I heard so many wonderful things from my friends about Budapest so of course it was one of the cities at the top of my "must visit list." Budapest was the perfect gift of travel to the Foster Family.
*Special Note: Christmas Eve is the day Hungarians spend time with their families and open presents & celebrate; so most places will close early around 2pm. On Christmas Day the places that are open will stay open until around 4/5pm. To my surprise a lot of places were open on the holiday in the tourist area of the city; which made for a great holiday trip for us.
*Special Note: Currency Exchange Rate: $1= 215 Hungarian Forint
Getting There
We decided the best option for us to get to Budapest was by train. Since moving to Germany I have really grown to love train travel. It's so convenient and all we have to do is sit back and relax and let someone else do all of the work of getting us there.
Route:
Beratzhausen to Regensberg (RE train)
Regensburg to Linz, Austria (ICE train)
Linz, Austria to Budapest, Hungary (RJ train)
Heroes Square
Parliament
Chain Bridge
Vorosmarty Square
This square is in the heart of the city & it was transformed in to a huge Christmas Market with well over 100+ stalls with tons of specialty gifts & food vendors.
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| Having fun with fluffy hats |
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| advent wreath |
Hard Rock Cafe
This isn't normally where we would eat when we are traveling; we decided we wanted a taste of home for Christmas Eve. I know they don't have the normal holiday spread on the menu but they do serve good American restaurant food (which is something I rarely get nowadays); and it hit the spot!
Opera House
On Christmas Day we went to the Opera House and saw the Nutcracker Ballet. The Nutcracker has always been one of favorites since I was a little girl. I remember attending Lake Forest Elementary school (a performance arts school) and each year we would put on our school holiday performance of the Nutcracker. So this brought back such good memories for me and I am so glad I got to share this with my son. Just to see his face light up while watching the dancers was priceless.
City Sites
Of course we decided to use our family favorite to see all of the city sites--the hop on hop off tour bus. Budapest has quite a few different options to choose from; I think I saw about 5; we chose the Big Bus Tour company. No specific reason why-- mainly because it's the first bus we saw (they run everyday). The ticket includes the second day free, a free boat tour, and a free night tour (seasonal).
Lodging
We rented a flat off of airbnb and it was very spacious, homey & comfortable; just all around amazing! I'm so glad we chose to stay here for our family Christmas vacation. It was the best place we have rented off of airbnb and beats out all of the European hotels we have stayed at by far. Here is the link to check it out: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/909638
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| Balcony of our Flat |
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| View of Parliament at Night from our flat |
