This year for the long Easter weekend (Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays in Switzerland) I went to Budapest with Jelena, Daniela and Claudia. We really enjoyed exploring the city. We had received some really great tips from Emily, a friend of my friend Alayna, who lived in Budapest to help us focus our exploration efforts and find some great non-touristy places.
We quickly learned that every restaurant serves fresh lemonade and it is delicious. Lemonade of all flavors became part of our daily diet ritual. We even later experimented with ordering shots of vodka to add to our lemonade...apparently this is not what the locals do, but they should because this was also delicious!
We arrived Friday afternoon and spent the day walking around the city, going to the Buda side of the river and seeing castle hill.
After a wonderful breakfast at a little French place on Saturday morning, we went to the labyrinth, which was a creepy underground "maze" of tunnels which go underneath the castle. We stopped on our way to see the beautiful church and views over the river to the parliament.
After the labyrinth, we went to take a closer look at the parliament, which was really beautiful. Then we walked to the island, where we saw the dancing fountain, climbed a tree, and ate langos.
Seriously, this may not look like it but it was the hardest tree to climb ever! My shins were bruised for 2 weeks after, but it was worth it!
Langos is fried dough covered with sour cream, garlic, and cheese. Definitely nothing healthy about it, but it was delicious!
After a late night on Saturday night, we spent a lazy day Sunday - having brunch, walking around the city park, and then going to the popular baths. We enjoyed relaxing in the indoor and outdoor baths and then had massages too. Like I said, a very lazy Sunday :)
Monday we flew back to reality. Budapest was really great - my favorite parts were probably all the amazing food and lemonade!
