Miniature Castles in City Park

Budapest's city park is filled to the brim with

fun and exciting things to do and see.  I could have spent

an entire week just in that part of town.  Some of the many

attractions it holds are, the famous Hero Square, the palace of art,

the museum of fine art, the municipal grand circus, an amusement park,

the municipal zoological and botanical gardens, the Szechenyi Baths 

(which were featured in my last post) and that is just the beginning.  There really

is something for anyone and everyone in the city park.

Pictured above is Europe's largest ice skating rink.

Of course in the summer it is turned into a recreational lake

where you can take out row and paddle boats.  You can even go

wake boarding, you are pulled by a sort of zip line contraption 

instead of a boat. I sat and watched a few people take some rides 

and was fascinated by it and would have loved a chance to try it out. 

 I included a couple of pictures of what the rink looks like in the 

winter time because I was enchanted with how magical it looks!

I now have a new item on my life bucket list, visit Budapest during 

the winter and go ice skating at city park.

We spent the majority of our second day in Budapest

 exploring the Vajdahunyad Castle.  This amazing building was built between 1896 and 1908 as part of the Millennial Exhibition which celebrated the 1000 years of Hungary since the Hungarian Conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895. The castle was designed to feature copies of several landmark buildings from different parts the Kingdom of Hungary, especially the Hunyad Castle in Transylvania (sometimes referred to as Dracula's castle). As the castle contains parts of buildings from various time periods, it displays different architectural styles: Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque. Originally it was made from cardboard and wood, but it became so popular that it was rebuilt from stone and brick between 1904 and 1908. Today it houses the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture, the biggest agricultural museum in Europe.

I know this seems random, but while I was gushing over 

pictures of the ice skating rink, I found several enchanting photos

of the castle in the winter time and I just couldn't help but post one.

How beautiful it is all covered in snow?!  I can't even handle it.

Ok, now back to summer, it's hard to imagine visiting the park

all covered in snow because the day we visited the castle, it 

was intensely hot and extremely humid, but gorgeous nonetheless.

This is the Baroque part of the castle.  It 

looks like a completely different building, but 

it is just exhibiting a different architectural style.  You guys, this 

building is seriously one of a kind, I am getting excited about it

all over again just trying to describe it to you.

After taking a few minutes to take in all

of the amazing details of the outside architecture we 

stepped inside to see what the museum had to offer.

We went in the Baroque side first, it was absolutely stunning.

Then we stepped over to the Romanesque part of the building

that section was completely different but amazing as well.

it housed the natural history part of the museum, the frescoes

on the ceiling, matched the exhibit in that particular room, the details

were outstanding.  

After our visit to the park it was time to

go board the river boat that we would be calling 

home for the next two weeks.  The boat was 

absolutely beautiful, I will be doing a post all about it 

pretty soon.  After settling in and having dinner aboard

the boat, we had the evening free.  So, we decided to go 

to a concert of tradtional hungarian folk music and dancing.

The walk to the concert venue was 

beautiful!  It was one of the warm summer 

nights that you just want to hold on to forever

The concert was held at the Danube Palace,

which, as you can see, is a gorgeous theater

Hungarian folk dancing is so much fun to experience.

There are so many different traditional dances,

one of my favorites is the men's boot slapping 

dances.

On the walk back to the boat, we stopped to 

take some pictures of the city all lit up at night.

Again, it was so much fun to be out in the city

enjoying the night life with all of the locals.

There were beach socials on the banks of the river,

couples and groups of friends out for a stroll across the bridge,

all the restaurants' outdoor patios were filled people involved in

lively conversations.  Budapest is just a fun place to be.

Have I convinced you of how

unique and amazing of a place Budapest is yet...?

If not I still have one more post coming of how 

we filled our last day in this beautiful city