Blogs from Budapest, Central Hungary, Hungary, Europe - page 14

By Chad and Taylor- We landed in Budapest around 11:40. It took an hour to get through customs because there were so many people. When we got to the hotel, we rested for 20 minutes and then went to the local market to get a snack. After that, we walked back to the hotel and watched Australia and Italy play against each other on TV. About an hour and a half after the game was done, we all went to Stefanía's Pizzaria for dinner at 6pm. The food and coffee there was wonderful. They had big portions for low prices. After we had stuffed ourselves with pizza, we went to the FINA World Championships. First we watched Hungary and Greece play at 8:30pm. Hungary won 7-5 in the semi final. Then we watched Serbia and Croatia ... read more

After another good breakfast we checked out of the hotel (leaving our luggage in their locked room) to head up Gellért Hill. We crossed the Danube by the Szabadság híd (Liberty bridge), got some we admired Sziklatemplom (church cave) but being Sunday didn't go in as there were services on. We continued up the hill to the Szabadság szobor (Statue of Liberty) enjoying great views all the way up. After a rest in the shade we wandered around the outside of the Citadella where I gave in & bought a rainbow pashmina & a new hat! We wandered down the north side of the hill via the Saint Gellért Sagredo monument (an eleventh-century bishop who tried to convert the Magyars to Christianity). We then left Buda for Pest via the Erzsébet híd (Elizabeth Bridge) and after ... read more

Up early but not too early for my lovly husband to drive me to the airport at 6am before heading back the other way to work. Managed to get away with hand luggage only and as I've checked in online the night before I headed straight through to find a quiet seat in the far corner of the departures area to await my gate call. I'm rather amused that I could also check in for my flight home & print my boarding pass before I'd even left home! Flight was ok, only a few hours & I'd baggsied a window seat so got good views until we went above the cloud layer. Touched down in Budapest bang on time and again enjoyed the swift exit allowed by only having hand luggage. I found the Transport booth ... read more

It was a short day for us today as we had an overnight train departing at around 7pm and once we'd had a little lie in, showered and packed it was getting close to 11am. We also had to sort out dropping our bags and booking some tickets to get to the station for our night train, which in our noobish attempt to save ourselves a EU rail travel day (something we didn't need to do we later realised), we had booked our reservations for the overnight train from a station 45mins away from Budapest instead of a central station. We lugged our bags, which seem to be getting fuller and heavier each time I repack, to Keleti station in Budapest and, despite the totally inaccuracy signage, found the left luggage lockers. We had an even ... read more

We awoke in our new AirB&B place at around 9am, showered and we both called our respective better halves. I then took some notes on 'Top 25 Hungarian Phrases' whilst Dan plotted a number of attractions, restaurants and bars which our hosts had recommended (via their laminated notes left on the table) on Google Maps. Eventually at gone 11 we headed out for the day. The first stop was 'Vinyl and Wood' a relatively new coffee and breakfast bar which was number 2 on TripAdvisor for tea, coffee and breakfast in our area. Having prepped myself on Jo Napot (Good Day/Afternoon) for the last 1/2 hour, I confidently(ish) spat it out in greeting when we walked through he door, it seem well received. Sadly they didn't have much of a selection of food (we later overheard ... read more