Visegrad

I traveled a few weekends ago up to Visegrad, less than an hour away, where I had heard there is a nice castle on top of a hill. Our friend Anna, who is Hungarian and therefore something of an expert, was a bit confused when we told her our plans, but agreed to come along for the day anyway. This should have been the first sign, because when the Hungarian in charge makes a confused face, something is bound to go at least slightly awry.

We arrived to Nyugati in time for our very nice intercity train, and I purchased my ticket. The woman behind the desk sold me the ticket without a comment. Then Anna started to buy her ticket from the booth next to mine. "You can't take the train to Visegrad," her clerk replied. "What?" asked Anna. "What?!?" I asked. The clerk replied that we had to take the train to the town across the Danube from Visegrad, and then take the ferry across. Oh, ok. So we hop on the train and head north.

We get off the train, and this is the view from across the river. Yes, that is the hill we are planning to climb. Have I mentioned that it's quite snowy? Oh well. First we have a nice ferry ride ahead of us, crossing the beautiful Danube.

The ferry, naturally, is a wooden plank maneuvered around by a tugboat. I finagle a teacher discount. After a few brief moments, we're in Visegrad and walking to the bottom of the trail to go up the hill. Visegrad seems like a cute little town, and I'm excited to see another castle, and learn more about Hungarian history from Anna, who is a PhD candidate in history. It's shaping up to be a great day.

When we arrive to the trail, things start going slightly awry indeed. The trail is steep and covered in snow and ice. The two km hike up the hill that should take about 15 minutes instead takes about an hour, with the very real threat that at any moment Lyla will snap out from the stress and kill us all, or footballer Anna will run circles around us and we'll just die of shame. Finally, though, we reach the top. Sure enough: a castle.

Lyla and I pretending to be royalty. We took a snooty shot first, but this is the one where we totally lost it.

One of the old crests of some noble family. I just like how the cow's neck skin suddenly turns into a cape.

The view of the Danube was beautiful from the top of the hill, full of twists and curves... indeed, bends. It's amazing that such untouched nature can be so close to Budapest. After visiting the castle and learning our history, we started sliding back down the hill, at one point being stopped by a family of boar crashing across the path a few yards ahead of us.

We also found a church built into the cliff wall, with stations of the cross leading up from the town. I plan to go back in the spring.

It was a bit steep. We all fell at least once on the way down, and finally Lyla just sort of slid down the last little bit.

And at the end we were very tired, and cold, and ate dinner at a Godfather-themed restaurant in town.