Budapest vacation 2007; memories (2)
This articles has been previously published by me here.
We arrived in Budapest on a Sunday evening. After unpacking and buying a map of the city and the Travel Card we started planning the next Days. The first place we wanted to visit was Budapest Zoo. Little did we know we were going to spend our entire day there. Early morning on Monday, Aug 6, 2007 we left our apartment -we stayed at a friend’s place- and head to the Eastern Railway Station. That’s where all boulevards meet and where you can switch the means of transport. So we took our map out and decided to go to Hero’s Square and then to Budapest Zoo (which is a 5 minutes walk from the Hero’s Square).My first reaction when I saw Hero’s Square -although I’ve read about it online and seen it on TV - was that the statues are enormous!!! And the place is magnificent. We took a lot of photos, enjoyed the view and listened to some traditional Hungarian Music -dear husband dedicated a song to me!
Then we walked to Budapest Zoo. It’s pretty easy to find if you follow the signs. A ticket for an adult costs 1700 HUF (about $9.5) and is totaly worth it. There are over 2000 animals in one of the oldest zoos in the world. It literally took us 7 hours to visit only about 80% of the zoo because part of it was under restorations -which end this Sept. So if you decide to visit the zoo, you’ll be able to see everything. Probably the top attraction in Budapest Zoo is the newly restored Elephant House.
Other interesting attractions include The Palm House and the Aquarium, the Butterfly garden and the World of Apes. We particularly like the Butterflies because we were allowed in their natural habitat and we had to surprise to see a butterfly wanting to “land” on my t-shirt. You are not allowed to touch them.
There aren’t enough words in the world to describe the Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden. I loved everything about it: the polar bear, the seals, the penguins, the flamings, the baby lion, the tigers, the elephants -although they only showed us their “behind”-, the ducks, the pelicans, the swans, the butterflies, the monkeys, the turtles, the crocodiles…EVERYTHING!
