We arrived in Budapest on Saturday and it is awesome!! We are already loving this cool, beautiful city. We've got a week here before heading to Prague and rolled into town without too much of an idea of what to expect.
I have been to Budapest before - circa 2001 - for a weekend but have incredibly poor memories of the trip - no, not because I was drunk the whole time... I just don't think the city left much of an impression. Were there not photographic evidence I would be tempted to believe I just had a really vivid dream about Budapest!
But before we get into our new adventures, a quick recap.
Farewell Munich
On our last day in Munich, Phil, Joelle and I finally got ourselves on the bikes and rode to not one but two castles!! All credit to Klaus and Cornelia who not only lent us their bikes, but cleaned and oiled them up for us!! We were lucky in getting a gorgeous day for riding.
Castle #1 - Schloss Blutenburg
Castle #2 - Schloss Nymphenburg
There were swans, 14th century castles and kitschy souvenirs - bliss...
After a final farewell dinner, we headed to the train station for my first ever night train to Budapest!!
Night train
We had an awesome three sleeper room which was basically a triple bunk with a (free) mini bar with water - still and sparkling - orange juice and some awesome packaged croissants which no one was brave enough to try...
Our cozy sleeper carriage
Minibar!!!
First impressions
After a wonderfully peaceful night of sleep (perhaps a slight exaggeration) we arrived in Budapest at the Keleti station... at 9am. We rented an apartment through airbnb which looked great, but a check in at 5pm.
The plan was to walk slowly from Keleti station to our apartment (about 5km) with our bags, grab some breakfast on the way and scope out the neighbourhood.
Budapest Keleti station is not the most savoury introduction to the city. The station itself is a touch dilapidated and both it and the surrounding streets seemed full of men - many in groups on bachelor weekends - drinking or drunk. At 9am.
But the seedy introduction didn't last... As soon as we made it a few blocks away from the station, the city revealed itself... to be absolutely gorgeous.
Beautiful Budapest
Huge, open streets, beautiful buildings lining the streets, green parks and stunning cathedrals. The city is divided by the Danube river into Buda and Pest Our neighbourhood is on the Pest side of the city a block in from the Danube and next to Parliament House (which is so huge it's hard to get a pic that does it justice).
Impressively large, no?
Parliament... apparently based on Westminster
We spent our first afternoon wandering by the Danube in the sun and then went to check out one of the famed ruin pubs - pubs that have opened in the last 10-15 years in Budapest's deserted buildings.
This is Szimpla Kert - the most famous of the lot. There was some sort of bike courier tournament going on, so the place was full of patrons in Lycra and carrying fixies - a touch surreal...
Since then, we've hit a flea market in the city park filled with clothes, LPs and soviet era badges, shopped in some vintage stores, visited Magrit Island - a huge park with a mini zoo, and of course checked out a couple more ruin pubs.
The term "ruin pub" seems to have a very wide application. Most of them are located in the old Jewish quarter of Budapest, but most don't have any Jewish connection. One of them - Mazel Tov - was reported as having Jewish influences... and a hommus based kitchen!! So we headed down to check it out. It was gorgeous! There was nothing "ruinous" about it - beautiful fit out, delicious hummus plate, great service aaannd in addition to selling tshits, they sell souvenir kippas*.
There's so much going on here, I could easily spend a month just hitting the main attractions!!
The Spring festival is on and a couple of city squares near us have opened markets with Hungarians handicrafts and delicacies. The cakes looked spectacular, but I wasn't too sure about this dish:
Not sure if made with actual rooster testes...
So pretty...
Today's agenda includes a visit to the spectacular Buda Castle. Here's an awesome pic of Phil holding Ronald Reagan's hand, just for you:
*Jewish skull cap worn by religious Jewish men at all times and are required for men in a synogogue.
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