Day Trip to Szentendre

I have been living in Budapest for almost a year now and in this entire time I have never set foot outside of Budapest. No I don’t mean that I haven’t set foot outside of the country, I mean that I haven’t set foot outside of Budapest. If I had the time, I would travel abroad and make sure of the cheap flights. However given that it's summer now, cheap flights aren’t really much of an option; traveling abroad is a tad bit expensive and well I thought I should really start exploring Hungary.

After all I'm living here and it's really time that I expand my horizons in regards to this country. So this is how it started. I work for the international organization in my university and we planned to help out the students that come to Budapest for their summer practice. We schedule outings with them and generally mentor them if they need our help. This Saturday we decided to plan a day trip to Szentendre.

Szentendre is this little, picturesque town along the bank of Danube river. It often serves as a city getaway for us Budapestians. It is easily accessible by car and the regional railway. A lot of people bring out their bicycles and cycle in the cobbled streets of Szentendre. You can enjoy some authentic Hungarian food or stroll around the colorful streets of this town. We’ll go through everything and explore the city together but first let’s see how we can get there.

How to go to Szentendre from Budapest:

You can of course go by car. It is about a 25 minute drive away from Budapest and parking is quite easily found in Szentendre itself. My friends have sometimes driven there all the way.

You can also take the regional train (HEV) to Szentendre. It's actually very easy and convenient. If you have a monthly pass in Budapest you can board the train and ask the conductor to update your ticket to Szentendre’s ticket at the cost of 155 forints per way. You can also purchase this extra ticket in the ticket machines. I think the latter is easier so you wouldn’t have to search for the conductor in the train.

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The journey takes about 40 minutes from Budapest. You have to get on the train from Battyany ter metro station, and get the H5 regional train. The last stop is the city of Szentendre. I don’t know how frequently the trains come during the weekend but during the week it comes every 10 minutes.

What’s there to do in Szentendre?

That’s a very good question. I usually would know the answer to those type of questions before I actually head to a city. I check out the famous sights, the best restaurants and generally have an idea of what’s going on. This time due to my schedule, I couldn’t check out anything about Szentendre and I just thought to myself that we’ll figure it out as we go.

So we got on the train and reached there by around 5:30 pm. I searched for the main square of the city and we started to walk towards there. It was a 10 minute walk. There was a Szentendre map at the beginning of the road and we took a look at it. There are so many little museums in Szentendre but we preferred to just explore the town.

Every building or shop was worth stopping and taking a look at. They were all so colorful and it reminded me of Prague a little bit. We went up to the main square, took a bunch of pictures with those little cafés and the overhead colorful umbrellas. They aren’t actually umbrellas but I don’t know the exact name so that’s what we’re gonna call it.

We then sat by the Danube bank for a little while and enjoyed the majestic view. We then headed down to the main square again and sat in a little café. For the sake of this article being complete I'm going to include all the good museums there, so you guys can make up your mind on which ones to go to.

Open Air Museum in Szentendre:

Address: Sztaravodai ut., Szentendre 2001, Hungary

The Open Air museum which is located about 3 Kms from the center of Szentendre itself demonstrates the structural constructions of different Hungarian regions. There basically seven different sorts of “villages” and each demonstrate the typical life in these regions.

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This museum is a really great opportunity to learn more about the Hungarian culture and the different areas of Hungary. I personally think that I could even use some of this education, unfortunately we didn’t get to visit the museum ourselves but I will attach the details for those of you interested to learn more about this country and culture.

There is an outdoor and indoor part to the museum. The outdoor part displays the “villages” and the indoor part holds various exhibitions of contemporary art from various Hungarian artists.

I personally consider this museum the most unique one out of all the other museums in Szentendre. So if you’re trying to pick one, I’d say pick this one.

Marzipan Museum:

Address: Szentendre, Dumtsa Jenő u. 14, 2000

I'm definitely not the biggest marzipan fan there is. I don’t like the taste of it but I do enjoy the way that bakers and confectioners are able to manipulate it and create wonderful pieces of art. It's truly interesting to see how much can be made with it and it kinda revolutionized the cake industry.

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That’s the basis of the Marzipan Museum as well. It has many small and large pieces made entirely out of Marzipan. The most notable figurine in the entire museum is probably that of the Hungarian parliament, created with such intensity and detail that I wonder how much time it must have taken the artists to make it.

The first floor of the building is dedicated to the art and on the ground floor all the pastries can be purchases along with some other traditional Hungarian products.

Margit Kovacs Museum:

Address: Vastagh György u. 1, 2000, Szentendre, Hungary

The Museum is of course named after the late artist Margit Kovacs. The collection consists of clay pieces such as pots and various other artifacts. If you are interested in this type of art be sure to visit the museum.

Hope you enjoy this article. I know I enjoyed our trip to Szentendre.

Cheers!

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