Tales of palaces, ruin bars, and 100 year old baths

I arrived in Budapest around 2:00 on Monday afternoon, went to the hostel, and then joined a walking tour of the Jewish district, where we saw some old buildings, some newly renovated buildings (although with new UNESCO world heritage status, renovation are now nearly impossible, so most of the area is just falling down), several synagogues (one designed to look like a cathedral and one like a mosque, so a bit weird), and part of the old ghetto wall. The tour lasted nearly four hours, so afterwards I just went back to the hostel, where a bunch of people were just hanging out for the evening.

The next morning I did a city tour, which was very cool, and covered both the Buda and Pest sides of the city. We saw the outsides of a lot of buildings: the royal palace and St. Stephen's Basilica and St. Matthias' Cathedral in particular.

Bridge from Buda to Pest

After the tour, the guide invited anyone who was interested to get lunch at a Hungarian cafeteria style restaurant, so a bunch of us followed her and ate huge plates of delicious food (potatoes, sausage, cheese and A LOT of paprika). After lunch I went back to the Basilica to look around inside. It was enormous:

Then I just walked around the Pest side for the rest of the day, loving the city. Someone told me that Budapest would be like a smaller Prague, but they were wrong. Budapest is huge, and (in my opinion) a much nicer city than Prague, with a lot to see. I walked up to the City Park, and wandered around there for a bit, then came back to the hostel, where the staff made Hungarian food (sausage, cheese, and paprika on bread) and served us Hungarian peach brandy, and then we moved on to Hungarian wine.

Wednesday I had reserved for Buda, so I walked across the bridge and spent the day climbing hills. Beautiful views, but a lot of walking! I started with Gellert Hill, where there is a monument, and an old citadel. 

The citadel now houses a military museum, which didn't grab my attention so much, so I just poked around, and then went back down the hill, and up another one to the royal palace and St. Matthias'. I went into the cathedral first. The colors on the walls and ceiling were incredible; it reminded me a lot of St. Basil's actually.

Right outside the cathedral is the Fisherman's Bastion, so I strolled around there for a bit. Not too much to see or do, but pretty towers:

and nice views over the river back to the Pest side:

(That big complex you can see across the river, with the dome roof, is the Parliament building. It was designed to look like Westminster Abbey, but the architect made it just a teeny bit longer.)

Then I went back to the royal palace, where I walked around the grounds for a while, admiring the building.

Inside there is a museum about the history of Budapest, so I figured that was worth checking out. Unfortunately, it was all under construction, so almost all the exhibits were closed. The only ones that were open were about Turkey and Slovakia. I did get to go into the medieval castle, though, so I guess it was worth it.

By the time I got out of the palace, I was exhausted anyway, so I returned to the hostel to nap before going to the ballet with a few other people staying there, for approximately own euro. The seats were terrible, but it was basically free and there was a screen we could see. Plus the opera house was beautiful, and it was cheaper to buy a ticket than to take the tour.

Afterwards, we decided to check out the ruin bars that Budapest is famous for. They're essentially abandoned buildings (mostly concentrated in the Jewish district) that people have turned into bars. The first one we went in, Szimpla, is Lonely Planet's number 3 bar in the world, and it was incredible. It was gigantic, with lots of different rooms and a couple clubs inside. It was more fun to wander around than to drink. Lots of weird stuff on the walls: one room is covered in old electronics. I think the people who work there must just come in every day and say "hey guys look what I found! Lets put it on the wall!"

We also went to Instant, another pretty popular one, that is decorated as an enchanted forest, with a big fake tree in the middle of one of the tables, and a huge creepy owl on the wall, and a chain of flying rabbits leading up to the ceiling.

Two was enough insane bars for my night, so we made our way back home.

