Europe Summer 2019 - 5/15 : St. Stephen's Basilica, Buda Castle and Beautiful Night at Budapest

August 01, 2021

Europe Summer 2019 - 5/15 : St. Stephen's Basilica, Buda Castle and Beautiful Night at Budapest

"There is always a first time for everything"

finally, Budapest!

Day 6 - Thursday, May 30 2019

Woke up in the morning and let's explore Budapest! I asked some recommendation from receptionist and they also gave me a map. So I decided to walk around following the map and also GPS. The city is so pretty, my first destination is St. Stephen's Basilica. It's a largest church in Budapest, dedicated to Hungary's first king, St. Stephen. When I arrived on the church, it's a little bit crowded. It takes a while to get into the church. When I entered the church, I was amazed with the interior, beautiful! walked around inside the church, I could hear wonderful sound from piano, there was a man playing piano from balcony. You can go up and see the view from above but you need to pay the ticket. To enter this church is free but you can also donate to this church.

St. Stephen's Basilica from across the street

let's go inside

wowww...soooo beautiful indeed!

It's raining lately, so the weather became a bit cold. It's almost lunch time so I looked for some restaurant to get some lunch. I browsed on the map to look for traditional dishes in Budapest. I found this restaurant, Kisharang Restaurant, and it looks good, I went inside this petite restaurant, I fell in love with their interior and the atmosphere, looks so homey yet comfortable. The waiter was also friendly, I sat down there and ordered Goulash Soup. They gave me bread and I ate my lunch while waiting for rain to stop. Hot soup is the best choice in the cold weather like that. Happy tummy! (2,900 HUF~8 EUR~ 150k IDR)

Kisharang Restaurant

It's cozy and warm in here

Then I wandered around again and went to Hungarian Parliament Building, I think this building is so well know and you might see this building in the movie or picture. It's one of the 2 tallest buildings in Budapest. It's also the third largest parliament building in the world. You can see how spectacular this building look from the outside, stunning! The night view also nice and you might want to see that too.

I passed the most famous bridge in Budapest, Széchenyi Chain Bridge, the oldest suspension bridge, connecting both sides of the city, Buda and Pest, laying on Danube river. I want to go to Buda Castle, so I took a Budapest Castle Hill Funicular (1,800 HUF - round trip). It's a nice experience to try this Funicular., a very short ride but interesting.

This Parliament Building is very big

let's walking into the fancy bridge

Széchenyi Chain Bridge, ok let's pass this bridge

I am taking Funicular to go up to Buda Castle

inside the Funicular

I rode that Funicular

Arrived at Buda Castle, explored around, see the view from this is awesome. You can also spot the Hungarian Parliament Building and the rest of city from here. It's really huge complex and if you happened to see some movies or dramas which filmed in Budapest, you might see this place. I remembered when I saw IRIS drama. I kept walking to Fisherman's Bastion direction. Next to Fisherman's Bastion you might also see Matthias Church, another beautiful church, I didn't go inside the church but it looks stunning from outside. I enjoyed my time at Fisherman's Bastion, explored around and having a cup of hot chocolate at cafe while enjoying the view. Hot Chocolate (1200 HUF) is the best for cold weather like that.

looks nice

this square, really nice

explore around

soooo big

let's walk around

wow..find this kind of view from Fisherman's Bastion

Matthias Church

heading back to Buda Castle and taking Funicular to go down

I went back to Buda Castle by walking and took Funicular there to go down. From there I took a bus to Opera (350 HUF), you can buy the ticket bus from the vending machine in the Bus Stop. I took the bus and want to heading to Opera but I got off somewhere before that since I saw interesting place to explore before Opera. I saw Budapest Eye, it's a ferris wheel and there were some markets, I love seeing markets. I got off there and walked around to check those out. And I ended up back to the St. Stephen's Church, enjoyed my Gelato (800 HUF) even though the cold weather but I can't resist to eat gelato especially in Europe haha.

Budapest Eye

hopped into some market

Gelato! never missed that

From there I walked again to my initially destination, Hungarian State Opera House, I followed my GPS but not sure, apparently there was some renovation during my visit. After took some time to understand the different path to get in. I went inside the Opera House and there was a show happened, just took a glimpse there. Probably will watch opera next time.

I went back to my hotel direction and I remembered I saw a nice place last night, so I want to see that again during daylight, I went to Karavan and tried some food there. Lots of food or drinks there. Nice place. Szimpla Kert is also located along the way with Karavan, not far from there. Back to Hostel to rest a while before heading out again.

Renovation?

a glimpse of the Opera House

another nice Cafe nearby my place

Szimpla Kert on daylight

I bought this at Karavan, it's also a nice place & ambience

Heading out again, this time I met a local. We explored around the city and I can't believe that I went back to Buda Castle by walking. We talked too much and I didn''t realize that I reach the Buda Castle already. I thought it's really far but apparently it's not that far. Seeing the night view from Buda Castle was really nice and lovely. So happy I can see that beautiful view, I spotted Hungarian Parliament and Chain Bridge at night. Hang out with local is the best way to explore the city. We went to his favorite cafe by bus from Buda Castle, Cafe Unplugged, it's like another version of Szimpla Kert, not that fancy but like more local, I like it. I tried local beer (650 HUF), and the taste was similar like Radler :D I don't think I will explore the city at night but so glad I met a nice companion.

I took the Metro subway (350 HUF) back to my Hotel and stopped by to join the crowds, hearing some music, dancing, having fun on my last night at Budapest. Such a lovely and random night haha