Budapest
We had a morning train out of Vienna and off to Budapest, the end of the same train line we had taken since Prague. It wasn’t too early, so we were able to enjoy our breakfast before taking an uber to the train station. We were experts at navigating the trains and stations at this point, so we found our platform, and boarded the train with no issues. We arrived in Budapest around 1pm and took the metro from the train station into the centre of town where our hotel was just another 5 minutes walk.
We were staying at a Hampton Inn on Hilton points again, but unlike in Vienna, this hotel was right in the centre of Budapest. We went to check in, but our room wasn’t ready yet, so, we dropped our bags off and went out to find a good coffee. We found a place just around the corner and walked over to get our flat whites and some lunch. The café had great coffee, and I bought a crescent pastry filled with chestnut filling (this had a Hungarian name, but I think it was a direct translation of “crescent pastry”). They also had a gluten free carob cake for Millie. She thought this was carrot cake when we ordered and was very confused when she took a bite, but we quickly figured out that we misread and that carob cake is very enjoyable.
After our café, we went out for a bit of a walk to waste some time. The main shopping street was only a couple of streets over. Millie had been looking to replace a couple of t-shirts, but hadn’t found anything she liked yet. The first store we saw when we made it to the shopping street was COS, and she quickly found a good T-shirt. This was too efficient for the time we had, so we tried on a few other things, and I found some black corduroy pants that I still regret not buying. But we didn’t have any room in our suitcases, so we stuck to the plan and only bought the shirt.
Having successfully wasted two hours, we went back to the hotel to take our stuff up to the room before properly venturing out to see Budapest. When we left the hotel again, the sun was getting low, and we didn’t have any kind of plan for what we wanted to see. So, like in Prague, we went down to where we could walk along the Danube River. Budapest is an incredibly beautiful city, and we were in awe of all the buildings and bridges on our walk. The sun had set before I could take enough photos, so I made a plan to head back out first thing in the morning to capture the city at sunrise. I put the camera away for now, and we just walked along, taking in the beauty of the city at sunset. The last place we arrived at was the cathedral, placed at the end of this long street lined with old buildings. It would have been so beautiful, but they were constructing Christmas markets in the square in front of the cathedral that would open a few days after we left Budapest.
Budapest was the worst for the Christmas markets, and by the worst, I mean they have some of the best Christmas markets, so it was frustrating to go to the major sites in the town, and when each of them came into view, there were Christmas Markets under construction. I think it was frustrating because it was an eyesore in these beautiful places, and it was still early November, much too early for Christmas Markets. But it was also frustrating that they would all open shortly after we left a place, so we couldn’t go explore any of the markets.
Anyway, we made it out of there and walked back toward the hotel to find an early dinner. We found a nice Italian place next to the hotwl then called it a night early.
The next morning, as planned, I woke up just before 7 am to head out on a sunrise photography walk. I mostly retraced our steps from the previous evening, down and along the Danube where I could watch the sun slowly light up Buda Castle and Fisherman’s Bastion in a pink and orange glow. Then I continued chasing the sun along, taking photos of the bridges, the trams and looking back toward the city until I finally followed the same long street up toward the cathedral. I walked about five kilometers total and returned to the hotel about 8 am to wake Millie up and get some breakfast.
Buda Castle at sunrise
We had a plan for what we wanted to see for once, and after breakfast we left to walk up to Buda Castle. But we still had to stop in at another café for a flat white on our way over. The first café in Budapest had some of the best coffee of the trip so far, but this second café was even better. So, filled with food and caffeine, we walked across the bridge and up the hill to Buda Castle. It was a great walk in the crisp, clear morning air, but it slowly became more and more crowded with tourists as we approached the castle. We didn’t really experience the busy touristy side of Budapest on our walk the previous day, but once we reached the top of the hill, it was like being on the Charles bridge in Prague again. We were shoulder to shoulder with thousands of tourists, and all we could do was join the river of people walking down to the end of the castle and back.
