Last month I had the pleasure of heading to one of my favorite cities for the second time, Budapest, Hungary. Last time I was there was back in 2008 when I was in college. I must say, I feel like in the five years since I have been back, a lot has changed. It has become a very popular touristic destination for those exploring Central Europe with it’s close proximity to other great cities like Vienna and Bratislava and things just seem much more organized.

I took a free walking tour this time, and we started on the Pest side of the Danube (Budapest was originally two separate cities, Buda and Pest). We explored the historic city center for a bit and then went up to Castle Hill in Buda where there is more medieval architecture. The above picture is the view from Castle Hill across the Danube River back to Pest. You can see the famed Széchenyi Chain Bridge which is a very old suspension bridge dating back to 1849. Notice how high the Danube is as well. It was very close to cresting after this picture, and there was pretty serious flooding that spilled into the city streets of Pest (managed to leave the city before that happened!)