As we were wondering where to go after Vienna, we realised St Stephen’s Day (Hungary’s National Day) was coming up, and we could get to Budapest in time to experience it. St Stephen’s Day is a massive celebration in Budapest, with markets along the waterfront on the Buda side of the river, and one of the largest fireworks displays worldwide.

Markets on the river

Crowds begin to gather for the fireworks

We booked onto a dinner cruise on the Danube and had a great night. Even without the fireworks, I’d recommend this – great fun and good food.

A few slightly blurry fireworks shots

We’d originally only booked a few days in Budapest, but loved it so much we decided to extend to a week.  As usual we joined a walking tour, and as usual it was great – but Budapest is one of those cities you don’t need to ‘do’ anything in particular.  It is a great city to walk around with interesting buildings and views in every direction.  There are great bars and restaurants and loads of areas where you can sit and people watch.  Here are some of the MANY photos I took – none of them seem to quite do it justice though, it really is beautiful.

The castle from the river

Food and drink comes in giant size only

Fisherman’s Bastion

Loads of Churches

And a random selection of others