The castle was great to see, and it was interesting looking at the foundations of the older castles dating back to the 10th or 11th century under the modern structure, but it was overwhelming to be fighting through the crowd to get a good view of the city or the castle. We pushed through the crowd on our way back to get off this path rapidly and walked across the square behind the castle towards Fisherman’s Bastion. This was still crowded, but there was a bit more space for everyone to spread out at least. We spent some time walking around Fisherman’s Bastion, taking photos of the buildings and searching for an unoccupied window where we could get a view out across the river and over the city.
Millie at Fisherman’s Bastion
When we finished here, we walked straight back down the hill and escaped the crowds after descending three flights of stairs. More relaxed and with some space, we made our way back down to the Danube where we could walk up the opposite side from the city and get a good view of the Hungarian Parliament House. It was a long walk, and we were getting tired and hungry, so after seeing Parliament House, we walked up to the next bridge where we could catch a tram back toward the hotel. It was difficult to find proper lunch places in Eastern Europe, especially ones with gluten free options, so we ended up back at the café we visited the previous day for another carob cake and crescent pastry, this time with traditional poppy seed filling, along with a second flat white of course.
Our days since arriving in Europe had been packed with sites, tours and travelling, and we hadn’t taken much down time. We were still in a “holiday” mindset trying to do and see everything possible, but this is sustainable for four months of travel, so we had some downtime after getting our coffee and lunch. We spent the afternoon on our computers in the hotel, with a bit of a gym session to stretch and roll out our fatigued bodies.
After spending the afternoon inside we only went back out around 7:30 pm for dinner, where we walked about fifteen minutes to the other side of the old town to a place called Fat Mama. It was a popular place that didn’t take reservations, but we made it in quickly, although we weren’t too worried about having to wait because there was live music that starting at 8, just as we were taking our seats. The food here was good but overpriced for the quality, but the restaurant had a great atmosphere. The band was two guys with guitars playing some songs we knew, and some we didn’t, but they had great energy, and we enjoyed the whole set regardless of whether we knew the songs.
The band finished before us, but we had some additional entertainment in the form of a group of Italian women next to us flirting with the waiter. We thought the waiter was flirting back when he gave them all a shot of Palinka (a traditional Hungarian fruit brandy), but he came up to our table next with a couple of shots for us. It was a really harsh spirit, and we didn’t enjoy it, but it was part of the Budapest experience.
We were here on a Saturday night, so after dinner we planned to go out to a bar. Budapest is known for its nightlife as much as it is for its beautiful architecture, and it would have been reckless of us to skip out on the nightlife, especially after our nice quiet afternoon. The main place to experience the nightlife is in ‘ruin’ bars, which are bars that have been set up in abandoned soviet buildings, and the original and most popular ruin bar is called Szimpla Kert. We went over after dinner, where we were able to walk straight in, and we ordered a couple of drinks before going around to explore the bar.
It was much larger than expected, with numerous rooms and bars, an upstairs mezzanine accessible by steel staircases and walkways, and a hookah lounge in the back. It was half open to the air (unsure if this was intentional or if the old roof had collapsed and never been repaired), there was graffiti on all the walls, and a band was playing in a room in the back. It was a well organized chaos inside unlike any bar I’ve seen before. It was a unique experience, and I wish I had visited in my twenties when I could have spent more time there and better appreciated the nightlife. But we only needed an hour here, and it seemed to be the perfect time to go because there was no line to get in, but it was lively inside, and the line was stretching down the street when we left to go back to the hotel.
The next morning, we slept in a bit after our ‘night out’ and went to breakfast at the busiest time of day. This hotel was fully booked, and everyone was taking advantage of the complimentary breakfast at the same time. Every table was full, people were sitting in the lobby lounges and the conference rooms, and the line to get any food was twenty people long. We eventually found a table and took turns waiting in line for the busy buffet.
