Of cold winds, determination and the jewels of the Danube

A story of dragging our assess off to the Danube on a cold, windy and wet night some of Budapest’s most spectacular sights.

On our first evening in Budapest, we were pretty tired as we have just spent most of the day walking around visiting the Hungarian Parliament Building, the Buda Castle up in the hills above the Danube and the surrounding area in the Buda part of Budapest. After a short break at the hotel, we decided to go out and grab a bite before deciding what we would like to do that night. It still drizzled a bit as we stepped out, but nothing that we can’t handle.

We had dinner at a small, hole in the wall, Vietnamese place near our hotel which was recommended by both the staff and online reviews. I know it’s counter-intuitive to have Asian food in Hungary, but we’ve had Hungarian for lunch, and thought we’ve had enough of stews, breads and meat for the day. The restaurant was called Abszolut Pho, located in a small street not far from the ruins bar and the Opera House. We ordered some Phos and when the bowl of piping hot noodles in soup came, we tucked in eagerly and was delighted to find that the food was delicious. It was one of the best Phos I have had outside of Asia. Looking back it was a rather odd picture of us traveling from London to Budapest only to end up savouring one the best Phos I have had in a very long time. I had no regrets and still recalled that episode very fondly. In fact we loved the place so much that we would actually return again for a very quick dinner on our last night in Budapest.

After stuffing ourselves with the huge bowls of pho, we stepped out of the restaurant to find that the drizzling has stopped, though you could still feel the cold wind blowing around. It was then that I told Benoit that I wanted to see the Szechenyi Bridge and the Parliament building lit up at night. It was one of those ‘Top sights of Budapest’ that I really wanted to see and so with a bit of persuasion, I managed to get him to agree to take a walk by the Danube to check out the views.

Now, even in the afternoon as we were exploring the city, the air was already rather cold and windy, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that it was even worse that night. I think the temperature must have plunged a little as the sun went down to the low single digits and the wind seemed to have picked up, especially alongside the river. It was a bit of a put off when we reached the riverside and having cold wind blowing at our faces, banishing whateverwarmth and comfort we felt during dinner, turning it into a distant memory. But, undeterred and since we’re already there, I checked google maps which told me that it would take us around 40 minutes to do the round trip. 40 minutes. That’s not a short amount of time to be spending outside in the cold hammered by the winds. Thankfully we declared ourselves not to be wimps and trudged on with it anyways.

Our first pay off came when we arrived at the entrance to the pedestrian walkway at the Szechenyi Bridge. The bridge was absolutely gorgeous lit up with white lights at night. Crossing the bridge whilst taking pictures, we also noticed the beautiful sight of the Buda Castle lit up, towering on top of the hill just above the bridge.

Turning over to the side we could see the view of the darkened Danube flanked by the lights of both Buda and Pest with the Parliament building and the Fisherman’s Bastion and St. Matthias Church standing out amongst the yellow orange glow of the streetlights. It reminded me a bit of Van Gogh’s painting, Starry Night over Rhone, except instead of stars we had the street and building lights being reflected on the darkened river and a pitch black sky above.

Arriving on the Buda side of the river banks, we got an even more beautiful view of the Szechenyi Chain bridge with its white lights reflected beautifully by the river. A little historical note on the bridge, the Szhechenyi bridge was the first permanent bridge over the Danube connecting the Buda and Pest side of the Budapest. It was because of this the bridge actually played a big role in the unification of the two cities forming modern day Budapest. It is still the city’s most well-loved bridge, a sight enjoyed both by locals and tourists alike, looking like a silver chain glowing in the night. By this point though we were almost chilled to the bone from the wind and cold air, the beautiful sight at least made it better and I could swear that I felt just a tad bit warmer as we were enjoying the view.

After crossing the bridge there was still around 15 to 20 minutes’ walk before we could reach the best viewing point for the Parliament Building. As we got further and further away from the glow of the bridge and the darkened gloom of night starts to envelop us again, that biting cold came back to haunt us. The glow if the orange street lights looked a bit sickly and we hurried ourselves through the mostly deserted pavements by the river to reach the viewing point as soon as possible. The cold air was most probably the reason why the road was deserted, nobody wanted to be out on the pavements still wet and shining from the drizzle earlier, being battered by cold winds unless they had a very good reason to be out there. We thought we had a good reason, but as we felt colder and colder, we did think whether it was a good enough reason after all. Was the effort and sacrifice really worth it?

It was worth it. As we got nearer to the Parliament Building, the glow of its reflection started to overtake most of the dark gloom of the river and the night. The sight of the Parliament Building at night was just stupendous. I think our jaws really did drop when we first reached the point where we could see the entire length of the parliament building, all aglow with the yellow gold light. The lights emphasized the sharp gothic spires of the building against the pitch black. In my head I thought it looked like a beautiful golden crown set against black velvet, sitting on top of a black looking glass, reflecting the sumptuous golden glow of the crown.

With our hands almost to the point of freezing we took so many pictures of the building, trying our best to capture that beautiful sight. Any thought of being cold and miserable was extinguished from our minds at that moment and we busied ourselves admiring the sight which laid in front of us.

After about 15 minutes of taking pictures and just enjoying the view we thought that it might be time to head back. As even though yes the sight of the beautifully lit Parliament Building did make us forget about how cold and miserable we were, but it didn’t change the fact that it was still really cold and relatively miserable compared to drinking wine in the warmth of our hotel room. We made our way then to Margaret Bridge to take a different route back to Pest and found the sight of the bridge to also be very impressive. Margaret Bridge is very unique it is not completely straight. It is actually bent in the middle due to the fact that it is a 3 way bridge. It connects Buda and Pest to Margaret Island on the other side of the bridge. Interesting fun fact we note as we were crossing the bridge, practically skipping and running trying to get out of the cold as soon as possible.

Reaching the middle of the Margaret Bridge, we stopped and looked back North to the Danube, and the view was incredible (I know I keep using this a lot, but there’s only so many ways you can describe an amazing view without resorting to a Thesaurus every single time). I think that was actually the best views of the Danube we had, as from that point we would see all of the major architectural gems of Budapest; with the glowing Parliament building on the left, the Fisherman’s Bastion and St. Matthias church on the right, Szechenyi Bridge on the North and the lit up Buda castle, crowning the darkened Buda hills in the distance.

Arriving back on the Pest side of the city, we took a short walk to the subway station where we first arrived this morning to visit the Parliament Building. Of course, confronted with the sight of the lit up Parliament Building just in front of us, I couldn’t help but to stay around and take even more pictures of the building, this time instead of admiring the glowing details from afar, I could actually admire them up close and personal and instead of the symphony of grey and earth colours we saw earlier this morning, the building has now been turned into a symphony of glowing yellow and gothic spires against the dark.

So after the walk and picture taking exercise which stretched the approximately 40 minutes’ walk to about 90 minutes instead, we finally found ourselves indoors in the not-that-worm-but-still-better-than-outside subway station. I honestly could not wait to get back to the hotel, have a warm shower and enjoy a glass of wine before dozing off to bed. But looking at the pictures again now and just remembering how it felt to be there and to witness Budapest lit up by the Danube, I thought it was more than worth the chill that we had to endure amidst the freezing winds by the river. This impromptu night sightseeing trip was truly one of the highlights of my whole experience in Budapest, whose glow I found I still carry long after we have left Budapest.