Buda or Pest?

Day 1

Taking a midnight bus from Florenc, I slipped on beside a german girl and behind fussy american girls on the top floor of Flixbus. I might could have counted how many times they said the word “like”, like it could give any change to any meaning. We arrived at 6.45 AM at Nepliget bus station (Pest part) the next morning and straightly went to Derek Ferenc metro stop to meet Cita, my Indonesian friend and to leave the bags in Pal’s Hostel. By the way, all metro stop in Budapest is so pretty, artsy with good lighting and platform that is always in the middle (at least so far that I saw). Look at this:

It was so nice to see this petite girl again, still with her pre- cautious, polite and sweet manner. I know her from an organized event in bachelor.  The hostel design was like an urban painting exhibition hall in an abandoned building. It turned out that we needed to go to another building because we booked a room for 3. We were kind of impressed by the modern-furnitured room, bathroom and the cleanliness of all. Pal’s hostel is just in front of the St. Stephen basilica. We started by walking back to Derek Ferenc to see Elizabeth Park(which was suspected to be a place where the queen met her secret lover) and took metro to Kossuth Lajos. In this stop is the Parliament building.

Danube River 

Cita had a class that day so she needed to leave us so we walked along the Danube River, which is far below my expectation. However, the interesting part is that Danube Promenade has these shoes that was said as the jumping point of those who run from Nazi in winter. This thing always successfully bring a specific pain in my heart. Most of our destination in the 1st day was across the Danube river (Buda part). So this city is divided into Buda and Pest with various interpretations of its meanings. I don't want to mention the meanings to avoid confusions and I am not the expert of language. 

The interesting part is that we can also take the boat across the river, and they just work as normal public transportation with a port in each stop. The boat is not fancy but not bad because it has two floors.  On the 1st floor you can even order food. We went to the 2nd floor to enjoy the breeze of Danube river and play “The Blue Danube Waltz” by Johann Strauss.  We were lucky because it was a sunny day. And by the way, why I said Danube was below my expectation is because Danube was not that blue. I was starving at that time and nothing sells street food, so make sure you have grabbed your breakfast before exploring the river!

Fisherman Bastion 

I think Fisherman bastion is the best of the best, with its white medieval wall, it feels like you are back to hundreds of years ago. It has 7 towers representing different tribes of Hungary that wrapped around the statue of Stephen I of Hungary. We took a lot of time to take photos there, well, mostly me taking photos of the girls. We wanted to come inside the Matthias Church but I am so sick of anything related to churches. You can have a quiet wow (just quiet) panoramic view through the walls and towers. There was a man playing real violin vs. fake violin (mimic-ing and whistling). Try also to enjoy the view at night, people say it also feels magical with the whole city lights. 

Buda Castle

After, we walked around 15 minutes to the Buda Castle which now acts as a history museum as I remembered. Apart from that, it was not opened to public. There was also a funicular but we needed to pay around 4 euros so, no thanks. We are so so hungry so we looked for some trip-advisor suggested restaurants and found an interesting place near the river. Unfortunately, I forgot the name of the restaurant where we had our lunch. I ordered the famous Goulash soup which turned out just as normal Indonesian sop merah but with beef and kind of macaroni-like dim sum. The waitress was not super polite but there was a couple of grandma grandpa that offered us to sit with them. I am impressed by their hostility! We also foolishly ordered the second main course which was stew of beef/chicken. We went out with a full belly.

Liberty Statue 

We took a tram from the restaurant to the Liberty statue. This statue is to commemorate its freedom from Soviet Union in World War II. Before climbing up the hill, we checked a spring water bath just in front of it. It looked old, fancy but scary. I wanted to try but also reluctant to do it. It is not that expensive though. Maybe if you have a week summer holiday, yes please try this thing. We climbed up the hill which was pretty sporty for a woman like me. You will have great panoramic view from each of hiking stop and it was sunset when we got at the top.

