City Park and it's attractions

Everyone says they’re waiting for summer but when summer is here they start to complain as soon as the weather becomes slightly hot and humid. This is what I don’t understand, how can you wait for something all year long and then complain once it gets here?

I personally adore summer and everything about it. It’s that one season that I feel like everything is possible and I'm free to do any sort of activity without any limits. I don’t know to me summer is liberation and the weather is just perfection. That’s why I have taken my time this summer to explore as many places within Budapest as I can and on today’s article I'm going to talk about my favorite parks in Budapest.

Budapest may not be the greenest capital I have encountered; it's nothing in comparison to cities like Berlin but we’ve got enough green space to get us by. This summer I have been to a lot of green spaces and parks so I could be in “nature” and frankly to just enjoy the good sunny days. I went to parks so I could jog, I went to parks just to take a walk and clear my mind, I went to parks so I could spend some quality time and on many other occasions.

Some of Budapest’s parks are truly mesmerizing and more so entertaining and in this article I shall take the courtesy of introducing these parks to you guys. Enjoy them while you can in this beautiful vibrant season but don’t worry if it’s possible they’re even more beautiful during the fall and all through the winter.

So let’s get right into and explore these beautiful green spaces.

  Varosliget

Varosliget means City Park in the Hungarian language and it is undoubtedly the best park in all of Budapest. It is located right next to the Heroes square and it’s way more than just green space and trees. Varosliget is home to the Vajdahunyad Castle. I’ll talk more about the castle later but what you guys should know is that in front of this castle there is a small lake which freezes in the winter and it transforms into one the largest and most majestic ice rinks in Europe. Going here was definitely the highlight of my winter, no doubt. See what I'm talking about, the park is beautiful during all the seasons. And during the summer you can rent out those pedaling boats and have a joyful afternoon with your loved ones. I've always wanted to go on these boats but my friends are such bummers and they keep cancelling it. I need new friends to be honest.

Now the Vajdahunyad castle is one of the rather romantic castles in all of Budapest and I definitely suggest going here either to have some drinks in the castle bar or just for an evening stroll.

But let’s see what it's got apart from romanticism. It was built more than 120 years ago in 1896; it is in fact a castle that is demonstrating different architectural styles that took over Hungary over the centuries. It has various architectural styles such as Romanesque, Gothic Renaissance and Baroque buildings. I honestly don’t know much about these architectural styles, I'm just repeating what I read off the internet. But if you’re into architecture I'm sure this would seem a lot more interesting to you.

Various conferences, festivals and concerts are held here every year, majority of them are related to Hungarian agriculture so I have never been notified of any event.

Now let’s talk about the opening hours and the tickets. The courts of the castle are always open and so you don’t require a ticket to wander around it. It is really aesthetically pleasing and I definitely suggest you guys to just take a walk around the courtyard and take some pictures.

Basically inside of the castle is home to the Hungarian Agricultural Museum, I have never been inside myself but if you guys are intrigued you should definitely go. These are the opening hours:

• Monday: Closed (all year)
• Tuesday – Friday: 10 am – 4 pm (1 November – 31 March), 10 am – 5 pm (April 1 – October 31)
• Saturday – Sunday: 10 am – 5 pm

As for the tickets, this is how much it costs:

• Tickets for Adults: HUF 1,600
• Tickets for Students / Seniors: HUF 800
• Wedding Photo Ticket to the Museum: HUF 10,000

The wedding photo section is so tempting, I mean not for me because well you know I'm living the single life but for those aspiring couples. I definitely think this is an option worth exploring.

You can find out more about this castle and the facilities it offers on their website which I will attach below

Website: http://www.vajdahunyadcastle.com

Back to Varosliget, apart from the lake and the castle, it still has a lot to offer, I mean after all it is over 300 acres. So what else is located here?

Well we’ve got the Botanical gardens, the palace of art, Museum of fine arts and even the Szechenyi Medicinal baths are located here. There are other landmarks and buildings but I'm only mentioning the ones that are more fascinating.

As opposed to Iran that I went to all the museums that I could find, I haven’t been to a single museum ever since I moved to Hungary and that is a real shame for sure. But the cool thing about this museum is that it is closed for renovations and it is expected to open by the end of October. I'm saying cool thing because now I don’t have to feel guilty about not visiting it until now.