Thursday, I spent the day strolling with one of the girls I had gone out with Wednesday night. It had taken me about five minutes after arriving in Budapest to decide I didn't want to leave on Friday morning like I'd planned, and I extended my stay until Saturday night, so with two extra days I was perfectly happy to wander and enjoy. We walked down to the central market hall, which was enormous and so well organized. The colors of the fruits and veggies were awesome, and there were peppers everywhere! I guess Hungary is famous for its paprika (clearly, judging by the food I was eating there) so red peppers hung from just about every stall. From there we were making our way to Margaret Island, in the north of the city in the middle of the Danube, about halfway between Buda and Pest. On our way, we decided to grab something quick and cheap and not kebab for lunch, so when we passed a stand selling langos, a Hungarian street food dish I had heard about, we stopped there. Langos: essentially an enormous piece of deep fried dough with garlic sauce and sour cream, and sometimes sausage, ham, cheese, cabbage and/or whatever you can imagine piled on top. I had mine with cabbage. It was declicious and greasy and wildly unhealthy. To top it off, we couldn't pass up a gelato place where they made this: 

(Lavender-white chocolate and caramelized banana)

We got to Margaret Island where there is a beautiful park, and not much else, and, after walking along the shore for a whole, we sat in the park and napped off all our lunch calories. Then we wandered just an hour or so more. She was heading to Oktoberfest coatless, so we thrift shopped a bit to find something to keep her warm, and then we made our way back to the hostel, for traditional Hungarian dinner night: potato pasta with cheese and bacon, a lot like what I had in Slovakia, except with cottage cheese and not sheep cheese. A lot of people had arrived that day, so I suggested we all go back to Szimpla, because it was just too cool not to show it off.

On Friday I took the train to Szentendre, a town about 40 minutes away along the Danube. There wasn't much to do, but it was a cute, quiet town, with a few beautiful churches and a nice walk along the river. I went into the Serbian Orthodox Church, which was beautiful: the altar was just a bunch of painted portraits at the front of the church. Mostly, though, I just had a good time getting lost in the winding streets of the old town, and people watching in the main square. Then I headed back to Budapest, and spent my last night wandering the city at night, showing around some new guests. I was thrilled to have become an expert on the city (although I did get us a bit lost on our way back). I feel like it's been a while since I stayed long enough anywhere to really get to know it, and I loved Budapest, so I'm glad I got enough time to feel comfortable walking around.

Saturday, my train was leaving at 7:00 pm, so I had most of the day, and decided to spend my last day enjoying one of Budapest's thermal baths. The one I decided to go to (there are quite a few) is definitely the oldest and the biggest, and I think that it's the most famous too. It opened in 1913, but the springs have been used here as a bath place since roman times. The building is beautiful too:

I ended up staying about 5 hours, just moving between the pools and the saunas. The pools ranged from 16-40 degrees Celsius, including 3 outdoor pools (they were heated, but the air around the pools was not, and it was a cold dash in only a bathing suit and a soaking towel from one pool to the next, and from the last pool back inside. Some of the pools were clear, and some were not, and a few were so small that only one or two people could sit in them at the same time. The saunas too were all different: the hottest one was 100 degrees Celsius (it was right next to the 16 degree pool, as well as a basin of ice, both of which were much needed after the sauna) and the coolest one was 50. One had color changing lights, and a few were aromatic. Two were wet steam saunas, and one was so steamy that you literally could not see anything. After a few hours of playing with the different pools, and being the most relaxed I think I have ever been, I walked back to the hostel to pack up a few last minute things, and catch the train to Brasov, Romania.

The train was one of the most fun of the trip. It was supposed to be 13 hours but ended up being nearly 15. When I got on, two people in my compartment had already set up their beds. Since I was on the top bunk, I had nowhere to sit down, and since it was only 7:00, and I didn't feel like lying down yet, I lingered in the hallway, and started talking to two German guys who were at the beginning of a 50+ hour trip from Vienna to Istanbul, on their way to Armenia. For a couple of Germans, they weren't really on top of things. They hadn't bought a ticket yet, and ended up not being able to buy a sleeping car reservation, so they had to sit in the seats. They invited me to sit and eat with them for a while, so we had a dinner of Viennese sausages, cheese, bread, beer, and the apples and dried bananas I had bought at the market in Budapest. Our assortment of food attracted a couple other friends, in particular a pug named Nero, who desperately wanted a sausage, but also a few humans. I ended up staying back there with them for several hours, and then I made my way back to my own compartment for the night.

I am now in Romania, for a little less time than I expected because it took me so long to get out of Budapest. Possibly my favorite city of the trip, it was big enough to have a lot of culture (those ruin bars are some of the coolest places I've spent my evenings) but not so big as to be crowded or packed with tourists (I'm looking at you, Czech Republic). I hope Romania can fill those shoes!