About a week ago I discovered that the World Athletics Championships would take place in Budapest this year, and the first day of these would be today, the same as our first day exploring the city. How would that affect our experience? Would there be mile long queues to see things like we’d found for the cathedral in Florence? It was too early to know for sure, but my plan for today was to start off with an early morning 5K run around the city.

I decided I’d find the nearest way to the river, and got there at the Erzsébet Bridge. This was a tall suspension bridge in white, and behind it was Gellert Hill, but I wasn’t yet ready to explore there so didn’t cross. I could see a lot of barriers had been put up, and there were toilets lining the road. My first thought was they were preparing for a race, even though the marathon wasn’t for another week. It wasn’t until later in the day I realised this was actually for the fireworks as tomorrow would be National Day in Hungary - a celebration of the birthday of its founder: Saint Stephen.

Although it wasn’t easy to keep off the road, I ran to the Széchenyi Chain Bridge and noticed this one had been pedestrianised, so I crossed there to the Buda side of the Danube. At the end of this bridge I could see a tunnel through Buda Hill, and the funicular at the side of it that we’d be needing later. This was good reconnaissance for later.

From the other side, I ran back to that first bridge, and found my way onto it to cross back and head to the apartment. I spotted supermarkets on the way back that I’d be able to use for getting breakfasts and things to have for lunch during the week.

Once back at the apartment I rushed to shower, and have breakfast, and then took my time with applying sunscreen. Whilst doing this it started to cloud over, and although not yet raining, we could hear thunder. I checked out the window and it was dark, but not yet raining. By the time we’d walked down the five flights of stairs it had started to rain heavily, so we stopped to put on our waterproofs before our walk to the Parliament building for the tour we’d booked.

The rain was so heavy, but we weren’t going to let it spoil our day. It rained when I went to Cyprus this year, and on any weekends away, it just seemed a bit typical and expected now. When I saw the entrance to the Metro I realised we could at least stay out of the rain for a while, so we dashed down the steps, and used this to get to the other side of the road. On the other side we went through a park, and weaved around streets until we reached the Danube.

We followed the Danube as closely as we could, and paused at the ‘Shoes on the Danube’ sculpture. I’d chosen this route deliberately to make sure we’d see them. These iron shoes had been cemented into place in memorial to the Jews that were lined up on the bank of the Danube during the Second World War, and told by Arrow Cross Party militia (a fascist far-right party) to step out of their shoes before being shot. Their bodies fell into the Danube, to be swept away. The reason for leaving the shoes behind was that the soldiers could make some money from selling them on. Anywhere you go in Europe there’s always some reminder of the tragedies that took place.

The Parliament building is very impressive, and I could understand why my sister was so keen to see it. The tourist entrance was beneath the square, and thankfully the place to queue for our tour was indoors. When it got to 10:00 we scanned our tickets to get through the barrier, went through security, and collected an English audio guide. We were then led up quite a few steps, enough that my sister needed to pause halfway up, but she still beat half the group to the top.

At the top of these stairs we then walked down a very long ornate corridor to the Grand Staircase. This has steps leading up from the front door, but then also steps either side behind it as well. Behind us was a room containing the Crown Jewels, which we could not photograph. The jewels consist of an old crown, a sceptre, a sword, and a globus cruciger.

The room is patrolled by a special unit of the military and they are armed with ceremonial swords. The only movements they’re allowed is to move their swords slightly, and the aforementioned patrols that happen periodically. Fortunately they change every hour between three pairs, so they do get some rest.

Surrounding the room are statues of historic rulers of Hungary, some of which were Romanian. There’s a small glimpse there into the countries and empires that have influenced Hungary. They’ve been invaded by the Mongolians and have been part of the Ottoman and the Austrian-Hungarian Empires; their Kings have been from Anjou, Luxembourg, Austria, and Romania and many were rulers of other kingdoms at the same time such as Bohemia. From the start of the first world war they were in turmoil with wars and revolutions, and were then on the wrong side of history during the second world war. This led them into a long period of communism until the end of the 1980s when the collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in a new republic era. Whilst this is vastly oversimplifying their history. It’s safe to say they’ve not had it easy, but this room is one place where they’re remembering a lot of what we’d consider to be their mediaeval history.