The museum of fine arts in Hungary contains more than 100,000 pieces which isn’t only compromised of Hungarian art but other European arts too. It is made up of 6 sections, Egyptian, Antique, Old sculpture gallery, Old master paintings gallery, Modern collection, Graphics collection

As for the Szechnyi Baths, I have written quite a bit about it in another article which is worth to check out here: https://bit.ly/2MpbaP2

The Szechenyi thermal bath is apparently one of the largest bath complexes in Europe and it is certainly my favorite thermal bath out of the list. I like it the most because it's so large and spacious that it doesn’t matter how crowded it gets. You can still enjoy it. this thermal bath has 21 pools!! That’s insane.

 would say the tickets are kinda expensive, if I'm not mistaken it's about 5700 forints for a day ticket which is like less than 20 Euros. Again this isn’t too much for a tourist but for a student, it’s certainly a little expensive.

The szechenyi bath is one of the oldest thermal baths here in Budapest and it also provides a lot of other services such as massages, pedicures and even mud massages. The prices are more expensive that outside venues and I have never tried them so I’ve got no opinions.

If you want my advice, go early! If you want to take the day ticket, be there before 9 am that’s when the queue is the smallest. You’ll be in the queue for a shorter time and have more time in the thermal bath itself. If you want to buy the evening ticket, then be there way earlier than 7 pm. I have never been there for the evening shift but I know that it can get crowded more so in the summer and hence you’ll have even less time in the pool. I went here during a weekday, it was a Wednesday if I'm not mistaken and it wasn’t so crowded, but of course this was before this crazy touristy season. Oh also take something with you to eat, everything is so expensive there that it’s much better to not buy anything in there.

I have attached the website and you guys can go and check out the prices. It even gives a detailed description of the pools with their water temperature.

So that’s about the thermal baths, let’s take a look at the botanical gardens. Well technically it is a zoo and a botanical garden. I absolutely despise going to the zoo and so I have never been here. But this zoo is a record breaker since it is the oldest zoo in Hungary and one of the oldest zoos in the world. The interesting and rather unusual thing is that this zoo is in the middle of the city and so it is easily accessible via public transport. You can take the metro line M1 and get off at “Hosok Tere” which is Heroes square.

There are about 1000 species in this zoo which is quite fascinating. The zoo itself was constructed back in 1802 !! I know that’s more than 200 years ago. The zoo was maintained for more than 90 years before going bankrupt in 1896. It was then auctioned and renovated by 1912. That’s when the botanical gardens were created as well.

The development of the zoo unfortunately coincided with the First World War which halted the development of the zoo. Even more unfortunately the Zoo was completely destroyed during the Second World War. What struck me was that during the Budapest siege most of the animals were eaten by the starving people! From the 2000 species in the zoo only 15 survived.

After the war the zoo slowly and steadily started to thrive again. The still stands today and is more than happy to welcome visitors. The tickets cost about 3000 Forints for adults and 2000 Forints for children between the ages 2 to 14. I think they accept ISIC cards as well but I'm not sure if regular student cards are accepted. I will attach the website so you guys can acquire more details

If you have a Budapest Card you are entitled to another 25% discount on your ticket. I’ll write  a short explanation of Budapest Card.

You another option of purchasing a “Budapest Card”, which is basically a card that includes discounts to various attractions; I have never purchased this card and so I can’t tell you whether or not to buy this. When you purchase the Budapest card, you can use the public transportation for free and get discounts for up to 21 attractions.

The tickets cost 6,490 Forints for 25 hours and 12,990. The prices are quite high but if you plan on going to majority of these attractions they could be worth it.

For more information check out: www.budapestcards.com

Website: http://www.zoobudapest.com

The opening hours differ in summer and winter. In summer they are open from 9 am to 7 pm but in winter they are only open from 9 am to 4 pm. I really suggest checking out their opening hours before heading out there.

I think this pretty much sums up the entire Varosliget territory. I know there are a lot of activities to be done here but sometimes my favorite one is sitting in front of the lake overlooking vajhunyad castle and having conversations with my friends. The truth is, those moments were the most unforgettable ones. Sitting there pouring our hearts out to each other and enjoying the presence. I gotta gather my friends so we can have one more night like that together before the summer ends.