Beautiful Budapest

Hey guys! It's been a while since I did my last post. Things have been interesting lately but I'm ready to continue sharing our trip with you. So to continue the story, we took another 8 hr train from Poland and got to Budapest early in the morning. On the agenda that day was checking out the chamber music performance at the Opera house and just exploring the city.

The setting for the chamber music was really nice, it was a small room but you can see and hear the musicians perfectly. We got to sit at the front so I had a perfect view of the performers. The best part was that they chose to perform music from Hungarian composers so that was extra nice :D.

Impressive grand piano

I wish I got to go on the tour for the opera house, it seemed like a really cool place with lots of history. Here's another glimpse of the inside.

Budapest is often referred to as the Paris of the East. I can see why since the city is very well preserved and has its own beautiful, romantic charm.

The city used to be two different cities, Buda and Pest, divided by the Danube River.

Here's a rare picture with the three of us all together :)

Definitely one of my favs

Afternoon Tea

So there are lots caves near Budapest and since I'm not really a caving kind of girl, I decided to skip out on the caving adventure that Annie and Rowan went on and take the opportunity to wander around town.

It was such a beautiful day, with the perfect weather. I decided to wander down to the Parliament area to check out the largest Parliament building in the world. 

Streetcars were everywhere too!

The area was really nice and since Parliament was in session that day, nobody was allowed in and the place was quite serene.

After that, I decided to take a stroll along the Danube River and I stumbled upon one of the most famous exhibits in Budapest, the Shoes on the Danube.

This permanent exhibit was to commemorate an event that occurred in World War II where the Jews were killed by Hungarian fascists.  The victims were forced to strip off their clothes and shoes and shot from behind so that they would fall into the river and the river would carry their body away. It was very moving to see all the shoes as a reminder of the event.

I had a bit more time so I decided to go and have Afternoon Tea at the Four Seasons. This particular location was a converted historical building and they used beautiful Herringbone china so it was an amazing experience.

All the pieces were hand painted and amazingly delicate.

The finger sandwiches and pastries were delicious too!

We ended up taking three baths in the three days that we were there. I'll leave you a photo of the largest and oldest of the three baths: Széchenyi Baths

Have a great weekend you guys! Look out for the next post as we explore Istanbul, the link between Europe and Asia.