After breakfast, we went out for another walk, following the same path down to the river then continued down to walk across another bridge that led to the citadel hill. It was a short, steep climb up the hill to the Citadel, which we did only for the views and the park, as the citadel was undergoing restoration. We knew this before setting off on the walk, but we were still able to read a bit about the Citadel and enjoy the views over Budapest from this hill. After enjoying the views, we wandered around the park before heading back down the other side of the hill where the path spat us out at Gellert Thermal Baths. This solidified the plan to visit a thermal bath in the afternoon, and we continued down and across another bridge.
Walking down through the park from the Citadel
I think this was the fourth different bridge we had taken across the Danube, but this is the one I had been looking for. There was a photo print in our hotel room of an old tram driving across an old green steel bridge that I really liked, and I wanted to go to the spot and take that photo. I was starting to think it was an old bridge that didn’t exist anymore, but we found it and after crossing, we lined up to take the shot. I had to wait a while to get a tram coming with minimal other cars, but I got the shot, and we could continue with our day.
The tram on bridge shot
After our morning hike, we had burned off the buffet breakfast and were getting hungry again. We wanted to try to go to the central market hall for lunch, but it was Sunday, the one day a week that it is closed. So, we walked back up to the hotel and grabbed our towels and swimmers for the thermal baths before heading back out to find lunch. Millie had been struggling to get good gluten free food in Budapest, so lunch today was a sandwich on a gluten-free baguette for both of us. I usually try to avoid eating Millie’s GF foods, but this sandwich wasn’t too bad. Although, I would need to find a good bready dinner, this was a good lunch before heading to the thermal baths.
Just like with the ruin bar, we decided to go to the largest and most popular thermal baths, Szenchenyi Thermal Baths for the full tourist experience. It was a quick ride on the metro up the road, but this metro line was different. It’s the oldest line in the city, and everything looks original. All the stations were small, tiled rooms with wood cabinets on the walls, preserving the original look from over one hundred years ago. This metro line took us right to the thermal baths, and we went in to get tickets and get changed. By the time we got everything done, it was about 4 pm, the sun was going down, and the air was icy. We got everything prepared before heading outside, so we only had to drop our towels on a bench and take off our shoes before getting straight into the warm water.
As we expected, going on a weekend afternoon to the most popular bath in the city meant it was packed. We swam around a bit looking for a seat or a place on the wall where we could relax but couldn’t find anything. Eventually, we found a nice spot in the middle of the pool where we could just enjoy the hot thermal springs. After fifteen minutes of this, a place opened up on the wall next to us and we moved, inching closer to the hot water jets that were the most sought after place in the pool. After another ten minutes relaxing at the wall, the lady next to us moved, and I took up position in front of the jet. It was pumping hot water out at a rate that was perfect to massage my back and legs that were sore from nearly a month of travelling. It was too intense for Millie, but I made the most of that jet, and when we finally left the pool, I was relaxed and nearly ready for bed.
Szenchenyi Thermal Baths at dusk
We took some time at the hotel to shower, relax and get changed, but we had to head back out after not too long to get dinner. We were feeling like something more casual this night and decided on a little alleyway filled with food trucks near where we ate the night before. I had seen a few trucks and restaurants selling langos (Hungarian pizza type dish served on fried dough), and I couldn’t resist this for dinner. Budapest food had been a bit disappointing up to this point, but we had just been eating at the touristy places and missing out on the authentic Hungarian dishes. My lango was delicious, and Millie had a goulash that was also better than any of the restaurants we’d been to.
Budapest is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen with it’s castles and buildings, especially when it’s all lit up at night, but there were so many tourist traps like the thermal baths that were excessively expensive in a relatively cheap nation. We were mostly caught up on the tourist trail here, and it felt closer to Amsterdam than Prague or Vienna, but there is also a lot of rich culture that’s just a bit harder to find. We did our experience and it was a relatively nice tourist trail, but I’m frustrated that we couldn’t find more opportunities to see and experience the unique Hungarian culture.
