Sunday, April 10, 2011

Free Budapest Walking Tour

Let's begin my trip with the free walking tour. At first I was thinking of naming the posts "Day 1 in Budapest" and so on, but then again they'd be such long posts so I'll have to break them down in several parts ha ha ha...so it's easier to just divide them like this, I guess.

On Tuesday we decided to join the Free Budapest Walking Tour to get some insider's insights and tips and tricks 'coz we didn't have to book anything. We went to a cafe first to get breakfast and then found the appointed place for the tour. We were there about 40 minutes early 'coz we wanted to make sure we could find it, so we went to a nearby store first and took some pictures of the surrounding area. The morning tour started at 10.30 am and lasted for 2.5 hours. Click on the link to get more info about the tours that they organize and what kind of places you can see on each tour.

Here is the appointed place to join the tour: The Lion Fountain.


Here I am sitting down across the Lion Fountain while waiting for the tour guide to come.


This pic below is the other side of the statue where I was sitting.


Nearby there's this cafe called Gerbeaud. It's supposed to be very famous for its delicacies, but we didn't go there 'coz they say it's rather pricy he he...still the building is lovely.


At 10.30 am the tour guide and her assistant came, so we started the tour by listening to her explanations. The group of people came from all over the place. Here's a pic of us while walking through a park (except of course I wasn't in the pic):


In the park there were "Locks of Love". People who want their love to stay forever should buy locks and write down their names on the locks and then throw the keys away to Danube River. Funny thing was that we saw a bike lock there, as well ha ha ha...


Here's a close-up look at the BIGGEST lock there. Somebody is definitely SO serious about this HA HA HA...


In the same park there's this fountain:


I really LOVE this statue...VERY lovely:


This is the other side of the statue:


We also stopped by near this artificial pond below. It's actually the rooftop of a pub where they hold free concerts.


And look what I found in the pond!!! Actually there were three of them he he...the other two have darker colours.


The Little Princess statue. I thought it was a boy, but it's actually supposed to be a girl. The thing is, the sculptor used his own son as a model for this statue. That is why she looks boyish. As you can see, her knees are VERY shiny. It's 'coz they believe that if you rub them with both hands, you'll get lucky he he...


And who's this dude? It's what I call "The Lucky Policeman". If you rub the belly, it's said that you may get lucky ha ha ha...Again you'll notice that his belly is shinier than other parts of his body ha ha...


I'll stop this post here before it gets WAY too long, but I'll continue tomorrow with more pictures.

7 comments:

  1. wow...love the photos, Amel. Looks FUN.

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  2. @Jul: THANKS. It was FUN! :-D

    @Free Budapest Walking Tours: THANKS! :-D

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  3. HAHAHA...the belly! that's a beer belly alright! =P Anyways, dude, that lock is huge! Talk about serious, eh? =P Nice pictures, Mel. Looks like you had a great time. =)

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  4. @Shinta: Yeah, it is said that policemen live "happily" (meaning financially), that was why he had such a big belly ha ha ha...

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  5. I've read your comment above about the belly hehehe... what about the knees...

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  6. @CMG: Well, the little girl statue is supposed to be a symbol of prosperity so that's why they say it brings luck to rub the knees he he...

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