A weekend in Budapest

When you are on erasmus, you have to take advantage of your scholarship and the fact that every country has other neighboring countries, which you can visit without spending the fortune that you would spend if you would travel from your country.

In my case, living in Zagreb gave me the opportunity to be around the Balkans and travel around places that I hadn't been before. One of these experiences that I would like to share with you was my trip to Budapest; but let's start from the beginning.

Arranging a trip to Budapest

During my erasmus experience in Zagreb I met a lot of new people. Some seemed quite interesting to me and some not so much. Fortunately, I was lucky and all the people whom I found interesting became my friends.

So, when you meet new friends and you are all in a foreign country, what is better than organizing a journey to another country?

So, we decided to do the same. One week before Christmas, one of my friends from Greece was supposed to come and visit me. The cheapest way to come was to take a flight from Thessaloniki to Budapest and then a bus to Zagreb. However, the connection between the flight and the bus was not so good, so she would have to stay in Budapest for one day and a half.

It was also a good opportunity for me to visit the beautiful city of Budapest, so I decided to go there, find my friend and stay together for the weekend in Budapest. Then, come back together by bus to Zagreb.

Approximately one week before I was supposed to go to Budapest, I was out for beers with my friends. I started telling them about my friend and that I also decided to go to Budapest. They started thinking of the idea of coming with me, and renting a car to go there, so that we would be more comfortable.

After a couple of days they had already arranged everything to come with me. I was very happy because when you go for a journey, the more people, the better. So, they found a company to rent a car and also a flat that we could stay on air bnb.

The night before we were supposed to leave for Budapest, we decided to meet for a couple of beers and arrange some last details regarding to our trip: Our meeting was scheduled for Friday afternoon at 1 o'clock, outside a luxurious hotel close to the main railway station. Me and my flatmate woke up a bit earlier to have some breakfast and drink a coffee.

First day in Budapest: Friday

Arriving in Budapest

We took the tram and after 15 minutes we were at the meeting point. The others were already there waiting for us. So the moment we arrived, we went to pick up the car.

There were some complication with the whole rent-a-car procedure, so finally we had to pay more money than we were supposed to. The car that we rented was 7-seated, so our friend who organized the whole trip, found (through blabla car) two more guys to travel with us and split the cost of the gas.

The journey lasted almost five hours and in the evening we were finally in Budapest. We got lost a lot of times while trying to find how to get to the center of the city from the highway. After some time, we decided to park the car wherever we would find a spot and go to the center on foot.

So, we found a free space, parked the car and started heading to the center. On our way, we realized that we were very hungry, so we made a stop at a Chinese restaurant that we found on our way. The prices were very affordable, so we said to eat our dinner there.

I was not satisfied with my meal, because it was too sweet, but at least it was cheap and I didn't feel hungry anymore. After the dinner, we had to find our appartment because we had a meeting with the owner to give us the key.

The apartment

It didn't take us too long to find the appartment because it was located exactly in the city center. We waited and waited but no one showed up.

Then, one of our friends managed to contact with the owner and she said that she would be there in a while. After almost twenty minutes she finally arrived and opened the door to show us around the house. The strange thing was that to go into the appartment, you had to unlock three different doors before. Like a real fortress!

The appartment was huge and there was room for everyone to sleep. Also, even though outside it was cold, the temperature inside was like summer. You could wear a T-shirt and still feel warm.

The Christmas Market

So, we had a shower, changed clothes and decided to see the Christmas market that was located very near to our place. It was raining heavily, but there were lots of people sitting outside under the big umbrellas. Each one of us bought a glass of mulled wine and we sat under the umbrellas to drink it. We chatted a little bit and decided that we were very tired and the weather was very bad to just walk around and search for a bar. So, we found a bar close to the Christmas market and sat there for a beer.

At about midnight the owners told us that the bar would close in a while, so we wouldn't have time for a second beer. We payed the bill and went out to decide where to go next. Most of my friends wanted to go home to rest; so we all decided to buy some more beers from a 24 hour market under our apartment, hang out there and sleep early because we had a long day in front of us.

Second day in Budapest: Saturday

The reunion with my friend

The next day we woke up and had some breakfast. Then my friends made a plan of what sightseeing they wanted to do and I was supposed to go to the main bus station and find my friend.

I asked some of my friends who were in Budapest some time ago for information and I took the map with me so not to get lost. I found the metro station very easily and took the metro to go to the main bus station where I would wait my friend to arrive. She was supposed to come by plane and take the bus from the airport and meet me at the bus station.

