2 Days in Budapest

I figured I ought to see more of Europe before graduating so last week, I travelled with another friend to Budapest and Vienna (another post.) The great thing about Budapest was that everything was so affordable there! One doesn't have to think too much before buying something since everything seemed relatively cheap. Here are the sights we visited:

After spending 3 hours at the main train station, waiting to buy train tickets to Vienna, we visited the Buda Castle...

... and Fishermen's Bastion. To be honest, when we saw these two sights up close, we didn't think they looked that impressive, especially since there wasn't any signs to explain the sights. There was an exhibition/ museum inside the Castle, but it didn't sound that attractive so we didn't go in.

But these two spots are on top of a hill so it was a terrific spot to get a great view of Budapest.

The next day, we took a sightseeing hop on hop off bus to get around the sites. If you go to Budapest and want a convenient way to get to the sites, try the service. It's affordable and convenient, making the whole sightseeing experience very relaxing and simple.

From afar, the Castle looked very pretty.

The Parliament is one of the must-see sights, although we didn't actually go in. It's one of the most impressive buildings in Budapest and again, looks great from across the island.

Afterwards, we visited St. Stephan Balisica.

Then we took a guided tour inside the Opera House. The tour was interesting, with the tour guide describing the history of the Opera House with funny stories. It was very gold and shiny inside, together with paintings and statues.

Finally, we visited Heroes' Square, which is suppsedly a must-see sight. To be honest, it just looked like a normal square, ie. empty space with statues to us.

Budapest is definitely a great place to visit for a very short amount of time and low budget. It's a good choice if you want to see Central Europe. Overall, it was fun and interesting to walk around casually in Budapest, but frankly, the sightseeing spots weren't as well 'put-together' (ie. as tourist-friendly) relative to other countries'.

Image Credit: this blog

Haute Couture F/W08 II

Christian Dior
After a few of you mentioned how much you loved the Dior haute couture collection in your comments from the last post, I checked it out and agreed with you all -the Dior F/W08 haute couture collection is indeed fabulous! For the past few seasons, the collections have all sort of blended together and all I could remember about them are huge, colourful, extravagant dresses.

But this season, the silhouettes and use of different fabrics have really added something extra to the outfits. I LOVE the juxtaposition of the textures: strong, structured and solid on top, and soft, feminine and flowing at the bottom.

These are such a modern and gorgeous twist to the typical dress-suit and lunch suit.

And even more dress suits for the ladies-who-lunch. I don't believe I've like lunch suits this much before!

This is one of the few times I can actually say I like the use of animal prints -it's so elegant and untrashy. And even though I imagine it wouldn't be comfortable wearing a see through skirt, I love this interpretation of the LBD.

Such ladylike dresses. Imagine riding and getting off horse carriages in these dresses -ok, maybe I've just been visiting too many palaces in my recent travelling.

Gorgeous, GORGEOUS party dresses. In my dreams of attending formal parties, I will be wearing these dresses this season.

There were a few really extravagant big white dresses (-presumably wedding gowns for the rich and fabulous) and this one was my favourite. It's like a fusion of the long, slim dress and the big, puffy dress. Loves it!

It's not Dior haute couture by John Galliano without an art piece-looking dress.

Valentino

OK, I was going to write more about Valentino, but the fabulousness of the Dior collection totally distracted me and used up my enthusiasm for this season's haute couture collection. That said, the new eggy and space age shapes used by Alessandra Facchinetti really added a dose of youth to Valentino's feminine, romantic dresses.

Image Credit: http://www.style.com/