Before I continue with my travelogue, just in case some people are wondering about FIL: he's still in hospital. They still haven't found out what's wrong with him. His inflammation gets better one day and then two days later it goes bad again. The same goes with his blood count. Tomorrow I'll hear more from MIL so we shall see. It doesn't seem that he's going to be back home soon, though.
OK...now let me share some pics of Castle Hill area. It's such a vast area with many places of interest, so we didn't get to visit all of them. We were still tagging along with the Free Budapest Walking Tour, remember? Here we were, crossing one of the bridges connecting Pest and Buda (Pest is a flat area, whereas Buda is hilly), following our tour guide.
View from the side of the bridge that we passed by:
Beautiful sunny day, eh? ;-D In the below pic, we've already crossed the bridge and we were going to cross the street to go up to Castle Hill area (on the right side of the tunnel there are steps going up there, toward the point where the bird statue is).
Here's a zoomed-in pic of the bird statue:
Ta-daaaa...we were finally up. It's nothing compared to going up Gellert Hill, though (which I'll write about in another post). The view from the top: you can see in the middle of this below pic some railings for funicular, but we didn't go up using that 'coz going up the steps wasn't too hard anyway. Besides, they say it's expensive to go up using funicular.
Another view from the top:
A pic of us with Danube River as the background:
Zooming in on the Parliament House:
Then the tour continued and in this pic you can see the tour guide assistant demonstrating something. Yep, he was rubbing the horse statue's balls. Unfortunately none of my pics show the balls clearly, but they're VERY VERY shiny. It's believed that if you want to get "extra abilities in bed", you have to rub the balls with BOTH hands. Only one guy in our group did it after the demonstration hi hi hi...
Here's another side of the statue:
Here's a pic of Matthias Church in Castle Hill area. Too bad it was being renovated, so we couldn't get in:
Then ended the tour in front of this beautiful castle, Buda Palace:
Here's a pic of me near the castle. We spent quite some time up there enjoying the view. I have taken many more pics but I'll share them later on before the post gets too long ha ha...
Before we ended the tour, 'coz it was lunch time already, the tour guide and assistant asked if we wanted to go have lunch with them in a local canteen, so half of us went with them. We wouldn't have known the place if we hadn't gone along with them 'coz it was located in a secluded second floor of a building.
The menu didn't have any English translation, so the tour guide and assistant helped us. I had rice, grilled chicken, beet, and a glass of Coke and it cost 1490 HUF (around 5.6 Euros). Sorry no photo 'coz we were STARVING (the tour went longer than 2.5 hours and 'coz we walked everywhere, we deserved a BIG lunch hi hi...R2 had pasta, curry chicken, and a glass of Coke and it cost almost the same. They're both VERY spicy and delicious. Oh, and they offered also chili sauce, so it was really GREAT hi hi hi...
I'll end this now and next I'll write about Labyrinth (an underground cave with dark tunnels). Stay tuned!!! ;-D
Two cities that I've written down in my travel list are Berlin and Vienna. Let's take a quick tour of different tourist attractions in both cities.
1. Berlin
When we hear Berlin, I think the first thing that came to our mind would be the Berlin Wall and the Third Reich. A city with such a history must be fascinating to visit. Just imagine the many tourist attractions you can visit that are connected to those events in history.
First of all, I'd love to see Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp which was built during the Third Reich. This is the earliest concentration camp located in Oranienburg, north of Berlin. There are two museums there to help me understand the history of the camp and the barracks and all that.
Secondly, still related to the Third Reich, I'd love to visit Topographie des Terrors. This free tourist attraction showcases underground cells along with lots of photographs with German captions. I don't understand German, but I don't have to worry at all as the information booth provides a free audio guide in English.
Third stop would be Postdamer Platz, a huge square that used to be divided by half by the Berlin Wall. These days there are plenty of modern architecture buildings in the area, including shops, cinemas, restaurants, and a magnificent Sony Centre. My friend once took a video clip of this place and it was really a bustling, modern place indeed. Definitely a place to visit!
2. Vienna
Browsing through Vienna's tourist attractions makes me feel sure that it's definitely a centre of music. After all, plenty of well-known composers were born there, such as Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Brahms, Liszt, and Schubert. There are so many tourist attractions that are related to music: Haus der Musik, The Vienna Boys' Choir, The Vienna Philharmonic, and Vienna State Opera.
As you all know, I'm VERY interested in visiting any opera house. I also happen to like some classical music, so I'd love to watch an opera or a classical musical or a concert in a huge opera house. I wanna enjoy the ambiance and the grandeur of the opera house.
Other than that, I also read that Viennese love outdoor movie festivals. I've never been to one, so it's gonna be an experience of a lifetime! However, in order to enjoy this, I have to go there in summer.
Last but not least, I'd love to cruise the Danube and climb up the Danube Tower to enjoy the view of the surrounding area!!! This tower is built 252 metres high and it has 776 steps. However, better go there when the weather is clear, otherwise you can't see anything much. With the help of a lift, you can get to the top of the tower in just 35 seconds. Splendid!
Well, there are still many more tourist attractions in both cities, but it's a wrap for now, folks!!!
