With the eyes of a foreigner: Budapest, Day 1

About one month ago, my friends, my boyfriend and I have decided to go to Thievery Corporation concert and visit Budapest at the same time. I had decided to write a story about the trip too and try to give you as much useful information I could but also to share my impressions as a foreigner who spent one afternoon in Budapest years ago. So this was like I saw it for the first time really.

Our trip had started on 19th June at 11.15PM when we got into the train to Hungary and we arrived at Keleti Railway Station at about 6am in the morning.

Day 1

First impressions

This is the first photo I took since the moment we got off the train. It is a reflection of a window of the railway station.

Buildings seemed nice and very old but we were very tired and just wanted to reach a place to take a rest for couple of hours.

As the checking in the accommodation we booked via AirBnb was after 3PM I suggested to chill out on the Margaret Island which is big isolated area with a lot of trees and flowers. The island was @l0k1 's recommendation as one of the best things you can visit in Budapest. So, we took the map and found metro line that lead us relatively near the island.

This was the moment when I realized that, in comparison with Serbian and Montenegrin cities, Budapest is real city. Going deep under the ground and watching long line of unknown people passing by was somehow movielike.

Metro tickets were really affordable (350HUF which is about 1.2E) and you can pay with your credit cards which is really nice because there were not many exchange offices nearby and we did not have any Hungarian forints.

When we exited underground station, first thing that caught my look was amazing Parliament Building in Gothic Revival style.

Combination of a white stone and wooden windows and blinds is beautiful both in texture and color. The level of details on the building is remarkable too.

Margaret Island

As we continued walking along Danube we reached Margaret Bridge and walking across it was the last step to Margaret Island. We were very tired and couldn't wait that moment.

Everyone was nervous and wondering how can I take photos all the time but that was my way to forget about exhaustion and do something nice.

I had noticed many interesting details on the bridge especially the way that beams for wires and lightening are designed.

When we got to the island everything seemed like heaven there. It was nice safe place where you can hide under the trees just like this small bird house.

It was very nice seeing that the island have just one bus line that goes across the bridge and around the island. There were a lot of people exercising and families sunbathing. I was thinking that every city should have park island like this.

We found place where we can rest pretty quick and soon enough my companions fell asleep. I was too excited to do the same so I took a walk to see the nature.

Grass was really nice and it was very pleasant to walk with bare feet. The place seemed like well organized and with many small areas where people can gather and enjoy the surroundings.

There was some work in progress but it was not unpleasant nor too loud if you are just 15m away.

I found few cafees and those are the only places you can go to the toilet except one public toilet I found later. That was the only thing that wasn't really good especially when you think about the fact that the island is about 2km long and 500m wide.

On my way back to my friends I saw a very beautiful and probably very old tree and I was feeling so small while standing in front of it.

When I came back my friends were awake but we still had few more hours left before check in so we continued chatting and enjoying the nature and beautiful sunny day.

However, I was still to excited to stay calm for long and ask my boyfriend to go with me to explore the parts of the island we hadn't seen.

I was amazed how precise was the organization of the flower surfaces and how the whole view was nice composition of the plants creating live painting.

Very soon my phone battery died and I could not make photos of a swimming pool, japanese garden, a very old church and a theater.

I was very happy about the start of our adventure and everything I saw on Margaret Island and we all walked away satisfied for what we had seen to the apartment we rented.

The building was old fashioned with entrance from the gallery. It seemed like one of those buildings from the movies.
The apartment was nice and clean and it had very good kitchen and bathroom. The location was very good too because it was close to many museums and other historical buildings.

A Night walk

After we took a sleep for couple of hours we'd decided to take a walk around the city. It was to late for making plans what to visit so the only plan was to go with the flow.

Walking the streets without any clue where we will end up, we came to the point which was between two places we'd already visited the same day earlier - The Margaret Bridge on our right and The Parliament Building on our left side.

The lightening was like in fairy tales just like whole Budapest.

That was the reason to go to The Parliament Building closer again and try capturing the game of shapes and shades created with artificial lightening during the night.

I was surprised how the walls of buildings are clean. I saw only one building with an ugly spayed nonsense that night.

We were walking more than two hours until that moment and we wanted to find a nice place to drink something. We saw two man playing instruments and singing in a technical faculty inner space.

We took some beer and listened to the music. Prices for the drink were ok ( about 2.2e for 0.5 l of beer) and the atmosphere
was calm and somehow very similar to seaside touristic cafes.

That was very nice way to finish our first and very long day in Budapest.

We wanted to sleep well in order to have enough energy to explore the place better and to dance on the concert next day.

I want to thank you all for reading my stories and for making me feel that my work is worth. This whole trip was 100% payed with Steem including accommodation, a train ticket and tickets for the concert. I am very grateful for all upvotes, resteems and comments and I want you to know that this was the first step of my dream come true: working and travelling at the same time.

I hope I will be able to write more stories about other places very soon. In my next story I am going to write about Budapest Zoo and Thievery Corporation concert.

Have a great day and keep Steemin' !