Budapest, Hungary. (Nov 22)
Another budget flight took us to the twin city of Budapest where some of our best finds came about by complete accident, like walking into a bar on the Buda side of the Danube river and finding a group of locals singing Hungarian revolutionary folk songs, or stumbling across a subterranean bar in central Pest, with an Italian classical guitarist knocking out a wide range of songs from AC/DC to more traditional classical and folk.
We spent afternoons strolling along the river, evenings in the lively ruin bars (including the most famous one – Szimpla), listened to a classical music concert in St. Stephen’s Basilica and visited lots of amazing buildings including Europe’s largest synagogue. The week ended with a relaxing pamper day at one of the many spas and Turkish baths.
Emma became a fully fledged “digital nomad” for the week – with phone, laptop, WiFi and 4G at the ready for meetings she needed to attend 😇. And I simply took advantage of the freedom in my new job. Of course we did the trip on a budget again, cheap flights for under £30 and even better value accommodation!
We couldn’t help but become fully immersed in the complex, emotionally charged and conflicted history of the region. Everywhere you look there are reminders of the past – from the genocidal horrors meted out on the local population by the Hungarian Nazi ‘Arrow Cross’ party during the latter stages of WWII, to the impact of decades of Communist occupation, not to mention the brutality of the crushed rebellion of ‘56. Evidence of the turbulent past is everywhere – albeit with the occasional clumsy attempt to rewrite history!
But for now, this is most definitely also a “party” city – and after a week, it is time to come home for a detox!
We took the public bus from the airport, which cost only a small fraction of a taxi fare. It took us pretty close to our room for the week, a cosy studio apartment on the Buda side of the twin city in between the castle and Freedom Monument. We downloaded the local public bus app (BudapestGO) which gave us tickets for about 70p a journey but as our apartment was within walking distance of most places we wanted to visit, we mainly used up shoe leather. The cost of everything here is ridiculously low, we found restaurants that only added on £5 for a bottle of wine! Indeed it’s not difficult to enjoy a decent meal out including drinks for less than a tenner.
We took our time seeing the sights on both sides of the Danube, there are far too many amazing places to mention in turn, but I’ve posted a few pictures of the main highlights.
This place really comes alive at night with DJ sets and bars built into the multiple floors of pubs set into in the old ruins (let’s just NOT mention fire safety standards 🙄). There are restaurants here at every turn and all the things you’d expect in a city and more. God only knows how I’ve taken so long to pay this place a visit!