City View with Tram line 2

First, we needed to cross again the bridge to Pest site to be able to take tram 2. Tram line 2 was awarded by UNICEF as the most beautiful tramline in the world, but we took the wrong direction. Well, if you ask me, I will still nominate Tram 22 of Prague instead of this line. The entrance of tram 2 was below the central market hall, literally inside the metro stop, with is exciting and unique. I thought this map was deceiving me, but it is literally inside metro station. We could see all Budapest important landmarks shining in the night and their reflection in the deep black Danube river. The best of the view is actually the Parliament building followed by the Buda palace and Fisherman bastion from the other site of the city. Remember when I was amazed by bus line in Nice which is directly along the seaside? So this is just a typical day of Hungarian people to hop in a tram with this Danube romantic and breathtaking view. 

We stopped there to admire its beauty at night. It is for me, the real symbol of elegance and wealth of this country. We walked along the river and then went home to check in to our room. We went out again for hot chocolate and pizza for a light dinner (not a good thing to follow).

Day 2 

Guided Tour 

Which turned out not really interesting. Well, it was free! I admire how these Hungarian youngsters love to partly work as tour guide and it was not a small group but a group of 30-40 people. They also could train their public speaking skill. We met in front of St. Stephen Basilica, with hundreds of other tourists. She explained everything really well about the city and history, but we only planned to follow her before they cross the river. She explained about this statue of fat policeman, if you touched his belly it will bring you luck, the story of lion statue designer that suicides because of a legendary myth, the best of the bars and pubs, a very nice of a young girl. 

Central Market Hall

Then, we met Cita to explore the Great Central Market Hall, which is a very interesting place. After watching Po. and Co. program in National Geographic People which has a cafe in Adelaide market, I always want to visit this kind of huge indoor market. It has also a unique architecture in its exterior and interior. Lots of souvenirs stalls and local street food but the lines were crazy! We ended up not buying any food because it was so full. The celebrity of street food was Langos, which is a round dough with sour cheese. Kayak cakue dikasih sour cheese cream. I found this watercolored postcard in clothpaper media. Recommended place to visit.

Parliament Building

The bad thing about travelling in groups, of girls, is we are mostly indecisive and tried to make everybody feel happy, which is impossible. Parliament building tickets were all sold out. My bad because I did not research about this before.

So we only enjoyed its Neo-Gothic exterior. This is made based on an open-tandem design 1st place winner. The runner ups designs are made for the museums facing this parliament. So, really nowhere is more correct than this city to study landscapes and buildings. Lucky Cita!

I skipped my lunch this day. The rest of the girls went to Hero’s Monument but I really need to eat. So we split and Cita brought me to a famous local Hungarian restaurant near Derek Ferenc called Drum Cafe. But we were lost and then it turned out that the St. Stephen Basilica in front of my hostel is still opened (Google lied to me about its opening hours). I mean, I stayed in front of it and why I missed it? But no, I could! 

Drum cafe was so cozy and crowded with people. I ordered Chicken Paprika (also Hungarian delicacy and a jewish dessert tasted similar to Baklava).

I wanted to visit the Jewish quarter but it was late already and we also needed to meet Ana and her mother in another restaurant for dinner. We checked out in the morning and just needed to take our stuff from the hostel (which has free dinner that day but we did not know). There is something special about the receptionist’s staff music flavor. They listen to death metal every time and they were all sweet girls. Here, we could put our bags long before and after checking in or out. They are not suspicious at all, not like most of the place in France. I only ordered a Hungarian pancake for dinner and it is just like french basic pancake but rolled!

Our bus back to Prague is also at midnight from Nepliget. I also met other Indonesian students in this bus back. Overall, Budapest is a must-see city. Although, personally I am not that impressed as I expected following what my ex-boss Bram told me that Budapest is like super amazing according to him. But yes, it is not that expensive to go if you go from Prague and for an architecture freak, you will probably be in love it.

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