Sofia Somewhere

Now for the last day of my Spring Break trip... The next morning we headed to the Buda Castle Hill , yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site in Budapest. From the previous day's experience, we decided to take public transportation so as not to tire ourselves out too much, so we wouldn't have to walk in the cold, and to save time (since Lyle had to leave by noon). A bit of a note about the public transportation in Budapest: like Prague, Budapest has a metro, trams, and buses. But unlike Prague, a ticket is only valid for 1 uninterrupted journey, i.e. you can't switch from metro to tram (or metro to bus, etc.). It's a bit of a hassle, especially if your destination can't be reached via one mode of transportation. A single ticket costs 350 huf (about €1.20). The day before, we had bought a block of 10 tickets which costs 3,000 huf - so each ticket came out to 300 huf - and we used 3 of them for our metro back home. We were calculating how many we'd need that day (...

The weather forecast for our first day was rainy and cold, so we got out our umbrellas and prepared to go around Budapest. We decided not to do any walking tours and just explore the city on our own. We started the day at the Great or   Central Market Hall (Nagycsarnok) . It's the largest and oldest indoor market in Budapest, and was built around the 19th century when the outdoor markets became too chaotic and crowded. Central Market Hall - really pretty exterior The beautiful building's roof is covered with decorative Zsolnay tiles. Zsolnay refers to porcelain pieces made by a Hungarian company Zsolnay. The factory was established by Miklós Zsolnay and is apparently is quite famous producer of stoneware and ceramics. It receive worlwide recognition for its innovative frost-proof products. Fresh food produce The market consists of two floors. The first floor is primarily for fresh produce (meats, vegetables, fruits, cheeses) as well as candies, spices, and bottled...