Budapest Day 4 Part 1 -- Fisherman's Bastion

We made it home from dinner (with our food) and finally figured out how to watch some American tv on the computer...but all we could find was Jersey Shore (ok, it's not like that was some tragedy, we secretly love that show!).

Talk about idiots abroad, is it terribly sad that we empathized w/ Snookie as she tried to find her way around Italy?  You know what, don't answer that.

Today's plan was to head down the Danube and grab a good picture of Parliament, then head to St. Stephen's Basilica, then hit the Central Market.  It didn't quite work out that way, but so it goes.

As it was our 4th day, Meliss and I decided we could branch out and take a different way to the Danube...how hard could it be to find a big river less than a mile from the hostel?  To our surprise, we found it with no problem -- and stumbled upon a laundromat too!

You may have noticed in the pics from the previous days that we were wearing the same clothes in some of them.  To that end, the laundromat was a nice find as our carry-on clothes were dwindling and neither of us wanted to open the 3 military rolled, just under 50 pounds, big-ass pieces of luggage we brought with us. Also, don't judge me!

So, we took a pic of the laundromat and the street it was on so we could find our way back -- we're like modern day Hansels and Gretels -- but the laundromat story is for another day (as I sit here with pink socks and underpants on).

Anyway, we found the Danube and headed down towards Parliament -- but can we talk about the bike situation in Hungary? It's OUT. OF. CONTROL. Forget all the big pretty buildings, forget the fact that we were surrounded by people speaking a different language, forget the no air conditioning -- none of that was as big of a moment to moment transition than the bicycles.

http://youtu.be/2CTPLUcQAjk

First off, they are everywhere -- and not the weirdos we get at home.  You know, the folks that look like they just came from the velodrome -- all pointy helmets and spandex (apology to any of said weirdos reading this).  No, no, not here -- women in dresses and skirts, men in suits, barefoot people, kids, elderly, you name the type and they had a bike.

Also, the bikes themselves...um, awesome. These aren't mountain bikes we're talking about -- most of the bikes looked like they were stolen from a 1950's tv show. We kept expecting to see somebody roll by with one of those big front-wheel bikes and maybe a handlebar mustache.

So why do we care?  Well, when's the last time you walked down the sidewalk and worried about getting clipped by a bike?  We learned right quick that we had to keep our heads on a swivel whilst walking thru Budapest (it's no different in Sarkad, either).  We about jumped out of our skin the first time someone rang their bell at us from like 2 feet behind.  We certainly weren't the only ones walking and there were plenty of cars, but we couldn't walk 20 feet (sorry, 78 meters) without checking our back to see if we were about to get hit.

The sidewalks, though, are built for this and by Day 4 we had figured out that there was a definite bike lane (which we had been walking in for 3 days) and a walking lane.  But, really, it's kind of a mish-mash of everyone dodging everyone.  Well, at least it seemed that way to us -- they probably all know what they were doing and we screwed up their system.

But we made it to Parliament and got our pics (see Day 2?).  We also knew that somewhere in the hills behind us there was another fortress/castle/stronghold kinda thing called the Fisherman's Bastion, so we set off to find that.  For reference, we were past the 3rd bridge (the green one w/ lions) and on the Buda side.  So behind us was a portion of that big hill that that damned serving tray lady is on -- but way further down.

We got out our map and started walking up one street after another. We didn't know exactly where it was but figured it was big and on a hill so we should run into at some point. It is mind-boggling to me that we couldn't see this thing from the Danube, but we couldn't -- and so up another hill we went.  At least there were winding roads to use this time -- stairs just seem like so much work.

At one point we stopped to ask some locals for directions using the ol' "hol van a" and point to a picture of it in our guide book trick.  They laughed (we got that a lot) and pointed up.  Ugh.

About a half an hour later we made it to the top of the hill and found this...

How did we not see this?  I mean, seriously, how is this not visible from the Danube?  We could see the damn lady w/ the serving tray from everywhere -- but this? Nope, not so much.  Oh, and there's a big church up here that is even taller.

But, we were planning on doing the tour of St. Stephen's Basilica and figured one church was enough so we just walked around and took pics.  It was also the hottest day thus far in our trip.  There were so many little things that constantly reminded us that we were no longer at home -- like seeing the time an temperature on banks. Today, we saw one that informed us it was 42 C and 14:30. 

It was too hot to even guess at the right conversions on that one.  

St Mathias church

These are the view from the fortress towards the Danube (Duna).

Parliament in the distance -- all those buildings blocking our view from below!

Zoomed in...

St. Stephen's Basilica -- that was next, but not after this hill!!

Outside Bastion looking up

Yeah, we missed this from the street...

All we knew was that it was hot and that hill was a pain in the ass, but unlike some other hills we at least got a pay-off at the end!

Yes, that was directed at you!!

Down the hill we went and finally gave up. 4 days of walking, the heat, and another hill caved us and we bought tickets for the Hop On - Hop Off tour bus.

Buying the tickets -- easy. Finding the bus -- not so much!

Flower beds everywhere -- made us think of our moms.