There are more statues in the next room as well, the lounge of the chamber of peers, but these represent the different peoples and professions of Hungary. That leads to the corridor outside the former Chamber of Peers. It’s decorated with benches and a podium made from Slavonian oak, with gold flourishes. Apparently this room isn’t used so much now, but you can see outside all the cigar holders that members would use before entering.

There’s a small exhibition here as well, including a large red star that once sat on top of the building during their communist phase. The exit, after scanning your ticket again to leave, is then through a gift shop - as you’d expect.

We were in need of a drink by this point, but there wasn’t a great selection at the cafe, so we started walking towards the Margit Bridge. I figured if we crossed there we could head back and look for food and drink stalls in Buda as I’d seen some there during my run, and hopefully delay going up the hill until the rain had passed. My sister felt the bridge looked like it was a long way, but I assured her it wasn’t as far as it seemed. As we got close, she spotted a McDonald’s, and that did seem like a sensible place to get a drink from as we’d not spotted anywhere else, but then I spotted an ice cream shop and wanted to check that out first. We found they also sold a wide variety of cakes. There were many that looked very appealing, and some were very big also, but I wanted something that I felt would be typical for the country, so we bought raspberry dobos torta, and a bottle of cola to drink outside under a parasol. The rain was mercifully starting to ease off, but we still needed to be under cover.

There are good views of the Parliament building from the bridge, but sadly I found that not only had the front of my DSLR lens misted up, the insides of it as well. It was likely a consequence of it having been rained on so much. It was fortunate I could take some basic photographs with my phone instead, just not of the same quality at this distance. The rain finally stopped when we reached Buda, and we worked our way back along the Danube in the direction of the funicular we would use to go up Castle Hill.

The short walk along the river didn’t have that many sights to see, we were mainly focussed on how the Parliament looked from this side of the Danube, but we did photograph a baroque church of St. Anne, and the Szilágyi Dezső Square reformed church. On the other side of the Széchenyi chain bridge there were food and drink stands, so we looked around them to see what we could have for lunch. I suggested we either find something here and eat now, hope to find something on the hill, or in several hours time come back down here and look for something. We decided that even though we’d only just eaten cake, the better option was to look here first, and we found a small cafe called Luna where we both bought a sandwich.

The funicular is Ft4,000 per person for a return ticket, and the queue wasn’t too bad. It’d save some walking for my sister so it felt promising we’d get to see more of what was at the top. At the top there is a courtyard with the Habsburg Gate, Buda Castle, and the home of the Hungarian President: Sándor Palace. My sister wasn’t prepared to go into the castle, and sat down under a tree whilst I looked at the map to see what else we could do. Or at least, what I could convince her to do.

We passed the Matthias Fountain, and wandered towards St. Stephen’s Hall, but instead of entering we backtracked and went down a ramp which led to a different courtyard where the wall the ramp sat on was made from red bricks. It has a slight Moscow Kremlin vibe to it. I went off on my own for a few minutes to look around this lower courtyard, and the Riding Hall whilst my sister rested some more. ‘Long COVID’ has really affected her breathing over the last year. When she was ready to move again we both filled our water bottles from the outside tap, and found a lift back up.

Although she didn’t seem happy about it, we started walking towards the palaces to see some of the other buildings on Castle Hill. Archduke Joseph’s Palace and some of the other buildings around this area were being restored so we couldn’t visit them, so we kept on going.

We passed by Harry Houdini’s house, but didn’t go in. We decided we’d check out the Labyrinth which was down quite a few steps, and was cooler, and felt damp there. My sister decided that as we couldn’t take photos there she didn’t really want to look around, so we left there too. Things weren’t going to plan this afternoon.

The next place was the Matthias Church, but we couldn’t go inside there either due to one wedding after another. We walked down the side through market stalls, and passed a cultural performance on a stage that had been put up for this holiday weekend. Seeing some shade, my sister sat on the floor in the shadow of the church, whilst I had a quick look around some of Fisherman’s Bastion, and returned to her with an ice cream.

