We had an early start on Friday, as we wanted to make the most of the day and headed out to the metro to get travel passes and jump on the tram. Given that this was our first real experience of using foreign public transport on the trip, we were feeling suitably smug when we got off the tram at the right stop only to realise that we had no idea how to get on to the hill itself. Cue the entrance of an imaculately turned out old lady who pointed us in the right direction. (The older generation have so far been unfailingly generous, helpful and perhaps most contrastingly to England, visible, even really late at night.)
Castle Hill itself is very beautiful and feels like a little village, although it feels very touristy, with lots of coach trips, much more so than Pest. However, there were brilliant views over the Danube, aided by the fact that it was an absolutely gorgeous spring day. Luc
y and I both laughed (much to Susan's bewilderment) when we reached the Mátyás Church, one of the iconic landmarks of the city, which was covered in scafolding - under renovation could be the subtitle of this trip. Nevertheless it is beautiful if overwhelming inside: neo-gothic, late 19th centry although destroyed in WWII, with every square inch painted and minutely detailed stained glass windows. The decoration has elements both of Art Nouveau and geometric (turkish) designs, which is very fitting given Hungary's history. However, it was quite difficult to feel that it was a living, breathing place of worship, with so many tours going on. What saved it for me was a display at the back of the church about the modern church community and the Stations of the cross which were very evocative prints of original acrylics. Apparently it is hugely important to Hungarian history, but I will need to do a bit more reading...
After the church, we headed out to the Fisherman's Bastion, a fairy tale series of turrets and cloisters, apparently designed by Schuhet as a foil to the church. It doesn't serve any other purpose and it provides absolutely stunning views and was a lovely spot for some biscuits. A short wander and we were at the 
Royal Palace, which is actually quite ugly (I think again it was destroyed during the war) but houses the lovely National Gallery. The gallery covered a huge period, but had some particularly lovely 19th stuff, particularly Hungarian home scenes. I can't say that the really modern stuff caught my imagination, but we could well have been a bit pictured out.
Having had a restoring coffee, we headed back over the Danube to the Central Market. It is housed in a building which looks like a train station with two levels. Fresh produce is on the ground floor, canteens and tourist stalls on the first. There were lots of locals around which was lovely as it made it feel far more genuine. This also gave us the opportunity to try our first Hungarian goulash, although trying to find something veggie for Lucy was a bit of a challenge.
We returned to the hostel to put on what constitutes our glad rags
ready for the ballet at the State Opera House. The ballet was called Balanchine: 'the soul of the woman in dance', which sounded rather bizarre but it was absolutely awesome. The State Opera House is just glorious inside, lots of murals and gold leaf everywhere, although if you have cheap tickets, you don't go up the sweeping staircase, you go through a little side door. Being right up in the gods gives you a stunning view of the whole thing which is just great, although the 
staff are quite rude to you. The ballet was actually three one act ballets: Serenade by Tchaikovsky, Concerto Barocco by Bach and Who Cares by Gerschwin. They were obviously very different but beautiful, especially the Gerschwin, which saw Lucy and I humming along and wishing we'd shown some talent in ballet lessons. Absolutely fabulous.
Castle Hill itself is very beautiful and feels like a little village, although it feels very touristy, with lots of coach trips, much more so than Pest. However, there were brilliant views over the Danube, aided by the fact that it was an absolutely gorgeous spring day. Luc
y and I both laughed (much to Susan's bewilderment) when we reached the Mátyás Church, one of the iconic landmarks of the city, which was covered in scafolding - under renovation could be the subtitle of this trip. Nevertheless it is beautiful if overwhelming inside: neo-gothic, late 19th centry although destroyed in WWII, with every square inch painted and minutely detailed stained glass windows. The decoration has elements both of Art Nouveau and geometric (turkish) designs, which is very fitting given Hungary's history. However, it was quite difficult to feel that it was a living, breathing place of worship, with so many tours going on. What saved it for me was a display at the back of the church about the modern church community and the Stations of the cross which were very evocative prints of original acrylics. Apparently it is hugely important to Hungarian history, but I will need to do a bit more reading...
After the church, we headed out to the Fisherman's Bastion, a fairy tale series of turrets and cloisters, apparently designed by Schuhet as a foil to the church. It doesn't serve any other purpose and it provides absolutely stunning views and was a lovely spot for some biscuits. A short wander and we were at the 
Royal Palace, which is actually quite ugly (I think again it was destroyed during the war) but houses the lovely National Gallery. The gallery covered a huge period, but had some particularly lovely 19th stuff, particularly Hungarian home scenes. I can't say that the really modern stuff caught my imagination, but we could well have been a bit pictured out. 
Having had a restoring coffee, we headed back over the Danube to the Central Market. It is housed in a building which looks like a train station with two levels. Fresh produce is on the ground floor, canteens and tourist stalls on the first. There were lots of locals around which was lovely as it made it feel far more genuine. This also gave us the opportunity to try our first Hungarian goulash, although trying to find something veggie for Lucy was a bit of a challenge.We returned to the hostel to put on what constitutes our glad rags
ready for the ballet at the State Opera House. The ballet was called Balanchine: 'the soul of the woman in dance', which sounded rather bizarre but it was absolutely awesome. The State Opera House is just glorious inside, lots of murals and gold leaf everywhere, although if you have cheap tickets, you don't go up the sweeping staircase, you go through a little side door. Being right up in the gods gives you a stunning view of the whole thing which is just great, although the 
staff are quite rude to you. The ballet was actually three one act ballets: Serenade by Tchaikovsky, Concerto Barocco by Bach and Who Cares by Gerschwin. They were obviously very different but beautiful, especially the Gerschwin, which saw Lucy and I humming along and wishing we'd shown some talent in ballet lessons. Absolutely fabulous.
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