Breaking into Budapest
I was sitting on a boat moored to the side of the Danube, in the cosy atmosphere of a jazz band and the local dessert, watching the beautiful lights of the castle and bridges shining out of the darkness and shimmering on the water. That was Budapest.
Hungary is a land-locked country stuck on the borders between east- and western Europe, a part of the European Union but not yet using Euro dollars. I still don’t know why we chose it as our destination, but the 50 quid tickets to Budapest could have been a start…boy, I’m glad we went though.
Because I had no expectations of Budapest I was wildly surprised with what I found. I went with Anna, one of my bestest high school friends who has come over to London for a bit of adventure. We gallavanted around London last weekend with Lija, and then took off for Budapest on Tuesday afternoon.
I give many kudos to Easyjet, who made our trip pleasant and enjoyable at both ends – I am officially never flying Ryanair again. We went through Gatwick airport which has really good duty free and resulted in me spending a whole heap of money before we’d even taken off. Landing in Budapest was strange but exciting. Where in Germany or France, or even Spain I have a basic understanding of the languages but Hungarian is said to be one of the most difficult languages you can learn. I think they were right there. It took me several days to wonder why people were squeaking at me when I approaced them, until I realised it was their pronounciation of the word for hello “Skia”. I did attempt Thank you “Kosunum” (with umlouts) several times but I think I was laughed at – one woman said no, we speak in your language. Okay, so I know I was bad but really! Ah well, so long as I smiled sweetly when I was asking questions I got a smile back.
So need I remind you, it was zero degrees upon landing in Budapest, but it was less than an hour to get to the city by public transport so we hopped on the local bus which took us to the end of the metro, and hopped on that into the city. Our hostel 7×24 Central really is in central Budapest, but we were just getting our bearings when a kind stranger offered to point us in the right direction – just across the main road and onto the side street. We were also five levels up so we got none of the road noise but all of the perks in being centrally located. Our hostess was lovely with very basic English but she showed us everything and then took us into the kitchen and poured two shots of Palinka, a fruit spirit native to Hungary that comes in flavours like apricot and cherry – we had peach. Well, I should say I had peach. Agi said to us – the national drink, complimentary. So I said Cheers, and downed it. Anna kind of said, uh, I haven’t eaten yet, I’ll save it for later (she didn’t, I ended up having that one too!)
We just found a local restaurant for dinner and had an early night. Anna wasn’t coping too well with the jet lag from Oz, as she came over the day after she finished exams, without much preparation. We were enjoying the hostel as well though, it is only small with five rooms, a great lounge with computers and a nice clean kitchen. Plus, it’s good to be well rested for the next day 🙂
We wanted to start with a walking tour but got lost on the way, so we jumped on a bus tour and went around all of the major landmarks to get an idea of what exactly Budapest comprises of, how to get around, and where we’d like to go back to. We found a nice place for lunch and then wandered up Andrassy Avenue, which is a World Heritage Site. It has these amazing old houses, and many different museums, like the House of Terror (Nazi meeting place), and the Budapest Opera House. By the time we walked back down to Deak ter it was dark, so I left Anna at the hostel to rest her jetlag, and wandered down to the River Danube where I found a jazz club on a boat. I had to pay a few pounds to listen to the jazz, and I also (skipped dinner and) went straight to dessert – the local Hungarian sponge cake with rum and walnuts, and a cuppaccino.
What I haven’t mentioned is that Budapest is split into two halves, the middle line being the Danube River. One side is the Pest side, where the main part of the city and nightlife is, as well as Heroe’s Square and Andrassy Avenue. The other side is the Buda side, where the Budapest Castle and old town sits on top of a hill. We walked across the bridge and took the funicular up the hill, just in time to see the changing of the guards. We wandered around the palace grounds, the palace itself has been turned into several different museums, all of which you have to pay entrance fees to. We walked along through the old town and also came across the Fisherman’s Bastion, a fortress that was named as such because the fishermen helped defend this part of the wall, and the fishermen used to have a market in the area to sell their wares.
We walked down the other side of the hill, nearly got blown off Chain Bridge, and took the tram down to the end of Fashion Street, called such because it’s where most of the retail shops like M & S, C & M, H & M, and all the regular Euro shops are. But we were heading for the opposite direction, where the Central Budapest Markets were. I didn’t mind them, but they certainly weren’t on the same par as some of the Spanish markets we’ve been to. We did get some salami, cheese, bread, pate, and pickled vegetables, and took them back to the hostel to feast on.
It was sort of lunner – not quite lunch, not quite dinner, because we were going to the Opera House. The cheapest tickets are the equivalent of three pounds and they are at the very top (fifth) floor to one side – but you know what, we could see the majority of the show, and we also had a great view of the orchestra, which I enjoy looking at as well. You can’t do that sitting on the bottom floor.
We went to see La Bayadere, or The Temple Dancer, a Russian ballet. It was beautiful, performed in three acts with up to 30 tu-tu-ed prima ballerinas dancing in sync across the stage to the amazing orchestra hiding in the pit below.
This Opera House is unique to many others I’ve seen as all of the seating, above the ground floor but not including the gallery where we were, were boxes. So basically everyone has their own box of several seats on the first, second, and third floors all the way around. We found a cosy cafe for dessert (who needs dinner?!) and then headed home for our last day.
We walked all the way up Andrassy Avenue to Heroes Square this morning, and had a wander around the Museum of Fine Arts for a few hours. We had a really nice lunch overlooking the lake central to the area, which was steaming from the cold but looked beautiful. I questioned whether one of the ducks from the lake had ended up on my plate, but really didn’t mind because my meal was amazing – duck with seasonal red berries and potato dumplings.
Of course we waited, or walked slowly to the thermal baths before going in, but the 34 degree water in the outdoor pools (with 4 degrees in the atmosphere) meant we were pretty quick to jump in once we had our togs on. Did she pack her bathers? You ask. Hello, I knew it would be freazing in Budapest, but yes, they are an essential item that make it in no matter what – and luckily too! So we cold-footed it into the pools, already teeming with young couples, oldies with hilarious shower caps on their heads, and even a few well-behaved children.
I sat under the water jet letting it massage my back, and floated along in the spinning whirlpool, and even ran into the big colder pool to re-adjust my temperature. We pruned up really fast, but we stayed in for over an hour before we had to make a move. They have masses of change rooms, lockers and hairdryers inside the building, so we were set to go very shortly after getting out. The only problem was that the rain began to pour, really hard, and we had to walk fast through most of the park area before we could get to the closest underground station (did you know that although London was the first to have an underground, Budapest was the second!)
All week carpenters had been in Vorosmarty ter (square) building the Christmas markets, and this night we were lucky enough to experience them in full force – without hesitation I ordered a frankfurt with mustard, and we saw some gorgeous gifts, and they had a few entertainers doing different things. It was great, although we were on our way to the airport so we had our bags in tow and couldn’t stay that long.
I kind of forgot we were coming back via Luton instead of Gatwick, which wasn’t a problem – I just forgot the best way to get home! Luckily immigration was taking forever so I gave Lija a call and asked her to look it up. Although the UK/Euro passport line was three times as long I still got through before Anna because they were practically interogating all the non-European passport holders. But we were able to get through and catch the bus to Baker St, which is one tube stop from me, and two from Anna’s hotel.
It really was a great milestone for my 20th country, and I hope Anna had just as much fun even though she had to put up with me dragging her all over the place. But hey, that’s what it’s all about!
Tags: Travel
marzipan_mad
Leave a Reply