On the fifth day, the whole day was dedicated to Budapest, one of my favourite city in Europe. Last time I was here 15 years ago in 2003, so it was definitely a time for a new visit to refresh the memories a bit. One word that best desrcipes this city is ”glamorous”.  Budapest is glamorous in every way, at daylight and at night. When you look at the city from the top of the Gellért Hill like in the picture below, you can see Danube, the second-longest river in Europe. Budapest is divided into two parts; Buda on the left hand side and Pest on the right hand side of Danube.

As we had reserved only one day for exploring the city, we decided to choose the easiest way to do it. We bought a day ticket for ”hop-on, hop-off” bus, plus we got a night boat trip on Danube river for free, which was a good deal. Now the plan for day 5 was ready to be accomplished from early morning till midnight. We didn’t just sit in a bus, we also walked a lot and fortunately I had my sneakers on. After the long day we should have visited one of the baths of Budapest, but unfortunately we didn’t have time for bathing this time.

No wonder why Budapest is also known as the Paris of the East. It has the same nuances; the impressive historical buildings and the bridges. Most of the buildings along the Danube river are on the list of UNESCO’s World Heritage Site.

We had a boat trip late at night on Danube river and I think that the most spectacular views in Budapest are fully illuminated parliament house, Buda Castle and bridges at night. It seems that the city has put a lot of effort into lighting. All the LED lighting has been installed by the company called GE Lighting.

Hungarian Parliament glittering in its original magnificent blaze

Renovation work at the Hungarian Parliament Building, seat of the National Assembly and one of Europe’s oldest legislative buildings, has seen the installation of a new lighting system designed to highlight its outstanding architectural beauty.  A rolling programme of restoration has involved experts drawn from a wide range of specialist areas and GE Lighting was tasked with designing and installing a system that would create an innovative lighting solution while respecting the building’s history.  The new illumination, based on the superb yellow and white light of GE HPS (High Pressure Sodium) and CMH (Ceramic Metal Halide) lamps, was formally switched on on 20th August 2011, a hugely symbolic date as this was Hungary’s National Day, commemorating the foundation of the state.

They say that Finnish and Hungarian belongs to the same language family, Finno-Ugric. Yes, that must be true, because I could hear that there  is a lot of similarities between these two languages. I felt like I could easily join to some random discussion on the street, although I do not understand a word.

But in the end I just love the street lights of Budapest.