Which is better: Buda or Pest?

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A measure of my excitement for this trip is that i was up before my 6am alarm. Not the best time to start the day but easyJet conspired against us by not flying to Budapest from Stansted so we had to make the extra trek to Luton. After two buses and two train journeys plus a quick walk through London, we got to the airport right on time for check in. Lots of boring queuing ensued before i finally got the chance for a sit down and some have lunch after security. The flight was pretty full but Laura managed to get a window seat for herself which meant i was in the middle :/ Thankfully the flight is a short one (2hr30) so not long enough to get too cramped up. Once we arrived at the airport there was a fair wait for our bags and then the task of getting into the city centre began. Having tried and failed to find a ticket machine for the bus we took the risk and hoped straight on anyway heading to the metro station that would take us the rest of the way. When we got there we had more ticket problems, the machine was in English but didn't take notes( which is all we had) so after some dallying Laura spoke to the women at the counter whose English was better than my Hungarian to say the least; so armed with 72 hour transport passes we set off for the nearest metro station to the hostel. After getting to grips with what i maintain is a stupid house numbering system, we found the hostel and subsequent retro lift that took us to the 3rd floor where we were greeted by Mark the hostel guy who showed us to the Loft Hostel on the 4th floor. He sat us down with a drink and gave a brilliant welcome talk, recommending places to eat, sites to see, bars to visit and answering any questions we had. With all this new info and a map(!) we set off into the darkness for a walk along the Danube by night and first impression of the city. Walking across to Buda via the white bridge and then bag to Pest by the chain bridge we basically did a big circle route that got us back to the hostel area where we went for a meal at a traditional restaurant. Off to bed after this as we had an early start in the morning ready for lots of sightseeing and museums.

First on the agenda was navigating the metro system to get to the north west part of the city and the area around heroes square. Here there was one of the major thermal bath houses, the city park, a few arty museums and of course heroes square, After wandering through the park and past the baths, we got to the museum of fine arts which Laura was very excited about. I have to say the ground floor was interesting with various artefacts from the classical period such as Greek and Roman goodies but upstairs was definitely more her thing: paintings from the middle ages through to the renaissance period. Fun fun fun. Heroes square was nestled between that museum and the next one so we had a quick look at that and all the statues of past Hungarian greats, mostly kings and counts, before heading into the museum of contemporary art. Nothing too impressive here with the exception of some of the soviet society pieces, all in all not anything you could really call art. A quick walk to the metro and a few stops south to the house of terror, an old building turned museum to show the history of the Nazi and then Soviet occupations. The whole place was very interesting, much more my time period, and i felt i had learnt a lot about Hungary in the 20th century by the end as well as being shocked by the way the two regimes treated the local population. On the way back, we stopped by to see the opera house and St Stephens church, both of which were impressive buildings. After solid day of sightseeing, we enjoyed a bit of a chill out back at the hostel before dinner at the same restaurant as before and getting ready for our night out. We started off in a bar just round the corner, which had a good live band including the hostel owner. Everyone else left after this but Laura, Mark and I continued to an outdoor bar that was a bit more out of the way, as such there were more locals here which was cool. Then on to Mumus, a funky bar/club in the city centre. Throughout the night Mark told us more about the city and his time here and we had a great night, helped of course by a few beverages.

More sightseeing was on the agenda for Wednesday albeit with a later start. To begin with we made the climb up to the citadel, a high point overlooking the city. The views were great and there was a nice park on the other side as we made the descent. Onto the castle next and after some searching for the entrance, we made our way inside to the history museum. The place was large and more importantly interesting, with items from a wide range of time periods. After we had seen everything it had to offer, we made our way through the castle grounds towards Fisherman's Bastion, which was on our way but worth seeing all the same. From here we went down to the Danube to see the parliament building from across the river. After all this wandering around we were rather tired so set off back to the hostel, catching a glimpse of the Soviet monument on route. Running out of Forints, we opted for a meal in and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere in the hostel lounge, talking to some other travellers and watching a few films.

A fairly early start again on Thursday as we had a few more things we wanted to see before out afternoon flight. I say 'we' but the first place, the Ludwig Museum of Modern Art was definitely one for Laura. After this we just had time to check out the National Museum at a leisurely pace before, sadly, it was time to get back to the hostel and pack. By now we were familiar with the transport system and had no problems getting to the airport to check in on time. The flight passed without event and it seemed as though we got back to Norfolk in no time at all, i guess the long journeys in America have gotten me used to travelling a few hundred miles. Overall, a very enjoyable trip but the next big journey is just around the corner, all the way to Loughborough 😊

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