Fisherman Bastion

Fisherman's Bastion

Excerpt from the book Single White Female Backpacker from the Teresa the Traveler Series.

    After checking out the castle I decide to wander around the top of the hill and see what else there. It was not long before I came across this fairy tale looking building that resembled the castle at Disneyland. I looked it up in my guide book and discovered I was standing outside the Fisherman’s Bastion. Aptly named
because it is located in the neighborhood once known as Fisherman’s Town, the Fisherman’s Bastion sits on the site of an old fish market offering one of the best views in the city.
    The bastion sits across from the Church of Our Lady, the building which it was designed to compliment. Its seven towers each symbolize one of the seven Magyar tribes that came to Hungary in 896. While an entrance fee is charged during the day, the views at night are free – my favorite price! As I looked down on the beautiful city of Budapest, I regretted only having one day to enjoy it.
    I could see as far as Margaret Island and had a great view of the Parliament, St Stephen’s Basilica, the Academy of Sciences, the Vgrido Concert Hall and the Inner City Parish Church as well as the Margaret, Erzsebet and Szabadsag Bridges. Perhaps one day my path will lead back to Budapest so I can visit all these sites.
    I walked down the steps of the Fisherman’s Bastion looking back every so often and taking pictures of the beautiful façade lit up at night.  I crossed the bridge and walked around looking for an Internet café.  So far I did not have any luck connecting to the internet in Budapest. Earlier I had stopped in a café that advertised free Wi-Fi so I sat down, ordered a coffee only to find out they did not have internet.
     Later in the day I stopped at a place called The Internet Café thinking it would be a sure thing, but just in case, I tried to connect to the net before ordering a coffee. There was no signal so I asked the waitress and she informed me that they did not have Internet. What the…? Was there such thing as an internet café in Budapest that actually had internet or was that too much to
ask? Completely frustrated, I walked into a café that did not advertise internet and OMG they had it! So that is the trick to finding internet in Budapest, look in the places that don’t advertise having it.
    After uploading some pictures onto my Facebook page and answering some emails, my need for the net was fulfilled and I started to make my way back to the train station.

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Fisherman's Bastion, Budapest