our first real stop……..Budapest, the capital of Hungary. We were absolutely tired but the city was a fantastic surprise…..in my opinion it is one of the most beautiful in Europe although it is one of the smallest. Hungary has a population of 10 million and 2 million live in the capital. The country is very well organised if compared to the other eastern European countries and the people are very polite but also very reserved. As all the other countries in Eastern Europe it has lived under the shadow of the Soviet Union until 1948 when after the War of Independence Hungary was claimed an independent country.  We arrived in the evening and our friend Agnes took us to eat a fantastic Goulash a stew made of beef, red onions, vegetables, spices and plenty of paprika and to top the evening she then took us in the Citadella to view the city by night.

The day after we venture into the capital and we did our own tour of the city, visiting first the castle, a Unesco sight and certainly one of the biggest I have ever seen. After a two hour long stroll we crossed the Danube, the famous river that divides the city of Buda from the one of Pest that together form the capital but also the river that inspired musicians like Mozart and the like. The view of the Parliament ( the biggest in Europe) is breathtaking and only the roaming cars disturb this incredible panorama.

 

Mathias Church in the CastleThe Royal Palace in the castle

We then had lunch in one of the millions restaurants you can find along Andrassy Street and we sipped our first and well deserved Hungarian beer. We ended our day walking to Heroes Square where there are all the sculptures of people of great importance in Hungary and I have to admit that if we had time we would have certainly bathed in one of the natural therapeutic baths in offer. In fact Budapest has 100 thermal springs where about 80 million litres of water rise to the surface every day!!!!

Unluckily we will have to leave instead and be in the car for the next two days so that we can reach Turkey as soon as possible. The car is going well and we are loving every single minute of it.

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