Posted By John Anderson on 13, Sep, 2014 | 2 comments

11-13 Sept – Budapest Hungary

A 2.5hour train journey gets you from Vienna to Budapest. Once again the changes between the two cities are striking. Almost immediately we are targeted by a spruiker wanting to change our currency. I tried telling him no but he kept at me so I gave him our remaining Euro which came back as a wad of Hungarian Forints (HUF). While we stood in queue for the money changing booth the rates didn’t look that good. My mate the spruiker had a better rate so I converted $AU100 for 20,000 HUF and then we made our way to the new underground. Bought some 24 hour tickets, stowed our bags at the station until check in time and headed off to explore Budapest.

Jelly has done a great job to secure us an apartment on the Pest side of the Danube – Buda being on the hilly/older other side. They sell grog everywhere here and its much cheaper! So it’s really a crime not to drink beer from lunchtime onwards. We check out the central market which is full of salami shops and butcher shops selling chicken and pork products. Plenty of Tokay on sale. Very colourful place but very busy. Lots of old buildings to see and bridges to walk across. We notice that Budapest has a very interesting assortment of manhole covers and bronzed statues, so we start photographing them.

That night we find a ‘traditional Hungarian restaurant’ in the heart of the tourist district.   Jelly had Chicken Paprika and I had the Beef Ragout with mustard and cucumber sauce. Nice stuff and washed down with the local beer. Some local guys were working the tables with their violins and guitars. They were fantastic. Unfortunately they were trying to flog their cd, but fortunately we got away with tipping them instead. But boy they really added to the atmosphere.

We discovered that bus tickets out of Budapest to Krakow were sold out for the Sunday morning so we had to book train tickets on the Saturday overnight instead. We thought it was probably a good idea to go to bed in Budapest and wake up in Krakow. Note to self: trains are not good places to sleep! Even with bunks we were kept awake most of the night with clickety clacks and constant braking. Still, it was something to experience.

This also meant we had to cram as much of Budapest in as we could. So we set about seeing the sites. These included those old palaces on the hills of Buda. Magnificent views are to be had from these vantage points. We walked around St Mathias church which was decorated art nouveau style and had coffee and goulash and lecho in cutout loaves of bread for lunch.

Later on we headed to the Gellert Spa for a soak in their spring fed hot pools. I think most of Budapest had the same idea as us. The place was busy, the staff not too friendly but the water was hot!   Leaving the spas we felt clean and relaxed. We headed to a restaurant recommended by Peter Pawinski and had an enjoyable local meal (with beer and followed by a glass of Tokay).   Cheap cab ride back to the flat and in bed for a good night sleep.

We discovered the local rent-a-bike in Budapest and I was amazed to see Jelly ride one. So we spent an hour cruising around on bikes. My feet were very grateful! Pest is very flat and the city has many bike paths. It was a highlight for me. I wish Hobart was flat!

Summary: I think you can see and do all you need to in 2-3 days. The public transport is good but the taxi’s are also fair – but make sure they turn the meter on.   The prices to get into the main venues are reasonable and the only hassle are the restaurant guys standing on the streets and the bus spruikers who want you to ride their tour bus’. But both are easy to deal with. Plenty of homeless people on the streets but avoiding eye contact means they leave you alone.   Apparently there are pickpockets about but tuck your belongings well away and you should be right. We never went into dark alleys or nightclubs in the evening night-time and steered clear of people that looked like gypsies (sorry to all the gypsies out there!). We are boring travellers who see the sites by day and are tucked up in bed – exhausted – by 10pm.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

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