two backpacks and a diaper bag

Friday, April 13th. Budapest. We walked around a lot the past couple of days. We explored Buda on Wednesday, walked around Pest on Thursday, and checked out the City Park today.

The walk to Buda was quite quick given our location. Our Airbnb was only a block away from Budapest Eye.

After crossing the Danube on the Chain Bridge, we decided to walk up to Buda Castle instead of taking the funicular.

Halfway up, we found a lift that could take us to the top. So we took it.

The view was amazing. We could see all the cool buildings on the Pest side. And the clear blue sky made the day looked so bright and happy.

It was nice and warm that I didn’t need my hat anymore.

Arthur woke up while we were walking around. He was fine in the car seat for a while but then he started to squirm. We found a place for us to sit so that I could feed him. Then, I put on the carrier and placed him in it, and we continued to walk around.

We then decided to enter the Budapest History Museum, which is one of the museums in Buda Castle.

After about an hour or so in there, Arthur got tired again. We left the museum and put Arthur to sleep. Then we searched online for a good place to eat.

We found a restaurant by the river, but that meant we had to walk down again.

We took the lift back down again and saw another lift that would take us down to the Foundry Courtyard. We took the lift, hoping there would be another way out that wouldn’t require us to walk the long distance (like we did going up to the castle) or use the stairs. Lucky for us, there was another lift from the courtyard to the street level.

If we had known, we would have come through this way to get up to the castle. But the door is so inconspicuous. Anyway, we saved a lot of time for sure.

We only had to walk another 300 meters to get to The Meat Boutique, our lunch destination. We got a table inside closest to the window so that there wasn’t a lot of foot traffic.

Right after appetizers, Arthur woke up from his nap. We kept him occupied until the main course arrived. Then I placed him on the portable bassinet and placed him on next to me. He comfortably laid on his back, entertaining himself, while we enjoyed our main courses.

After lunch, we placed Arthur back in the car seat and made our way toward Fisherman’s Bastion. Halfway there, Arthur started crying. We thought he was sleepy, so we tried to put him to sleep. Well, he wasn’t. We placed him in the carrier instead and made the climb towards the Bastion.

We tried to find a way to get up there without having to climb up the stairs. We were unsuccessful. Sean had to carry the car seat/stroller combo all the way up while I made my way up with Arthur. It was a good work out.

At the top, Starbucks welcomed us with its green mermaid smile. “So… Frappuccino?” I asked Sean as he placed the stroller down on the ground. “I thought you’d never ask,” he responded. It was meant to be.

After a quick break, we walked around and took our time enjoying the view. There were a lot of tourists but it didn’t feel crowded. Prague was much more claustrophobic compared to this. The vibe here was actually much more lively and enjoyable. There was a lot of room to breathe and to appreciate the architecture and scenery.

From here, we decided to take a taxi and head to Gellert Hill to the Citadella.

When we got off the taxi, Sean tried to put Arthur to sleep and Arthur fell asleep so quick! He must have been so tired.

Buda Castle had a great view, but the Citadella had an even better view.

From here, we took a taxi back home. Arthur woke up in the taxi and I fed him. After a long day, I thought Arthur would have gotten a good stretch of sleep time. Unfortunately, he woke up every two hours.

Yesterday, we left the house quite late. We started the day by walking toward St. Stephen’s Basilica. I didn’t realize it was only two blocks away from our apartment. So convenient.

From there we walked towards the river. It was such a nice walk. Flowers on the trees, people sitting outside, sun shining so brightly against the cool air. I could feel that springtime is truly here.

Arthur was awake but he was content being in the car seat. It was pretty cute, actually. He was looking around. It was as if he needed to study everything he sees.

Once we reached the river, he got antsy. So I put on the carrier and placed him in it. Then we walked towards the Shoes on the Danube memorial.

From here, we crossed the street to the Parliament.

Once we were happy with walking around the Parliament, we decided to head to lunch. Sean had looked up a recommended restaurant around the Parliament this morning. He said he needed to make sure he got ahead of my hunger and we didn’t want another experience like the restaurant in Prague. So sweet. He really is a good guy.

