Budapest Best Bits!

Yes, I'm still prattling on about Budapest! It was great though, and I'm not enjoying the thought of going back to work soon- so anything that keeps my mind elsewhere is very welcome!
Tonight I thought I would do a post on the bits I enjoyed most in Budapest, just to help keep that holiday feeling going that little bit longer!
*Warning- there may be a lot of food involved. What can I say? I'm a lardy grub :P

• The single duvets on the queen sized bed. Now this is a genius idea that I really need to implement at home! For once I wasn't being accused of being a duvet hog, and I slept really well. Better than I do usually! I like my own space in bed and apparently I swear at Stu quite frequently of a nighttime. I'm quite placid when I'm awake so I don't know why I'm such an aggressive sleeper! 
• Frozen yogurt at 'Jono Yogo' at the WestEnd shopping centre. I'd heard of this type of self-service 'parlour', as it were, previously but never experienced it myself, so it was quite the novelty! I chose chocolate and banana yoghurt and topped it with chocolate sauce, blueberries and sour cherries. Quite the combination but it was still really good! It wasn't quite as good as the frozen yoghurt we had last year in Mallorca though, I have to say. Also a special mention has to go to 'Bite' bakery/cafe close to the shopping centre. The pretzels and cinnamon rolls (which you can see them making fresh instore) gave us lots of energy for all the pavement pounding!
• So from frozen yoghurt to normal ice cream! We had so much on holiday and it was all yum! You can't really go too far wrong with ice cream though can you? My favourites has to be the hazelnut kinder flavour (total mouthgasm) and the ice cream at Gelarto Rosa, which they make into the shape of a rose- so clever! They're little works of art and I don't know how the staff do them so quickly! If you ever go to Budapest you have to visit this place. It's right near St Stephen's Basilica in the centre and there are so many flavours to choose from you'll definitely have a hard time choosing. I wish we could have gone back again! I chose a small one (should have gone large!) and had strawberry and elderflower with sour cherry. You can tell I like cherry! 
• The zoo! I  mentioned the zoo in my first Budapest post but it was a real holiday highlight. It was so cheap compared to the zoos here! It cost 2500 forints per adult which is about £6.37. Bargain! Especially compared to £20 at Chester Zoo during peak season! There was so much to see and the hours just flew by. It was far too hot though and I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was much cooler. I was literally dripping. Nice. As I've said before, seeing the sloths was amazing. Ever since I watched 'Meet the Sloths' that's exactly what I've wanted to do! 
• Parliament at night. We went for ice cream once after tea and decided to check out Parliament when it was all lit up. It looks fantastic in the day but at night it looks spectacular. There were birds or bats flying above, catching the light, and it really added to the scene (the building is in the Gothic Revival style, says Wikipedia)! I think if we ever go again we might go on a tour of the building. 
• La Perle Noire. The restaurant at our hotel was where we had our best meal (it was also the priciest but it was worth every penny!). We ate from the 'Chef Menu' which cost us about £19 each, not including drinks. The service was friendly and efficient and the outside area where we ate was gorgeous with all the white lanterns hanging up. For starters I had the 'Hen consommé 'Újházi' style with glass noodles' followed by Mangalitza cutlet ribs with lecsó millet. Now pudding was amazing! it was 'Cheesecake with almond sponge, strawberry ice-cream and fresh fruits'. Sounds quite simple but it was so much better than it sounded! It tasted like the best trifle ever, and I bloody love trifle. Go here for a treat, even if you're not staying at the Andrassy hotel. 
• I think I mentioned that I enjoyed visiting the Fisherman's Bastian but another shout out has to go to City Park (Városliget). I'm glad our hotel was super close to here as it was nice place to have a wander about and a chill out. Yes, there were quite a few tramps dossing about amongst the families and couples, but it was still a pleasant place! We enjoyed just sitting and watching the ducks as well as eating at 'BRGR', which is opposite the zoo. I don't normally go for burgers but the bacon burger was one of the best I've had, and Stu enjoyed his provolone philly cheese steak. Prices were reasonable too considering they were quite large! Vajdahunyad Castle was well worth a visit too for the interesting architectural styles. It looked really pretty next to the (murky) lakeside. This was also where we saw the random GPS dog. A little yorkie with a balloon fixed on him (or her) with 'GPS' written on it! Bizarre. But cute! 
• Lastly, a weird one, but I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the air con in our room! Compared to last year in Spain, where all we had was a shitey fan that did nothing, it was heaven! 

Wow, this post has ended up much bigger than I was planning on! Nothing else to say really (well I'm sure that's a lie!) other than go!