Fortunately I was on time at the bus station, because there was no way of communication with my friend because she hadn't got a mobile phone with internet connection; and both of us had no money in our phones. I started to wait but the time was passing by and more and more buses were arriving and she wasn't inside any of them.

After almost two hours of waiting outside in the cold, I started to worry and decided to go inside a mall that was located there to buy a card to call her from a payphone. I went inside the mall and started to ask people but no one couldn't speak English. I found an information desk and asked the lady where I could find a payphone and a card. She told me that I could find the card from a kiosk that was located on the second floor of the mall, but I went upstairs and the kiosk was closed.

Then I went outside again and found a phone where you could make a call by putting change. I tried to call her a several times but there was no connection. I didn't know what to do and I was very worried that maybe something had happened to her, so I started wondering around in case she was in a wrong place waiting for me.

The moment I thought that I would never find her and I had to go back to find at least my other friends, I saw her walking around and was so relieved that we finally met each other.

We realized that we were both on time but just waiting at different stations. Then, we took the metro and headed to the city center to eat something and try to find the others.

We stopped at the Christmas market and waited in the line to buy some lunch. My friend bought grilled vegetables (they were soo tasty! ) and I bought "lagos", a traditional Hungarian dish (it was huge! ). We sat there to relax and enjoy our meal and tried to contact with the others. I wasn't able to contact with them, so we decided to go on our own and explore the city.

The walking tour around Budapest

First, I bought a glass of mulled wine to stop feeling the cold and then we started heading to the Danube river to see the view. It was less than one minute from the place where we were. Moreover, we found the statue of Little Princess and took a photo with the statue.

Then we started walking around the city and found the Opera. We went inside and took some photos at the hall where the entrance is for free. In the hall there was also a huge and beautiful Christmas tree.

A photo of my friend at the Christmas tree that was inside the Opera (We also took some photos outside the Opera, where there were more Christmas decorations. )

Later, we started searching for The Cathedral of St. Stephen's Basilica. It was located very close to the Opera, so it was not difficult to find it. Plus, there were lots of people outside taking photos; and we also took some photos. Then we went into the cathedral and saw people praying and lighting candles. I took a good look of the inside part of the cathedral and realized that everything around me was gold. The decoration was very beautiful, but my personal opinion when I saw it was that it was too luxurious for a place where people come to pray.

Crowd outside the cathedral of st. Stephen's.

Outside the cathedral there was also another one Christmas market, where we decided to stay after the Cathedral. It was quite smaller than the other one we had been in the afternoon, but equally beautiful.

While having our tour, we tried several times to contact with my friends, but it was impossible because we didn't have good timing at all. The moment we were at one place, they were at another without internet connection and we could not communicate the exact same time to decide a place to meet.

One of the times we were trying to reach them, we sat at a place with cheap coffee called "Costa Cafe". There were lots of different and strange kinds of coffees like coffee with caramel and biscuit and cream or cheeesecake. I ordered a normal coffee because I 'm not much of a sweet person, however, they seemed quite delicious.

Enjoying music on the streets

After relaxing a little bit at the cafeteria, we continued our walking tour. We found a guy on the street that was playing music with glasses and stayed there to listen to him because he was amazing. There were also many people who were there to watch him and to give him some money for his amazing performance.

The talented guy that was playing music with using just glasses.

Then I had to do a favor to a friend who was in Budapest some days before us and had forgotten his student's card at one hostel. He had told me the address of the hostel and I had to go and take his card back. At that point me and my friend were very close to Oktogon, where also the hostel was. We found it and went up to pick up the card.

The moment we went out the hostel, we started discussing about what to do next. It was five in the afternoon and it was already dark outside and the temperature started to drop and it was very cold outside. However, when you are a tourist you are not ''able'' to have these worries and problems, so we said to walk around for two more hours and then try to contact again with the others.

At that point a woman came towards us and starting saying something strange that we could not understand. We asked her if she was able to speak English, but she kept answering us in another language. The only word we could understand was the word 'hotel', so we thought that she was lost and wanted to find her hotel. We gave her our map to show us where her hotel was located, but nothing changed. She was very kind and smiled to us, but we couldn't understand what she wanted, so we started walking around with her until she would remember where her hotel was.

Night in Budapest

We had already been walking around for 20 minutes and couldn't find her hotel. Then we realized that we could not do it anymore because it was worthless, so we said goodnight to her and continued our way. With all the walking around, now we were a bit lost, but our map saved our lives one more time. It was time to start heading to our appartment to see if our friends were there. On our way home, we found an exhibition with miniatures that seemed amazing but the entrance was too expensive and, furthermore, we were very tired to pay attention.

