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This was my second trip to Budapest. I was here last in 1998 visiting my cousin who was working as a photojournalist for the Budapest Business Journal. It was a different experience but I still had the same feelings about this city.
On arriving, I felt quite at ease with everything. We had a very smooth arrival. The metro was easy to work out and our AirBnB digs were great! We headed out for a meal on Vaci street and had some beautiful Hungarian food and were serenaded by a gypsy violinist.
The next day we set out to explore the Buda Castle district. Budapest is one of those great cities that is great for pedestrians with almost everything within walking distance. When you don’t feel like walking there is always the train.
I think John and I both had museum fatigue from Vienna so we kept the exploring to the outsides of buildings and really soaked in the views. One notable exception to this was that we did go into St Mattias Church. I LOVE St Mattias for its art nouveau decoration. The church has been restored since my last visit and looks incredible. Afterwards we went down to the free part of the Fisherman’s Bastion and took photos of the magnificent Parliament building. Budapest is taking a leaf out of Vienna’s book by charging for everything – last time I was here both the Fisherman’s Bastion and St Mattias were free. I have also noticed that there are more tourists as well. Hmmmmm.
In the afternoon, we went to the Gellert Spa. The spa was someplace I’ve always wanted to go. Warm thermal pools, art nouveau decoration coupled with rest for sore muscles was just what I needed. The experience was not what I’d hoped. What went wrong? Hungarian customer service or lack thereof. This spa is a huge tourist attraction yet it is hopelessly disorganised and the customer service people could not be more abrupt. It’s like a maze trying to find your changing cabin and then you go into the women’s bathing area only to be surrounded by men! It turns out that all areas are mixed….someone just forgot to replace the signs. Anyhow, despite the hiccups in service and signage the water was very warm and relaxing.
We had dinner at Lanchid Sorozo, one of my cousin Pete’s favourite watering holes. It was one of the best meals we had on the trip so far and the staff made a special flambé for us using their local rocket fuel.
On our last day we ventured out into Pest which is the newer side of town. We looked at shops, had coffee and decided to catch the metro to Hosok Tere – Heroe’s Square. We got on the metro without a ticket (couldn’t find a ticket booth anywhere!!!). Hungarian ticket inspectors are notoriously ruthless at doling out large fines for joyriders like us. My palms were sweaty as we arrived at the station and then I saw her…the ticket inspector. I said “aw fuck!” as I left the train and and just swanned on past her with purpose, never looking her in the eye until I got to freedom above ground. I gained a few grey hairs!
Hosok Tere was impressive with its statues of Hungarian heroes of yore. We absentmindedly stumbled into city park where there was a traditional market of local food and craft. This was a huge highlight for me! We even saw a performance/parade of traditionally dressed Hungarians.
Not wanting to face the wrath of the ticket inspector, we decided to rent bikes. Hungary has this great system for tourists ( and I assume locals ) where you can rent a bike from a vending machine and return them at any rental point in the city. Hadn’t ridden a bike in over 20 years! I was shaky at first and then it was great fun. I even rode in traffic on Andrassy Avenue. Might have to try it again sometime soon!
Unfortunately, due to a lack of planning on my part we had to cut our stay short by one night. (The bus we wanted to take to Krakow was full so we had to take the overnight train which left the night before).
I really enjoyed my stay and fell in love with Budapest all over again.
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