A long weekend in Budapest

A long weekend in Budapest:

With a Friday off work, and therefore a prolonged weekend, I decided to go to Budapest for a few days with a friend. To get there from Belgium, I went with Ryanair. The flight wasn’t expensive, and even less so since I didn’t take any luggage.

I went from Charleroi airport. Arriving at Budapest airport, it was easy to get to the city centre. All you have to do is take the bus, from in front of the airport (the 200 or the 29, perhaps there are more) towards Kóbánya-Kispset (which seems to be the terminus): it’s a metro station. It’s the metro that links to the city centre. A lot of people get off here so even if it’s not the terminus, you can’t really get it wrong. Then you take the metro (line 3, blue) to Ferenciek Ter or another city centre stop. The ticket that you buy on the bus is valid for the bus and the metro too!

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Where to stay?

I personally stayed in a hostel called “Ginkgo Hostel” located in the centre at the Ferenciek Ter metro station. This is a really good hostel. It was about 20 euros per night, there were several communal bathrooms, a common area where you could eat or have breakfast for two or three euros and a little kitchen. It was very well located. The rooms were big and well decorated with paintings and frames. The people were really nice, they spoke English and Spanish. What’s more, there were plenty of flyers for the clubs, bars and places to see. The hostel was about fifteen to twenty minutes from the spot where the bars are (the area is called Szimpla).

The bars that I recommend:

Szimpla: It’s a huge bar, really, more of a warehouse converted into a bar. There are about three or four rooms in a row. In each compartment, there are one or two bars: for cocktails or for beer. There is also a snack bar at the entrance on the left where you can get slices of pizza for two euros, chilli… There was chilli con carne one night when I went, it was very spicy! Sensitive palates stay away!

All of the sections of the café are decorated differently. There are corners with, as a form of decoration, computer cables, old televisions, screens… Other nooks resemble an unloved factory, or some give the impression of being an outside garden… There was a snack-bar upstairs where you could ask for sandwiches. The music was nice but not really for dancing. It is located on the street Kertész Utca 48, near to Terez Korut street.

There are other nice bars on the same street, one of which is just before Szimpla. It’s a small, narrow bar that is decorated with elements from different countries. The only issue is that people smoke in some bars.

What did I see that I would recommend?

A market that is next to the big bridge, Magyarország Street, just next to the Szabadság bridge. It’s an indoor market where you can eat Hungarian specialities like certain pastries, or buy paprika (a Hungarian speciality made from peppers) or other delicacies.

The aforementioned bridge, which is large and pretty, is made from greenish iron. It gives a great view of the river and of the two parts of the city: Buda and Pest. If you cross it, you arrive at a sort of fortress with a cave that you can visit. It’s interesting and pretty. I took the audio-guide. What they tell you isn’t anything extraordinary, it’s mostly religious comments and a description of the objects that are in the cave. Nothing about the legends and stories that I remember…

You can then return to the other side by crossing the second large bridge that has statues of lions. That way you’ll arrive near to the square with the Saint Etienne Church. The facades of the houses are breath-taking. The city is magnificent and gives the impression of travelling through centuries as you walk around it. In the end, I didn’t do many trips but you can appreciate a good part of the history doing nothing but walking. The Jewish District is also on this side of the city.

Personally, I did a guided tour of the city, which was free. It was really great and I recommend it, it’s an organisation that does guided tours of several European cities.

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The baths:

The baths that I went to are called "Szechenyi". There is a castle and a park close by. You can go into the outer walls of the castle, which are pretty. I think you can visit it too. At the baths, you should ask for communal lockers so it’s less expensive. It’s the metro line 1 that takes you there. The exit of the metro leads to quite a large square/roundabout with an arch and statues of men on horseback. Now, there are other baths in the city that are closer to the centre and exclusively for women, it’s more expensive but also more classy... It’s your choice.

Either way, those where I was had several pools: two or three outside, heated, and several inside baths. It’s a former palace or something like that. It’s enough to say that the décor is breath-taking, especially as night falls. I know that there’s a system with two types of tickets: one allows access until 8pm and the other only until 6pm, and the strange thing is that both are the same price! Don’t get it wrong and make sure you ask for the one that allows you to stay there later. In the inside baths there are hot and cold areas. For me, it’s a shame that there is neither a hammam nor a sauna. In reality there are some, they are under the stairs that lead outside. You’ve got to find them. The only problem with these baths is that, in my opinion, the fact that you’ve got to get out of the water to get to the outdoor pools. It’s only a problem in winter. When it comes to stumbling to your sandals and running to the interior pools, the cold hits you. It’s therefore better to think about taking a dressing gown or go when it’s a little warmer. I don’t remember the price but it must be around 10 euros to enter, which isn’t too much.

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A great little restaurant:

Madachn Irme Ut or Kiraly Utca (the following street), if I remember rightly. It’s just after the synagogue, one of the streets perpendicular and close to the hotel that I recommended above. It’s next to a touristy restaurant where the menus are written in English. The window is yellow and has “pizza” written on the glass (which are in fact Hungarian pizzas, not Italian ones). There is a local sweet white wine that you really must try and the Hungarian specialities with paprika! It was delicious!