Budapest

---

Budapest is pretty cool! There, blog done! ?



For those who don’t know, Budapest is two cities – Buda, and Pest – and they are separated by the Danube river. Buda is the hilly side, and Pest is much flatter so a lot more residential.



I arrived on the train and went on the metro line to Astoria near my hostel. The escalator to the tube was so steep! I’m nearly always off balance with TP anyway, so I had to cling to the handrail for the practically 5 minute descent. And yes, the tube station in Budapest does smell like all the others!



I managed to find my hostel (which was in the Pest side), conveniently located next to a ‘Karavan Street Food’ market, and after ditching TP, I went and bought a cucumber & lychee cocktail and sat under the multi-coloured canopies – it was delicious!



After settling in to the hostel, I joined some people on another bar crawl (you should know I never learn!) …but this one was much better than the one in Prague! We visited a few places, and nearly all of them were unique bars rather than typical nightclubs. I met a few groups of people, including some newly graduated American students (i.e. graduated from high school = babies); some business people from Kosovo; and a group of Irish lads out on the piss! Quite a few of them were there for the Formula 1 race happening the next day, which was going to go in their favour, coz, *Best Dublin accent* “Dey have de luck of de oirish!”



Perhaps after one too many G&Ts, I went back to the hostel and woke up the next morning to catch the free walking tour of the city. The tour covered all the main sights, including the Buda castle or palace; Matthias Church; and the view of parliament over the river. The guide explained that most the buildings in Budapest are neo-gothic or neo-classical, because they had to be re-built in that style following all the conflicts which destroyed the city. The guide told us that Budapest had the first Metro line in Europe, because trains above ground scared their horses too much, so they built them underground instead.



For the few days I spent in Budapest, I have to say I was struggling with the heat. I was told that on one day it hit 40 degrees! If you try to walk around in the afternoon, it feels like the heat you get when you stand next to the outlet vents on a bus – horrific! One day I spent at least an hour nursing an iced coffee in Starbucks, refusing to leave their wonderful air conditioning! When I finally did leave, I scurried between air-conditioned supermarkets the whole way back to the hostel, like a hermit crab, buying one item in each shop just to justify my visit!



The next day, I went to the Szechenyi Spa baths and lazed all day between the sun, shade, and the 18 natural spring pools of varying temperature. I even had a massage! – the poor, poor, man even massaged my awful, same shoes for three weeks, traveller feet!! Some of the pools recommended you only stay in them for no longer than 20 minutes due to the heat. Given that the pool was 35 degrees, and outside was 40…. They could sod off!..... I was staying in there all day!!



I also bought a ticket for the sightseeing bus tours to see the rest of the city, but I only managed about 30 minutes on one of them before I had to get off and seek shade. I went on a boat cruise down the river instead to Margaret Island and the Lady Liberty statue.



Although I went on a few tours of the city, I didn’t learn all that much of the history of the place. Maybe it was just me, but I thought the guides knew about the history, but just weren’t all that fussed about it. They were more forthcoming about the spas, ruin bars, events going on etc. The city seems to be very trendy and more focused on what there is to do in the city than what has already happened. It was quite refreshing!



The food in Budapest is also delicious! I tried prawn and mango brioche burgers, Cajun gumbo and jambalaya, their traditional goulash……….Ommnomnomnomnomnomnom, and it was so tasty! The bars and restaurants are very colourful and unique, and you could almost think you were in South America in some of them. I went out one night with some people from the hostel to one of the ruin bars. These are literally just bars put in old ruin properties which no-one could afford to fix. Some of them have no roofs and are still crumbling away, but they have a lot of charm. The owners have filled them with all sorts of items and lights and it would take you forever to look at everything in there. It’s like an Aladdin’s cave of colourful treasures! I also found out that, of the three English people I met and went for drinks with, two of them go to Keele university and the other one lives in Biddulph – the world is too small!!!



On the last night in Budapest, I walked up to Buda castle again as the sun set. The view from the castle over the Danube and chain bridge was very pretty, and as I got to the top there were people dancing a tango! As the sun went down the city lights up the bridge and the parliament so everything looks magical… it was a very nice end to seeing the city. On my walk back over the chain bridge, lots of huge posh ferry boats were passing under the bridge down the river. I had my camera and tried to get a photo of the boat and people on the top deck – so I waved at them all, and not one of them waved back. Miserable old bastards!!



Croatia next! ?

---