Gellért Hill

I’m convinced that not only was Budapest built to be beautiful, it was constructed so that one might enjoy its beauty from every possible angle.

On Wednesday night, I went dancing at Gellért Hill. Gellért Hill is a big outdoor area/park where the Citadel and the Liberty Statue are located. There was a folk dance event being put on at an outdoor terrace there. There were probably 80-100 dancers plus 2-3 musicians.  The dances were mostly all dances I had learned the week prior, which was nice.  It was a good time.

The venue was about a 35 minute walk from my apartment down ritzy Vaci Ut. (upscale pedestrian shopping street) and across the white Elizabeth suspension bridge to the Buda side. Walking back down the hill toward home, I was graced with yet another gorgeous view of the city at night. I thought I would just walk straight home, but was tempted up the white stone steps that lead up the steep Danube face of the hill to the St. Gellért statue, thinking “what a beautiful view I would get if I only went a little higher…”

And I was right – I went a little higher and the view was amazing:

And I thought “but if I just go a little higher…” And I was right again. Every step up the hill brought another, unique view of this amazingly beautiful city.

So, up I climbed. Up and up and up until I hit the Citadel and the Liberty Statue at the top of the hill.

The paths were dark and I had to use the flashlight on my phone to light my path. This is the kind of thing my dad would kill me for – walking around alone in a park at night in the dark trying to get myself killed. There were plenty of other people out doing the same thing, though, and I ran across more than a few couples who were looking for privacy.

I was not disappointed when I got to the top of the hill:

Even though that shot represents the pinnacle – in both senses of the word – of the views I got that night, new gorgeous views kept assaulting me the whole way down the mountain. I would take a turn and be arrested by the beauty that struck me. For example, I turned my head to look down a dark staircase toward the Danube and was stopped in my tracks by this gorgeous view of the Green bridge framed by the trees lining the stairs:

Even when the tree-lined paths prevented a clear view of the city, just seeing the lights peaking through the trees alone was beautiful:

The paths were steep and the hike would have been challenging even during the day (and even if I hadn’t already been dancing for 3 hours), but it was so unbelievably worth it.

TL;DR:  Seduced down a dark path to enjoy Budapest’s beauty once again.