Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Day 2 Budapest ... Metro, Aqua world, Heroes Square, Spinoza Café

We got going at about 10 this morning, Emily wanted to do the Aqua park which is miles outside of Budapest.  I had read that we could get a free shuttle from Hero's square, I just remembered Trinity's words to me "Nothings for Free".  Anyway we found the Metro 1 (orange Route) which would take us to Hero's Square, however nothing is in English and I forgot the map at home, so instead of getting off at our stop, we ended up going all the way to the end of the line, where we should have got off 2 stops earlier.

So we got off and deliberated about walking or going back, we first tried to go back, but the metro workers who I must say are quite militant told us we had to buy another ticket.

Firstly there are NO family or child tickets on any public transport, so we had paid 350 HUF each one way and to go back 2 stops we had to pay another 300 HUF each.  We finally arrived at Hero's square only to be told by the guys from the hop on hop off bus, that the next shuttle to Aqua world was in 2 and 1/2 hours, and if we wanted we could do the bus trip and come back in time for the shuttle else we could get bus number 230.

Not knowing where the bus was we just decided to hop in a taxi and 5000 HUF later we arrived at our destination.   We had purchased entrance tickets for Aqua world from the Hop on hop off guys for 9000 HUF. 

The Aqua world was everything you can imagine, kids world with 17 pools and tons of rides, I settled outside by the outdoor pool in the shade and was quite happy.

Em was in her element and so was Dad.  We eventually left and found the bus nr. 230 to Heroes square 450 HUF each later and we were back at Heroes Square to take the Metro back into town.  Whoever said that Budapest was cheap are wrong!

By the time we got off the metro, we were all fairly hungry - after walking up and down roads looking for somewhere to eat, we were about to settle on Hummus a place not to far from where we are staying, but D poked his nose in to some restaurant and called me over.  They had food, I was happy, feet tired and very hot. 

The name of the restaurant was Spinoza Café and what a nice little restaurant, at the front door an elderly gentleman was playing the Piano, spilling out tunes from "Over the Rainbow" to "Moon River" and many more.   There were loads of tourists and I was amazed at how patrons younger than ourselves were loving the Piano, maybe it is making a come back.

We had a delightful meal, tipped the pianist and eventually made our way home.

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