Oh, the fog

After checking the weather forcast, Sarah and I decided that on Monday we would visit the Buda side of Budapest {the Danube divides Buda on one side and Pest on the other}. This is where you can go to the top of Castle Hill and see the spectacular views of the Danube and Pest--not to mention the other lovely things up there, like the Castle itself and St. Matthew's Cathedral.

The day was bright and sunny, and after a scrumptious lunch, Sarah and I made our way to the top of the hill. Once we had nearly arrived, we noticed there seemed to be quite a bit of fog rolling in. Even though I started to worry that it would affect our view from the hill, we were delighted to realize that the fog was setting us up for some enchanting photos.

As we came upon St. Matthew's Cathedral {below}, we could see the thick fog creeping up from the lower banks of the river.

The whole of Castle Hill was unusually quiet. Even when I visited Castle Hill in mid-November with Jane, the area was simply swarming with tourists. Now there were only a handful of other tourists. We were so pleased to nearly have the whole hill to ourselves! It was quiet enough without lots of bustling tourists, but the creeping fog seemed to blanket everything in utter silence.

Behind St. Matthew's Cathedral is the stunning Fisherman's Bastion, where the view of the city and the river is superb. As we approached the edge of the hill, we were getting an inkling of what we might see...

Nothing!

Below is what is normally a picturesque panorama of the city and the Danube with the magnificent Parliament building in center view.

I was completely astounded! I apologized to Sarah a lot, but she didn't seem to mind at all.

She didn't mind, and honestly, neither did I, because we were able to capture so many amazing photos.

As we strolled along on our way to a bistro for some coffee, we had this view in front of us...

...and in a turn of our heels, this was the view to the back of us. To see the cathedral enveloped by the swirling fog was truly amazing.

After our coffee break, we went down, down, into the earth to visit the Labryinths. If you've been reading since October or before, you well may be fed up with the abundance of Labryinth photos, so I apologize. But Sarah and I just couldn't resist taking advantage of so many photo ops...

After we emerged from the darkness below, we found ourselves surrounded by even more fog as the night had set in.

We made the short walk to the Castle and once again found that we were nearly the only ones there. We were off again--snap, snapping away photos on our cameras.

Me.

We had thought Castle Hill to be quiet before we visited the Labryinths, but now, we hardly saw another soul. The total silence combined with lights softened by the fog made everything feel so lovely and intimate. The experience of viewing this castle and all its grandeur being enveloped by such thick fog {and in turn making us feel completely isolated from all the rest of the world} was unlike any I've ever had before.

I'm sure Sarah got bored of me saying over and over again, "This just feels so surreal...."

But Sarah and I were about to have a much more personal experience with the fog than we ever could have imagined...

Stay tuned!