Day 2 in Budapest — Wayfaring Abroad

The forecast last night was for thunder and lightning storms and that forecast did not disappoint. Each of the four of us woke up at different times in the middle of the night due to the hellacious rain that poured down at 5 am, the thunder didn't hurt either.

Even with all the rain that came down throughout the night, when we finally got up and ready to head out around 9:30 there was no rain to be seen. It seems that the rain was going to stop for at least a short time to allow us to explore Budapest a little more. The rain was slated to come back with more thunder at around 3 pm, so we had to hustle.

We first went to grab some coffee at a place close by, Blue Bird Cafe. From there we walked around the neighborhood for a short time and then made our way to Andrássy út. We took Andrássy út up all the way to Heroes' Square where we came across a multitude of tour groups filled with people.

Looking up Andrássy út towards Heroes' Square.

After walking around Heroes' Square we made our way into City Park and over to the Széchenyi Thermal Bath. We did not go into the baths however, we are planning on doing that tomorrow after the rains have past.

City Park is a large open space filled with different walking paths and we took many of them as we weaved our way through the park and on to Budapest-Keleti Railway Terminal. At Keleti Railway Terminal we had to buy our train tickets to Vienna.

Looking out of Budapest-Keleti Railway Terminal.

In our many travels we try to walk everywhere we go but on certain occasions take metros to get somewhere fast. This was a time we decided we wanted to do that and we took the metro to Market Hall. At Market Hall everyone got something a little different. A bundle of bananas and some apples. some strawberries and cherries and a quarter of a watermelon.

From Market Hall we walked across the Elisabeth Bridge to find some lunch and then make our way up to the Citadella and Liberty Statue.

Two young women having lunch on Elisabeth Bridge and enjoying the views.

The walk up to the top includes some beautiful lookouts giving different views of Budapest from differing heights. As we walked up it appeared that the rain would begin to come down as it began to sprinkle. This lead us to speed up our ascent and get to the top before the weather opened up.
We made it to the top as it was continuing to sprinkle and we were able to look out at the vast reach of Budapest. You had the dark angry clouds to the south and clearer haze to the north. After 9 plus miles of walking we made it back to our apartment shortly before the rain came back.

I am sitting in our apartment out of the rain, thunder and lightening and enjoying the beautiful sounds of the water beating the pavement. We are waiting to grab some dinner and do a small pub crawl. Budapest has certainly exceeded expectations so far and I don't expect that to change tomorrow.

Distance walked: 12 miles