After breakfast, I took tram no. 4 to Jaszai Mai Ter then change to tram no. 2 to the station near Chain Bridge. After crossing the bridge, I took the Budavari Siklo (funicular railway) up the Castle Hill. It links the Adam Clark Square and the Széchenyi Chain Bridge at river level to Buda Castle above. The line was opened on March 2, 1870, and has been in municipal ownership since 1920. It was destroyed in the Second World War and reopened on June 4, 1986. A single way ticket costs 700Ft. There are a total of 3 carriages and I think the bottom-most carriage will have the best view. Too bad there were other tourists occupying that carriage hence I need to go into the middle one which blocked part of the views. It only took a few minutes to get to the top and you could also walk up the hill if you do not want to spend the 700Ft.
The sky is blue but there's quite a lot of clouds hanging around. I followed the guided walk from the Insight Pocket Guide book. It's actually pretty good to follow a guided walk as you tend to see and understand more as you come across monuments or buildings along the way. But the downside is that sometimes the guided walk takes you in unnessacery small circles. This is not so good as my ankle is hurt (not sure how I hurt it). Following the guide, I found one of the famous coffee house in Budapest, Ruszwurm Coffee House. I decided to come back later only to find it's fully occupied. Well, I'll just have to come back some other day. Nearby is the Mattyas church and the Fisherman's Bastion.
The Halászbástya or Fisherman's Bastion is a terrace in neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque style situated on the Castle hill, around Matthias Church. It was designed and built between 1895 and 1902 on the plans of Frigyes Schulek. Its seven towers represent the seven Magyar tribes that settled in the Carpathian Basin in 896. A bronze statue of Stephen I of Hungary mounted on a horse in between the Fisherman's Bastion and the Matthias Church. I think it looked a bit like the 海龙王. There are quite a few artist around the square selling their drawings and playing musical instruments. I sat down at one of the pillars looking down to the Danube river and the Parliament house for a snack. Matthias Church (Mátyás-templom) is a church originally built in 1015. The current building was constructed in the florid late Gothic style in the second half of the 14th century and was extensively restored in the late 19th century. There was still some on-going construction which blocked part of the building. After a short break, I went exploring the Castle museum but only looking from the outside as I'm not a fan of museum.
Later, I hiked up the Gellert Hill to the Liberty Statue (the Szabadság Szobor or Freedom Statue). The hike was actually quite tiring as its a pretty steep hill. When I finally reached the top, the thought '自由是要付出代价的' comes into mind. Hehe. The statue was first erected in 1947 in remembrance of the Soviet liberation of Hungary from Nazi forces during World War II. The existing Liberty Statue is a 14 meter tall bronze statue of a lady, standing atop a 26 meter pedestal and holds a palm branch. Up here, the view of the Budapest is pretty magnificent. The Citadella (a fortress) built in 1851 is situated nearby. The fortress is a U-shaped structure built about a central courtyard, being 220 meter longs, 60 meters wide, and 4 meters tall. It had a complement of sixty canons.
Next I wanted to go to the Szt. Gellert Puspok Szobar so I asked a Hungarian guy for directions. He's a civil engineer working nearby on his way home and his English was ok. I followed him as he said that he is going the same way. In the end he actually brought me back to the Liberty statue which is not where I wanted to go !!! I thanked him and decided that I have had enough walking for the day and so found myself back to the main street and went back to Pest. Tonight, I dined at Fricci Papa, a small restaurant at Kiraly utca, serving traditional Hungarian dishes. I ordered a mushroom goulash, spinach Főzelék (pronounced foohzelek, like the oo in book) and bread. Minutes later when both dishes were served, I laughed. Why? Because both are soupy based. The mushroom goulash is actually similar to the cream mushroom soup but orange in color, while the Fozelek is a thick Hungarian soup, almost like a stew with a heavy flour and cream base. However, both taste great and I actually finished both of them. I also had a cappuccino after that. The meal cost me 1200Ft (plus tips).
I decided to go back to the Chain Bridge tonight for some night scene photos. While waiting for the tram, 4 young chinese approached me (2 guys 2 gals) for directions. They were trying to get to an international railway station. They don't have any luggage with them but they seemed to be tourists but they don't have maps. One of the gal said OMG when I pulled out my map to show them the direction. I was like 'duh? this is the most basic thing when you are travelling right?' Anyway, I told them the route to the Keleti railway station and then crossed the tram line as I was going the opposite way. I watched them still talking and discussing and I think they are still very blur. So I went across again and showed them the route again and made sure they understand the directions this time. Weird.
I arrived at the Chain Bridge around 7pm and waited until 8pm before the lights on the bridge were switched on. I do not have tripods so i just had to make use of the surroundings to try to get some good clear photos. Upon returning to the hostel room, there were new people in the room, from France I think. That's for the day and tomorrow will be an excursion to towns outside Budapest.
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