I think this cooled her down as we then started to move again, passed some ruins next to the Hilton, and passed the National Archives to the Vienna Gate. After another break we then carried on alongside the wall until we got to an area with war reenactors. When one fired a rifle it made us both jump as neither of us were expecting the sudden noise.

At the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, I decided this time I’d leave my sister behind and go up the 172 steps of Buda Tower. Sure I did it as quickly as I could, but I got up there, took a few photos and got down in very little time. I could feel it in my quads at the bottom - they’d not been expecting the workout.

We thought maybe by now we could look around the Matthias Church, but there was another wedding going on, and the Halászbástya Tower was being used for a wedding reception so we couldn't go up there either. We could however sit on the wall underneath, and think about what to do next. That turned out to be going over the road for a mango and dragon fruit refresher from Starbucks. Yes, even on Castle Hill with all these historic buildings, there’s a Starbucks.

When we got going again we had a look again at the rest of Fisherman’s Bastion, and I bought tickets for us online. It’s a very small section of the wall the ticket lets you go on, but it’s okay for a few photographs if you can manage with direct sunlight for a while. It was going up here though that convinced my sister that going underground in the Labirintus wouldn’t be too bad of an idea - we could cool off at least. Even if you’re not supposed to take photographs. Ahem.

Of course it’s going to be dark in an underground labyrinth, but some bits were completely dark meaning it’s very difficult to know where you’re going without using your phone as a torch. We managed to find a few puddles in there from where water has seeped through the rocks and collected on the uneven surfaces.

Whilst inside the labyrinth we could see examples of Buda Castle’s marble sculpting history, but most of what we could see was related to its use as a prison and a place of torture. One of the areas is referred to as ‘Dracula’s Chamber’. Of course this is not Bram Stoker’s fictional character, but rather the inspiration for the Count - Vlad Dracula, who we may know better as Vlad the Impaler. According to Bonfini, Vlad had travelled to Transylvania for help, but was instead captured and imprisoned by King Matthias Corvinus. The tourist information doesn’t really talk much about who Vlad was, but instead leans heavily into the fiction instead, and talks of vampires. Dracula literally means ‘Son of the Dragon’, with the ‘dragon’ being his father: Vlad Dracul.

Although it wasn’t always clear where to go, we found our way around and out relatively quickly and then headed back to the funicular. For those interested, there are free public restrooms available inside the labyrinth before the exit. A modern convenience I’m sure the prisoners who used to reside there never benefited from.

I thought maybe we could look around the castle now, or even the pharmacy museum before heading down, but no, my sister was done with walking. It felt a shame to be missing out on a lot of the sights on Castle Hill, but at least we’d had a good walk around still. Now it was time to use the funicular to get back to the bottom.

There was no queue for going down, so it wasn’t long before we were sitting at the bottom, and deciding what to do next. We walked back through the food stalls that were there for the weekend. We didn’t spot anything we felt like eating, so we walked along the Danube until we spotted some more by a stage. My sister had given up looking, so I went over to check them out, and found somewhere reasonable so went back to fetch my sister.

We bought grilled chicken and potatoes, and sat on a bench by the Danube to eat them whilst being bothered by a wasp that was after my sister’s lemon drink. Whilst she didn’t eat much of her meal, I was surprised to see the wasp was working away at the chicken and somehow managed to fly off with a small piece of it. I assumed there must have been something sweet on there that it could smell, and had gotten confused. Unless wasps have acquired a taste for meat now…

When we finished eating we walked to the Elizabeth Bridge, which took a little more effort to get onto with some of it closed off due to preparations for National Day. I had spotted it earlier during my run, but hadn’t thought about it again until we got there.

On the other side of the bridge we got some supplies from Lidl, even though there was a long queue. We didn’t quite get everything we needed so I went into the Aldi a few doors down as well. They were handy for breakfasts and lunches, and would now be prepared for the adventures that lay ahead of us.