Day 2 - Amazed by People's Benevolence

Date: 27th of June 2015

Sightseeing: Budapest

When we woke up in the morning, we heard Etelka bustling about the kitchen. We checked emails and messages on couchsurfing.com (we had still been looking for couches in 3 cities in Europe), and then we were served a yummy breakfast: peach mousse, soy milk and choco-grain bars (I really like being a vegetarian in such moments!)

After we finished eating, our hosts drove us to the city centre, and walked with us around the Buda Castle. We generally don’t enjoy behaving like typical tourists, so just a short trip was enough to satisfy us. We found the castle unique, and we were surprised after finding out that public buildings, and even houses, were a part of it as well.

While walking around the castle

We took some photos and ate homemade bread rolls with several kinds of vegan paste and raw vegetables, while sitting on the grass near the castle. In the meantime we stumbled across strange trees with fruits looking like the mix of strawberries and blackberries (a photo below).

Trees with weird fruits

Then, Etelka told us what we should see in Budapest, and she and her boyfriend went back home.

We considered going down with The Budapest Castle Hill Funicular, but we changed our minds after seeing the price. We decided to go through the Chain Bridge and climb St. Stephen's Basilica's tower, instead. In that case we spent only 800 HUF for both of us.

Looking at the city from the tower

I liked the view from there: red tiles everywhere, Buda with its hills, opposed to the flatness of Pest... 

Maia wanted to make the Upward Bow Pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana) on the parapet of the tower, but I managed to convince her that it was not the best idea :-) This situation caused a long conversation about falling, landing, parachuting and paragliding (Maia had been experienced in the last one).

We looked at a map, and decided to head for the Margaret Island and check it out. We walked near the Danube, admiring the striking Hungarian Parliament Building on the way.

The striking Hungarian Parliament Building

We were a little bit disappointed when we found out that there was a long broad asphalt road with plenty of tourists on the island. We had expected it to be more of a park...

A big asphalt road on the Margaret Island

While I was waiting for Maia for a moment, I checked the flavours of ice-cream sold on a stand nearby. When I asked about one of them, I was immediately handed a scoop. I was surprised, and tried to explain that I had simply asked a question, and I didn't want to buy anything. The merchant replied that I should take it anyway because one scoop was for free. Well, I would definitely have chosen some other taste, but I guess I shouldn't complain – Maia wasn't so lucky, and she had to pay for her "gratis" scoop of ice-cream.

It turned out that, despite our worries, there was quite a big park on the island. People were doing various interesting things there.

We stumbled across a half-Polish girl who was doing slacklining. Maia asked her if she could try to do it as well. If someone knows Maia, he knows that it meant that I had to wait for her until she managed to walk from one side of the line to the other without falling (well, it didn't take so long, she had done slacklining before) :-)

A slacklining girl

After seeing ruins of an old castle and a mini zoo on the island, we walked back to the city and caught a bus to Etelka's house. This time Maia trained yoga together with me. After that we were served rice with vegetables for supper.

Well, our hosts were really too kind and too hospitable. What's more, they slept in a tent so that we could use their bed (sic!)