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I took off a few days from work during the week before last, so I decided to make at least one day trip. I chose Budapest and went just for the day. The train was EUR 38 round-trip, a pretty great price. The journey lasted three hours each way. I arrived at about 11:00 and left at about 19:00, for a total of eight hours in the city.
Budapest is really very nice. Unlike Vienna, where the river cuts through some of the outer districts of the city, the Danube runs right through the inner districts of Budapest. (Back in the day, the river separated Buda from Pest.) I visited the Fisherman’s Bastion (Halászbástya) first, since I had read that it is a bit of a tradition to check out the city from that high vantage point before doing anything else. Indeed, the Bastion offers quite a spectacular view. I took a sweeping video with my mobile phone.
I hit all of the places I most wanted to see, such as Margaret Island, the Parliament, the House of Terror, Heroes Square and, just before getting back to the train station, Central Cafe. The Central Cafe is beautiful, and their house salad, containing lots of sesame seeds, is really yummy.
So, after eight years of living in Vienna, I can finally say I made it to Budapest, if only for eight hours.
![](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3002/2638925178_e819a5115d_s.jpg "Their photos line the outside wall of the "House of Terror", a building which was both the headquarters of the Hungarian fascists and, after WWII, a prison run by the state police of the communist regime. <a href=\"http://www.terrorhaza.hu\">www.terrorhaza.hu</a>.")