While we were heading to our appartment, we also saw the Ferris wheel and tried to queue to have a round but the line was too big, so we decided that it was better to go and see a bit the Danube river again than queueing. When we got there I saw one of the best views I had ever seen : The Chain bridge during the night being lighted and across the Danube river and the big orange-lighted Castle. I tried to memorize the view because I could not capture it so good in the photos.

The amazing night view of the castle from Pest.

I was so fascinated by the view, so we decided to walk the chain bridge until the middle and then turn back because it was too late to go to the castle.

On our way to the appartment we decided to make a stop at a big souvenir shop near the Christmas market and buy some souvenirs.

Then we walked a bit through the Christmas market and found the appartment. We rang the bell but no one answered to us and we hadn't had keys with us to open the door. My phone was running out of battery and it was the only way to communicate with my friends so that they could bring us the keys. I wanted to rest a bit and my friend wanted at least to leave her bag because it was too heavy and she was carrying it with her.

We asked a waitress from a cafe near to our appartment for the wi-fi but for some reason my phone could not connect to the Internet and we couldn't communicate with the others. The main problem was that it was too cold outside to wait for them there and we could not enter the building without ringing a bell. We asked the waitress, who was Hungarian, to come with us and ring the bells and just explain to someone who answers that we just wanted to wait inside until our friends would come.

A man opened us the door and we went inside to wait for the others. At some point my friend went outside to find a phone from someone and try to contact the others. She came back and after some minutes they were there with the keys!

Nightlife in Budapest

We went upstairs and my friend left her stuff while I changed clothes because I hadn't have time to take a shower because it was already late, and we decided that we had to go out our last night.

The others were eating pizza at a pizzeria close to our appartment so we went there to take them and go for some beers. They knew a street with lots of bars, so we found on the map that it was no so far away from where we were and decided to go there. The place we finally decided to hang out for a start was called 'El burrito' from what I remember. It sold burritos, tacos and other kinds of mexican food on the groundfloor and in the basement there was a bar where you could hang out and drink. We went downstairs and ordered a round of beers, then some shots, then beers, etc.

At some point my friend that had come from Greece was so tired that she fell asleep. I woke her up and decided to take her back home and then turn back to the bar. She was too tired to walk and search for the place, so we took a taxi. The driver realized of course that we were tourists and started driving us around and around. I hadn't realized it until the moment we were finally at our place and i remembered that it was not so far from the bar.

He charged us 5000 Fiorins, which is extremely expensive but we had to pay it. At that moment, my friend realized that she had lost the only money she had on her, that was exactly 5000 fiorins. I looked inside my wallet and luckily I had money with me, so I paid the taxi.

I took her upstairs and then sent a message to the others if they were still at the same bar. They told me yes and I said to go back there and continue the night.

Downstairs, there was a 24 hour mini -market where I asked for some information on how to get to the street with the bars. The guy who was working there explained me and told me that it was less that 10 minutes by walking.

I found it quite easily and we sat there for a round of beers more. Then we decided to change places because you couldn't dance and also we wanted to see something more. On the same street, there is located the famous -i think- bar/club of Budapest, named Szimpla. We saw it and went in there. We were all fascinated by the place, because it was big, had an amazing decoration and seemed alternative but not in the very extreme way.

Unfortunately, ten minutes after we had ordered our beers, the place was closing so we hadn't the time to enjoy it as much as we wanted. We put our beers inside plastic glasses and decided to head back home because the time was 4 in the night and we didn't know anything else open around. On our way home we made a stop to take a kebab to feel better and continued walking.

Third day in Budapest: Sunday

The way back home

The next day we had to check out the appartment before 11, so we didn't sleep a lot. We all woke up quite tired, packed our stuff and also cleaned a bit the house. We checked out and decided to go for a last walk around the city; but first, we had to eat some good breakfast to have energy. We found a place with some tasty sandwiches and other kinds of breakfast and stayed there.

Then, we went to the Christmas market to buy some more souvenirs and started heading to the car to drive back to Zagreb. On our way, we had to meet a girl who would come with us in the car. We found the car and started our journey back to our base. Before arriving to Zagreb, we had planned to go and see a lantern festival in a small town close to Zagreb.

We had to fill the car with gas, so we made a stop at a gas station and bought some food for the way also.

These were the last things I remember from the car 'cause I fell asleep and woke up when we were already on our way to the lantern festival. We got lost several times, so there was no meaning driving until there because it would be over in a while.

We turned back and started driving back in Zagreb. About an hour later I was resting on my bed, looking at the photos we had taken during the trip .