Day One in Budapest: Buda

We flew Malev airlines to Budapest last Friday. Didn't know what to expect with the Hungarian airline - but it was excellent! A real meal! Nice flight attendants! We arrived and took a shuttle bus to our hotel, the Budapest Marriott, which we got thanks to Expedia. We quickly headed out to see one side of the city - Buda. (Budapest is actually a union of three cities, Buda, Pest, and OBuda.) We crossed the famous chain bridge (see first photo) then took a funicular (Eliot very excited) up to Buda's scenic castle hill.
Chris and Eliot just after getting off funicular.
This is a statue of Hungary's King Stephen in an area known as the Fisherman's Bastion that had great views of the other side of the river, Pest.
It had many quaint streets like this one, too. It made for a very nice stroll. We walked back down Castle Hill and immediately found a playground where Eliot played with a Hungarian boy who was a bit older than Eliot. Then we eventually found a great restaurant to eat at. It had been open since around 1900 and the staff was very friendly. There were a pianist and violinist who played for Eliot, with the violinist showing Eliot the instrument. Eliot liked it! Back at the hotel, we all fell asleep after a great first day in Budapest!

I'll post one entry for each of our four days in Budapest. Many more pictures are in our web album at http://picasaweb.google.com/jenmbdunn/Budapest#

Eventually I'll get the slideshow up and running, too.