Victoria's Voyage

29/07/19

It was another dreary morning, but time was of the essence and let’s face it, we were used to it by now anyway.

We headed first for the Great Market Hall for some last minute shopping. Located at the end of Vaci Utca, Budapest’s famous shopping street, the market hall is a beautiful building to see from outside, though in contrast it’s modern and bustling inside, and even has access to an Aldi. The market spans three floors of a variety of different stalls, but we couldn’t stop for long, as there was one more thing on our list that we wanted to fit in before home time.

As soon as we’d claimed our purchases, we headed for the water once more for another cruise, this one including a chance to stop on the enormous park that is Margaret Island. This sightseeing boat is included in some of the hop on hop off packages, so be sure to enquire to see if your ticket includes it. Otherwise, you can just buy tickets down at the docks. You could spend a whole day on the island, but we whizzed around a tiny part of it in the space of around 2 hours. It is very well kept and you can hire bikes or electric scooters to get around, or alternatively even take a ride on a local bus.

Whilst on the island we took a pleasant walk through the trees until we came to what they call the mini zoo, a small fenced off area where you can find and feed birds, deer, ponies and rabbits. We skipped out on the main zoo yesterday, so this was a way for us to see at least a few animals.

Circling back through the gorgeous wildflower gardens, we finished up chilling on swing chairs with a cold drink at a small bar, before re-boarding the boat back to the mainland. We didn’t really have long enough on Margaret Island to truly make the most of it, but that didn’t make it any less pretty or peaceful.

Budapest as a whole is not only a beautiful city, but there’s also loads to do whatever your interests, and I’m so glad I made the decision to return. There have been a lot of highs and also a few lows (the majority of the lows being weather related, especially the moment my bag fell into a huge puddle!), but it’s back to Manchester now where I’m already looking forward to my next adventure.