Our flight on the Hungarian Airline: Malev...
Ok, the wind was strong...
At Budapest airport... Basic and simple... no frills...
On the bus from airport
Interior of a typical public bus
The metro station... kind of old and worn out yah?
Old and empty metro station. Kevin's helpless face.
Going onboard the train
Check out the train's interior. Boleh?
Escalator in the metro station. Just see how badly vandalised the steps are..
Arriving in town! Yeah!
Food anyone? The hungry preggy woman...
Yummy sweets and candies... A colourful sight of the night
Hmmm... more food... typical Hungarian cuisine sold like our vegetable rice..
Locals and tourists chilling out with the yummy dishes from the food stalls... And of course most of them coupled with a few beers too...
Greedy Kevin at work!
Local enblem on the ground...
Night view of the bridge
Our early morning sight... a car rammed into a shop and broke its glass.
The local police and the damage done...
The Central Market Hall in Budapest
Welcome to the Great Market Hall!
Me browsing through the food stalls for my brekkie..
Settung my eyes on some traditional fried bread, which taste like our "yu tiao" (you char kueh)...
Me munching on fried cabbage in tomato paste and a rolled cabbage wrap. The dough on the paper is the fried bread covered with cheese.. and the bowl of red soup is goulash soup!
Just let me dig in and quit taking pictures!
Vegetable rice stall? Local dishes spread...
Fruits and vege section...
Kevin at the market hall.. Looks like our old wet market in Chinatown People's Park?
Check out all the chillis! Hungary is famous forits chilli, and they have all sorts of dried chilli, chilli powder, chilli paste, etc.
Kevin and the assortment of dried hams! Hungary is famous for its salami ham!
On the Liberty Bridge. Basically, Budapest has many bridges connecting Buda and Pest (as Budapest city is divided into these two areas), across the River Danube.
View of the River Danube
The Pest side...
Getting to the Buda side...
The tram which runs both Buda and Pest...
The Buda side with old structures...
The Famous Gellert Spa and Bath Building..
Inside the Gellert Spa and Bath... Checking out the prices today, will be back for a soak! It costs about 11-12 euros per entry for 2 hours.
The Liberty Bridge
The Budapest enblem on the bridge..
The Central Market Hall again! We were passing by lah, not going to eat again!!!
The big tummy lady... ate too much? heehee...
Kevin and the green moo-moo in the shopping street
Our Mercure Korona Hotel bedroom... and our mess... heehee
Hungarian money... known as Hungarian Forint
The underground street with homeless souls..
The town square in the day, where they had those food stalls!
A blue sight of traditonal costumes for kids and juniors..
On the spot hot food!!!
People munching in the day!!
Gerbeaud Confectionery and Cafe... Founded in 1858, one of the oldest cafe
The logo!
Dessert time! The food tasted just ok.. but ambience was nice in the town square, sitting outdoor and watching the crowd go by...
Chocolates in the counter..
The interior decor of the cafe
Toasted bread roll! It tastes wonderful when you eat it hot! Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside!
Taking a walk by the River..
The icon at the River Danube
It's Spring time!
On the Szechenyi Chain Bridge. The bridge straddles the Danube between Roosevelt ter on the Pest side and Clark Adam ter in Buda.
More of the magnificent Chain Bridge.. one of the best known landmarks in Budapest
A tunnel ahead cut out from the hill
Kevin on the Chain Bridge..
The monorail system up the Castle hill... but the system was under maintenance that day, and we couldn't try the ride, had to resort to taking a bus up...
A shot below the hill first...
On the Castle hill
The growing fat lady... heehee... the child is already seeing the world in my tummy with the travelling..
The structures of Hungary... similar to other European cities?
The statue of a knight in battle..and the preggy lady battling the strong sunlight...
Kevin and the statues.. The knights of the past, and my knight of today and always - Kevin...
Entering the courtyard of the Royal palace on the Castle Hill
The Courtyard of the Royal Palace
An ongoing ceremony and prayer session on the hill
Ancient wall
The view of River Danube and the Pest side from Castle hill...
Shanshan chilling out on the castle... fantasizing herself as a queen in distress. hee...
On the hill day dreaming as usual...
Nice view from the hill of the river...
Lovey Dovey... a family of three now... :)
Kevin posing on the hill...
The Chain Bridge.. view from the castle hill
The sun casting on the statue
The Castle Hill church area... Szentharomsag ter (Holy Trinity Square surroundings)
Matthias Church (Matyas templom)
A model of the church
The surroundings of the church area
The pondering pregnant lady
Trying hard to pose lah...
Overseeing the city from above
Kevin feeling on top of the world... excitedly awaits the arrival of his little prince..
Poor Kevin had to help me carry my things as we go on tour with my big tummy... but my awfully sweet and wonderful husband... i just can't leave home without him...
My loving husband on Castle hill... Always my King...
The structure and its details
The knights of Castle hill... And of course my knight in disguise, Kevin..
Posing with the statue
Hmmm... as we were walking, we just came across this unique structure... don't ask me what it is... hehehe
In the Castle Hill Labyrinth... It is an ancient cave tunnel..
Some carvings and paintings in the cave
The cave was very cold... as it was underground and it sort of remained at its natural cool temperature, despite the hot sun outside...
the cave was so quiet and you could just hear echoes of dripping water as you walked through
Wondering if the pictures are real... left from the past? Or freshly painted for tourists? hahaha..
Kevin and the cave figurine...
The water fountain with a statue in the Labyrinth
The watchmen of the cave?
The tap-look-a-like feature above the bowl is running with wine... but not drinkable... Just for show... hehehe
Behind Bars or Behind Chains?
