Budapest, Hungary. Different language, different currency. Though part of the EU, Hungary uses the forint as its currency, which meant having to adjust our math to try and figure out the price of things on the fly. And the language (also phonetic) is nothing like any other language around, so we didn’t even bother figuring out pronunciation, although of course we learned “good day” and “thank you”.
Our Budapest lodging was probably the coolest of them all. It was a walk-up… 91 steps up! It was just off Fashion Street in the heart of the old city.
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| Our neighbourhood |
A lot of things were walkable, but we also bought 3-day transit passes so we could use public transit with ease. Well, sort of with ease. You still had to scan a QR code with your phone app every time you jumped on a bus or tram, but that was a minor inconvenience.
Budapest is cut in half by the Danube River, with hilly Buda to the west and flat Pest to the east. Buda is the quieter side and contains the medieval Buda Castle. Pest is urban and lively, with most of the attractions. If you want to see both, just hang out on the river! (More on that in a minute.)
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| Buda on the right, Pest on the left. |
St. Stephen’s Basilica is an impressive cathedral. It was built in the latter half of the 1800s and is named after the first king of Hungary from a thousand years ago. We stopped in to see this monstrous place, which boasts a cool relic: the shrivelled right hand of King (Saint) Stephen himself.
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| Impressive ceiling |
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| Creepy hand somewhere in there |
Nearby is the largest building in the country, the Hungarian Parliament Building. We didn’t venture inside, but rather enjoyed the exterior for free, both in daylight and at night.
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| A view of Parliament from across the river |
Budapest’s Jewish Quarter was also very close to our lodging. It was a fascinating neighbourhood to explore, with ruin bars, markets, and countless murals to take in.
Ruin bars are simply drinking establishments that were started (in modern times) in abandoned buildings, and the style sort of took off. We stumbled across one of prime examples of a ruin bar, Szimpla Kert, quite by accident and took some to enjoy a drink amongst its wild and random furniture and decor. It was super strange but awesome!
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| Ooh, a seedy entrance... let's go in! |
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| Braving the restroom... |
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| Hey, no dead bodies! |
The Budapest Ghetto was created inside the Jewish Quarter late in World War II, a sad piece of history. We stumbled across the markers of the ghetto boundary during our wanderings. Also in the quarter is the Dohany Street Synagogue, which is the largest synagogue in Europe. We were hoping to get inside to take a look, but they wanted an astronomical sum (over $50) so that didn’t happen.
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| Ghetto border |
After the graffiti of Zagreb, central Budapest (at least the areas we saw) presented itself as a pretty clean city. Notably absent were expensive vehicles, which I would have expected more of in a capital city.
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| Creative parking spots. Parallel parking is a necessary skill here. |
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| Uh, what? |
On the Buda side of the river, the prominent attraction is the Buda castle complex, the historical palace site of the Hungarian kings. The castle contains a large museum that we checked out, as well as a reconstruction of St. Stephen’s Room, considered an important representation of Hungarian history and culture, that was completely destroyed in World War II (like much of Budapest, from the sound of it) and finally reconstructed in the last decade.
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| Not too impressive up close |
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| A fountain, I think |
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| I feel safer already! |
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| Chapel |
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| St. Stephen's Hall |
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| Another body part relic in here. |
Also on Buda Castle hill is Matthias Church, another impressive Catholic monstrosity. We didn't go inside but checked out the architecture.
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| Nice views from there too |
Budapest has long been known for its thermal spas/baths, so of course we had to give that a try. There are the low-key local spots (authentic, quiet, perhaps drab) and there are the super touristy ones (busy, flashy, pricy). We opted for something in between.
Veli Bej is an old Turkish bath from Ottoman times five centuries ago; fortunately it’s been upgraded so you’re not just sitting around throwing water on hot rocks). It differs from some of the city’s baths in that it is indoor only and has both a low occupant limit and a time limit. They let maybe 80 people in, with a three-hour window. When we showed up it was full, so we got to take a number and wait for people in the spa to use up their three hours and leave. We waited for perhaps an hour before we could finally get in. It’s a pretty cool establishment; three hours was plenty of time to enjoy the various saunas and pools of varying temperatures.
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| Might as well nap while you wait. |
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| No cameras allowed, so I borrowed this photo. |
The next day, I had some pressing business to get out of the way, so Carrie and I headed off on our own, first heading to a photo shop to get passport photos taken, and then to a print shop to print off passport applications. We were thus as prepared as we could be for an embassy appointment that we’d booked for Prague. (It was Thanksgiving weekend so the Canadian embassy in Budapest was closed, and besides, you can’t just waltz up to a Canadian embassy and expect to be let in… lame, I know.)
We got our steps in, wandering the streets and taking in the sights. We checked out the Great Market Hall, which is but one of many markets and most probably the most expensive (touristy) one to buy trinkets or food. It’s an indoor market built in the late 1800s. Like a lot of buildings of note in Budapest, it was damaged in WW2 and sat derelict until the 1990s when the Iron Curtain was no more and the post-communism economy was revived.
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| Great Market Hall |
Café Gerbeaud is a famous confectionery in Budapest, so it was on our to-see list as well. It’s a prominent building with an opulent interior. What a classy place to have some nice cake!
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| Even the restrooms are fancy! |
After that, it was time for a night on the town! Well, the river! Well, only for an hour, but whatever. We signed up for a river cruise with bottomless drinks. As we waited at the pier for our 9pm ride, the boat was offloading the previous time slot’s revellers… and yikes! A pile of rowdy drunk young’uns disembarked, making us wonder what exactly we were getting ourselves into.
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| Our boat! |
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| Nice and empty. Most people were outside up on the (cold) deck. |
It turned out not to be too bad. Our boat wasn’t too full, and everyone was well behaved. We spent an hour cruising up and down the Danube, sipping our prosecco (or beer) and enjoying the lit-up cityscape. Nice and relaxing!
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| Matthias Church at night |
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| Parliament at night |
In the neighbourhood of our airbnb were some striking hotels, so we took the opportunity to pop in and admire the architecture.
And that was it for Budapest! A pretty decent city to visit, it turns out.
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| Széchenyi Chain Bridge |
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| Budapest, home of the Rubik's cube |
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| Traditional meal of lángos |
Our next destination was Prague, so the next morning we made our way to the train station and hopped onboard a Czech train. It left Budapest and headed west, crossing into Slovakia and then north toward the Czech Republic, coming within a couple hundred metres of Austria in the process. European countries are so reachable!
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| These two got suckered into buying the touristy chimney cake! |
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| Drinkin' in the dining car! |
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| Down, down, down to the subway |
