It must have snowed last night because there was a thin layer of snow on the pathways all around us! it wasn't enough to make a snow man or snow angel but it was so exciting!This also meant it was so cold - minus 3 degrees this morning!

We got the hop-on hop-off bus today - the 2-day ticket one which includes a boat ride on the Danube and a night tour. It's a bit confusing - there are several different hop-on hop-off companies in Budapest and they all do similar routes. We went with the Giraffe hop-on hop-off bus which is red and very similar to the city sightseeing one.

We started off on the yellow route which took us to Chain Bridge. It's a stunning bridge - one of the bridges that connects Buda and Pest. From the Pest side, we walked over the bridge to Buda and straight to the base of the Castle district. The views from the bridge were spectacular and you could see the structures in the Castle district above, the Parliament House and other grand buildings on either side of the (freezing-looking) River Danube. We then walked up to the castle.

By this point we were soooo cold so we quickly found a cafe at the top where we had a hot chocolate and apple strudel. We then wandered down the back of the castle in search of another hop on hop off stop but we couldn't find it so went back to the one where we got dropped off. We then caught the bus to the cheap food area via the largest synagogue in Europe (Nagy Zsinagoga) and had a $3 kebab each.

Then it was time to head to the famous and highly recommended Szechenyi Thermal Baths. On the way we stopped at Heroes' Square - a beautiful square with several monuments depicting heroes from Hungary's past. The baths is a very impressive building from the outside but it's an even better destination once inside! We started off in the indoor baths (which ranged from 26-38 degrees celsius). Initially we felt a bit awkward just sitting in these small pools with randoms but then we got into it! And it was amazing! We hadn't even got to the best part yet. After a while we figured out how to get to the outdoor thermal pools. These pools were much bigger so we didn't feel so awkward and they were even more amazing as the contrast between outside and inside the water was huge! The first one we went into was 34 degrees. It was warm but we did think it could have been warmer. Then we discovered another one and it was 38 degrees - amazing! There was so much steam everywhere, it was hard to see! We stayed at these baths for a couple of hours but then it was unfortunately time to leave as we had to get the last hop on hop off bus of the day at 4:30pm. On the way to the bus stop we walked past a huge outdoor ice skating rink and Vajdahunyad Castle (which features several landmark buildings from Hungary and as a result, different architectural styles).

It was then quite a long bus trip (due to traffic - but NOTHING like Nairobi traffic) to the dock, where the night tour started at 6:15 (we got there at about 6:00). The night tour went for 1.5 hours. The best part was when we reached the Citadella for a photo stop where we had an incredible view of the castle, the bridge and Parliament House. Budapest at night is pretty fairy-tale like. When we got back on the bus after taking photos, someone else was sitting in our seat so we sat in a different spot. After minute or two, a Hungarian grandmother sitting in front of us turned around and saw us and immediately started yelling at us in Hungarian! She was so angry. We tried saying we don't speak Hungarian but she just kept yelling at us in Hungarian. Calvin thought she was being racist towards Asians. A man siting across the aisle translated for us, he said that this grandmother was telling us that the seat were in were for her grandchildren and we should move. She was quite terrifying!

Once we got off the bus at the end of the tour we were pretty hungry so we walked fast (because we were hungry but also because we were freezing) to find any cheap, warm restaurant. We came across a Vietnamese restaurant - Kate had broccoli chicken with noodles and Calvin had beef pho. After that we walked VERY fast back to the heated apartment!