Halfway through the cave, we were given a kerosene lamp to shine our way through, as they suddenly switched off the lighting in the cave... think the keepers were going to go home... hahahha...
This man just love being behind chains... hmmm... ok, new sex trick coming up!
Out of the cave and back onto the Castle hill... a monument at the town area
Hero of the past... Farewell to the Castle Hill... We set off before the sun sets...
Budapest - St Stephen's Basilica
The grand interior...
Service going on..
St Stephen's Cathedral is the largest cathedral in Budapest. It suffered some damage in World War II but remained structurally intact and the interior (for the most part) has been restored to spectacular condition...
Heading for an expensive Hungarian restaurant as the night falls... dinner time!
The interior of the restaurant
My hungarian soup... Slurp!
The musicians at work in the restaurants
Big meal for tonight! Kevin loves the goose liver. And in Hungary, they are famous for goose liver... yummy... it really melts in your mouth..
Walking back to our hotel at night and came across this cute little structure...
The Parliament House of Budapest
Kevin posing on a fake bridge opposite the Parliament House area... we were looking for food... hahah.. i was hungry and couldn't go without breakfast
After a light brekkie, heading for the Parliament House
Pretty grand structure yah? and just look at those detailed carvings...
There was a long queue to go into the Parliament House and they restricted the number each time to enter, for security reasons of course.. so we decided to give it a miss to go in... so what to do? Take pictures in the green pasture outside the Parliament. hahaha...
Kevin? Hitler?
The communist?! McLenin?
The view of the Parliament House from the side
A monument.. the flag was destroyed with a hole in the middle during a riot
Flowers and me! Spring time in Budapest
Couple at Parliament
Across the Danube River
Big tummy bulging..
Man in the park...
Man with bread! It was delicious! They roasted the bread on the spot, and it was really crispy on the outside, soft on the inside!
The metro station... quite old but with flavour yah?
The street in Budapest
Heroes' Square Budapest
There was a demonstration going on...
Kevin posing at the Heroes' Square!
A family park behind the Heroes' Square...
Demostration begins... with motorbikes circling the square
The police were standing by too...
Kay-poh me as usual... hahah
I went to ask the local policeman what was going on, and the policeman told me he doesn't know.. So kaypoh me didn't give up, went on to search for a demostrator who speaks English, and I was told that it was a demonstration to go against the President, as they believe he pockets money for himself...
(Disclaimer: We knew nothing and were just told of what happened by the local, so how true, we are uncertain..)
Passing by the House of Terror (Tera Haza Museum)... we'll be back later!
The extremely crowded metro station... people were heading for the demonstration at Heroes' Square...
The Opera House of Budapest
The interior.. as we waited for the guided tour to begin..
Shanshan entering the theatre... The Queen makes her entrance
The grand box seats
The ceilings and stage curtain area
The Grand Box Seat
Box seat where the queen used to love to sit... as she can be seen and admired by the audience.. hahah
The Greek mythology paintings on the ceilings
The very hard seats in the theatre.. This was done on purpose.. as the architect believed that audiences will fall asleep if the seats were too comfortable
Kevin amidst the tough seats in the theatre
Comparable to the size of our Esplanade theatre
More Greek mythology paintings on the walls and ceilings
A hallway for smoking back in those days... It is believed that many couples will come to this hallway and get intimate amidst the smoky atmosphere, so they won't get caught for misbehaviour back in those conservative times..
Exterior of the Opera House, the grand pillars
The grand box seat, out of bounds to us..
The intermission area...
Kevin posing in the box seat area...
Presenting a final shot of the Opera House before we move on.. The Opera House of Budapest is famous and well known for putting up musicals or operas as it has a very good sound structure. Music comes alive...
And there you see statues of famous musicians on the Opera House Building
Heading to the Terror House Museum... A monument to Communist unjustness
Work area back in those days
The communist uniform
sitting area in the office
Rubber walls... made from silicon..
Hang to death... ancient "machine" used for hanging...
The flag with a hole... symbol of revolution
The gun..
The soldiers
Cry for freedom
Monument at the museum's entrance
Rest in Peace... Victims of the past
On our way back, we saw riot police and their vehicle.. very retro yah?!
Erzsebet Bridge of Budapest, second newest bridge...
The sun set of Budapest
Taking a cruise on the River Danube
Cruising by the Erzsebet bridge
Cruising by The Castle hill area
Cruising by The Chain Bridge
Cruising by The Parliament House
Parliament on waters...
Nice Hungarian buildings along the coast
The Chain bridge again... from a different angle
Erzsebet Bridge facing the Buda side
Buda side..
The Gellert Hotel
The lighted up view at night
Dinner time... yummy cuisine!
The National Museum of Budapest... sorry, we didn't go in... too late..
The Gellert Hotel and Kevin... all ready to head for the bath!
The Gellert Bath House
Buying our tickets
The Bath House interior
The dressing area, with hair dryers.. very ancient hor? and the entrance fee is 11-12 euros per person..
Dressing and changing area.. sorry, no pictures inside...
The indoor swimming pool...
The outdoor garden...
The outdoor pool, which will open only in summer..
Check out this picture of the outdoor pool during summer! Crowded!
Fountain statue at the Bath House
The Men's thermal bath area...
Massage parlour
The ceiling's glass... nicely coloured
The waiting area of the bath house..
Old lady heading for the women's thermal bath... no pictures inside lah, sorry... But generally it is just two "hot" pool believed to have lots of minerals in the waters, temperatured at 36 and 38 degrees celcius..
Moving on to our last sightseeing venue... But before that, Kevin poses with his road sign... ahahha...
