Budapest, Hungary
When we travel with our children, we do things that are educational and fun with our children. Tyler loves to go to museums and tends to do these things while the children are napping during the day. During the day, while the children are up, we try to do something as a family that we would all enjoy! Budapest, Hungary, made this very, very easy!
Budapest, Hungary, is the one place in Europe next to Spain that I wanted to visit! Sadly we could not make it to Spain this year, but we made it to Hungary, and I was very excited to have seen one of my top 2, so I’m leaving Europe a happy lady!
We arrived in Budapest late in the afternoon; we decided to check in to our hotel and then leave to explore. I remember walking down the streets of Budapest in amazement at the architecture everywhere! The Hungarians know how to build buildings!
Budapest Zoo
Our first stop was the Budapest market; if you’ve read any of my blogs, you know I love markets…any market. The Budapest market is called The Great Market Hall (It’s HUGE); make sure when you go to to have cash, nowhere in that building accepts cards; I would also say bringing a stroller is possible, but the elevator only goes down to the basement and not up to the second and third floors. (We ended up carrying Heath and the stroller up the stairs.) Not hard at all if you have two people, very hard if you are all alone with no help.
After the market, we walked back to our hotel room. We decided to walk along the river and watch the sunset. The following day we decided to head to the Budapest Zoo. Before we even moved to Slovenia, I was on Pinterest researching places to visit in Europe, and Budapest Zoo kept popping up! One of the most popular places and the prettiest building in the zoo is the Elephant House. the zoo is the Elephant House.
This is the walk area of the Elephant House… I’m pretty sure I would be AOK living with the elephants at the zoo… Tyler had to drag me out of this building; I wanted to take pictures of EVERYTHING!
An interesting fact about the Budapest Zoo is that the zoo and all the animals were almost destroyed during World War II. Of the 2,000 species of animals, only 15 survived the war.
Next stop, we walked out of the zoo and walked towards the square of heroes. It’s one of the most famous squares in Budapest and features statues of the country’s most noted leaders.
Castle Vajdahunyad
We then decided to walk around and explore the park beside these two tourist attractions. We stumbled upon a castle, one of my favorite castles! It was BEAUTIFUL
To learn more about this castle, click here: Castle Vajdahunyad
After a fun-filled day, the boys were so sleepy! So Tyler and I decided to head back to the hotel to let the boys rest, and then head out one more time that night before heading out in the morning.
We’ve learned that we must pace ourselves and not expect much from our 5 and 2-year-olds. They get sleepy and hungry quickly, and if we don’t find a happy medium, no one is happy, so we’ve learned to let them lead and do what we can with them.
Parliament Building
That night I had to see the Parliament building! The first thing you think of when you think of Budapest is the Parliament Building. The architecture is something like nothing you’ll EVER find in The United States, and it was NOTHING like anything I had ever seen before. (I fell in LOVE)
This image was actually taken on top of the hill at the Fishermans Bastion Budapest TOP attraction with views to die for! Not to mention it’s BEAUTIFUL! I wish I would have gotten a good picture of the Fisherman’s Bastion, but I was losing light FAST, and I had to have pictures of the Parliament building.
If Budapest is not on your list, it needs to be! It’s one of my favorite places for food, and if you’re looking for an adventure, Budapest is not a bad place to visit! Please let me know if you have any questions.