When we got to Hungarikum Bistro, there was a sign outside in English noting that they were fully booked until Monday. Sean went in to ask anyway and, luckily, the gestured for us to come in. We got a table for two and a place to put the stroller.

The restaurant was so cozy, comfortable, and homey. And the servers were all so nice. The food was so good, too.

After the appetizers, before the main course, Arthur started to become sleepy. Sean placed him in the car seat and tried to put him to sleep. It didn’t take him long at all to fall asleep. Even Sean was surprised. He must have been so tired.

He didn’t sleep for very long, though. During dessert, he woke up. After dessert, I took him to the toilet to change his diapers (yes, they had a changing station).

We were so lucky to have gotten a table there. Throughout our meal, there were so many people that would come but were turned away because the place was full. It seemed they didn’t want anyone to wait outside for more than 10 minutes. Even those who had reservations were asked to wait a bit for the servers to prepare the tables.

I’m so glad Sean looked up this place, and I’m glad we got there just in time.

After lunch, we made our way to the Great Market Hall. It was a long walk but the walk was quite fun. We stumbled across a shopping street and we stopped by for ice cream. Since Arthur was in the carrier, there were many people who wanted to say hi to him. He was so popular.

We finally got to the Great Market Hall and we roamed around.

We got some souvenirs along the way. Right before we left the Hall, Sean put Arthur to sleep, and we decided to walk home instead of taking the taxi.

Halfway through our journey, Arthur woke up. I sat on the bench outside L’Occitane and Reserved to feed Arthur.

Then we continued on our journey. And we stumbled upon another outdoor market.

After a slow walk around the various stalls, we continued our way home.

And we stumbled across a spring festival at the park just behind Budapest Eye.

Music, drinks, food, people sitting on the grass or next to the pond. The vibe was awesome. It was like a celebration of life. Amazing.

This was the last thing we did yesterday before we went home.

Today we spent the whole day in City Park. We walked there from our Airbnb. We had planned to sit on the grass and do a picnic but it rained last night and the ground was still damp even with the strong sunlight in the morning. So we ended up walking around instead.

We sat on a bench once around a couple of sculptures to feed Arthur but the rest of the time, we walked around. We chose a route that was as further away as possible from a group of guys on Beer Bike as Arthur was asleep.

We had lunch at Varosliget Cafe. It was right by the pond with Vajdahunyad Castle in the background.

After lunch, we walked to Széchenyi thermal bath. Babies who are not toilet-trained are not allowed in the pools but I read online there was a 15-minute tour of the place.

We got to the bath around 2:15. We asked at the information counter about the tour. They said it would start at 3, the cost per person was 2000 Forinth, and we couldn’t bring the stroller but we could leave it at the main desk.

We told them we would walk around and come back just before 3.

As we walked around, we came across a small building with glass windows. It looked like a small cafe. We decided to go in. It turned out to be a mineral-water cafe that serves water with mineral components that are supposed to be good for you. There were only three people inside. Two of them are an older couple from Malaysia. The other lady is Hungarian but she was just leaving. We ended up buying a 30mL glassof the mineral water and sharing travel stories with the Malaysian couple.

They left before we did, and around 2:40, we slowly walked back to the baths. We went back to the information desk but the two people were different from the ones we talked to thirty minutes before. This time, they said we wouldn’t be able to go in with the baby. When we asked why, they were saying something about the inside pool and outside pool and how the baby wouldn’t be able to go in. We couldn’t really understand their reasoning and they didn’t speak English very well.

So, no tour. We saw the outdoor pools from the window, but that was all we could see. Oh well. By this time, Arthur was ready to sleep anyway, so we just decided to put him to sleep and make our way back home.

On the way home, we stopped by the grocery store to get some food for our train journey tomorrow. We have a 6-hour train ride to Zagreb that starts at 6:35 in the morning. It will be a long journey.