Last weekend we made our way up into Buda Hills, a large area of wooded parklands punctuated by residential areas with a vast network of hiking trails west of town. Following a very brief guidebook description, there was quite a bit of feeling our way through guesswork and asking for help to get up there, though now that we've done it once it seems amazingly easy. Working to find the right bus out of the busy Moszkva ter and then wandering aimlessly along the back roads after being deposited at the end of the line, we still managed to find the chairlift to Janos hegy, the highest point in the city on top of which sits a stone tower overlooking the Buda hills and Budapest. Fueled by a couple of pastries bought at Moszkva ter, one filled with some earthy chicken liver and the other filled with bright yellow marjoram scented potatoes, we hiked along the ridge top until we found the upper end of the cog-wheel railway at dusk. This mostly empty train slowly clinked us back down into the city, though all of the trains we passed that were climbing back up were filled with passengers and mountain bikes indicating the relative popularity if riding down out of the hills compared with climbing them.
