Of an amazing race to sunset

A story of our frantic climb up Gellért Hill and witnessing a most spectacular sunset.

After an afternoon spent sightseeing around Budapest and enjoying a most delicious (and cheap) cake, we realised that if we want to catch the sunset from the top of Gellért Hill on the Buda side of Budapest, we would only have one hour to climb down from where we were near the Fisherman's Bastion and climb up to reach the top of Gellért Hill.

Thinking to ourselves, we thought that surely it couldn't be that hard. 1 hour is plenty of time. We could even see the top of Gellért Hill from around the Buda Castle, so it shouldn't be difficult at all. Oh how wrong we were. Making ur way down from the Fisherman's bastion, we realised that the distance between us and the entrance to Gellért Hill was way further than what we had imagined. So with a new sense of urgency we brisk-walked ourselves alongside the Danube to reach the entrance of the hill right by the Elizabeth bridge.

The hill looked much taller when we were standing below it than when we saw it from afar. It was 35 minutes to sunset then and about a couple of hundred steps to go between us and the top. We hitched our jeans and began to climb. The climb itself was quite scenic, though unfortunately we weren't paying too close attention to the surroundings, but one view point did stop us on our tracks. It was just up a few flights of stairs from the bottom and there was a small clearing located right behind the Elizabeth bridge. The view of the metal frame of the bridge, the cars and the city awash with the yellow orange light from the sun was just brilliant. We had to stop and took a few pictures there. 

Happy with the pictures we snapped, we continued our climb up the hill. On the way to the top, I did make some rather terrible choices thinking back about it. In an attempt to make the climb much faster, at one point I left the pavements and just started climbing the dirt hills in between the staircases. Benoit looking at me disapprovingly, told me that it could be dangerous, but I can be quite obsessive (and not to mention stubborn) when I want something. So I shrugged his warning off and just continued climbing ahead, with him continuing to take the proper pavements. Near the top, the mud hill did get steeper and a bit slippery from the wet day yesterday. I had a few near misses, but breathed a sigh of relief as I reached the metal barrier and hauled myself over it. At that moment I felt like one of those contestants in the reality TV series the Amazing Race, desperately trying to reach the next check point.

With that done, I continued climbing up yet another set of stairs. It was never ending and all along I was quite afraid that I might miss the light. Luckily the determination (and strong calves I might add) paid off and with a lot of huffing, puffing and the feeling that my heart was about to burst out of my chest, I found myself at the top of the hill. At first I was just too busy hyperventilating to appreciate it, but when I have caught my breath and looked up, I found myself being knocked out of my breath once more. The view was just beautiful. The whole Pest side of the city lie across the Danube awash with a pink and orange light. Even though my legs were killing me at that moment, I couldn't help but to smile to myself, in a self congratulatory moment for making it to see that view.

I then started my way towards the the Liberty Monument on the highest point of Gellért hill. This monument is one of Budapest's most recognisable icon. It was originally made to commemorate the son of an admiral who died in a plane crash but was then subsequently changed to commemorate the soldiers who have fallen trying to liberate the city in 1944-45. The propeller which used to be on her hands were replaced with a palm frond to symbolise freedom and liberty. The Monument looked so regal against the back drop of the sky, standing proud and tall, a powerful symbol for the people of Budapest.

There were further statues flanking the monument and it was quote crowded in the area with loads of other tourists admiring the view from the top. The viewpoint in front of the monument overlooking the Pest side of Budapest provided one of the most spectacular view of the city. That day's sunset was really special as it had a much more delicate pink orange hue rather than the orange yellow hue we all used to seeing. It made for a particularly gorgeous view of the city.

With the sky coloured in a soft light blue colour and the city with the orange pink colour, it was like Budapest had been transformed into a painting by Georges Seurat, orange and violet dominating the tableau against a backdrop of soft pastel blue sky. At that moment, I didn't feel any of the tiredness from the climb, all I felt was just a powerful sense of satisfaction and awe. That view was really the best view of Budapest that we managed to find throughout our 4 day stay in the city.

A short walk away from the monument, the view changed as the city fell away and was replaced by the wooded suburban area stretching all the way to the distant Buda hills where the sun was setting. It was funny that just a few steps away we could get such a dramatic change of view. From a metropolis bathed in the sunset light, to the silhouette of the hills covered in trees against a glowing sun. I stayed there for quite a while, just watching as the sun made its slow descent behind the hills. It was at that point that I managed to spot Benoit around the monument. He was apparently just about 10 minutes behind me and still managed to catch most of the spectacular light show. So being stupidly risky did not in fact give me any significant pay off.

We stayed for a little while more around the area, snapping pictures of the dusk, but as the sun dived behind the hills, the sky grew dark at a surprisingly fast rate and we thought climbing down the wooded hills in the dark would not be a very great idea. Also, once the sun was gone, the temperature on the top of the hill dropped rather quickly and combined with the wind it made for a very strong case of rushing back down to escape the chill. We then slowly made our descent, savouring the fact that this time we could take one step at a time without running around like a headless chicken. 

It was on our way down that we noticed another monument halfway down the hill. It was the St. Gellért monument. The story I've read was that, the spot where the monument stood is the spot where St. Gellért was hurled to his death by pagan Hungarians who did not accept his teachings. It made for a beautiful and rather imposing sight, with the stone saint seemed to be preaching to the entire city of Budapest.

Arriving at the bottom of the hill, we then decided to walk back to our hotel which was located about 20 minutes walk from the hill. We walked across the Elizabeth Bridge we saw from the hill earlier. It turned out to be a very good decision as we did get to see a very beautiful view of the Danube at dusk, with the Buda Castle glowing at the top and the Szechenyi bridge glowing like a silver chain in the distance.

So after our little run around and impromptu real life Stairmasters session, we found ourselves back in the hotel; ready for a warm shower and a few glasses of wine, before heading out for dinner and to Budapest's famous Ruins Bar. Though our legs were killing us at that point, we still came back with huge grins on our faces, both of us knowing that we will remember the beautiful sight of Budapest in the sunset for a very long time.