Budapest

After seeing Prague (Czech) in 2017, this year it was time for another beautiful city in Eastern Europe to visit. I took a Thursday morning early flight in Eindhoven to arrive in my hostel in Budapest (Hungary) before noon.

To get a first good impression of the city I joined a free (tips based) walking tour in the afternoon. We started in the flat part of the city (Pest) and ended at the Fisherman Bastion on the hilly Buda area across the Danube river. Together with an Indian tourist, we decided to climb the Gellert Hill after the tour to see sunset on the Hill and have a perfect view on Budapest by night. Joined by another Indian we ended the night drinking beers on the streets in the Jewish quarter.

The next morning I strolled around the city centre to join another walking tour in the afternoon. This time we walked around in the Jewish quarter to see the street-art in Pest. After the tour ended it was time for some drinks at the ruin-bar Szimpla and some food at the nearby permanent food-truck festival. Since the weekend had started, we decided to enjoy the Friday night among locals. So we got beers at the night shops and joined the Hungarians outside on the streets around “the Aquarium”.

As the weekend is time to relax, my new Indian friend and I took a metro the Heroes square to chill out in the City Park before going to the Szechenyi bath house. We made 2 rounds through the bath house spending time in all the different thermal baths and saunas. After the relaxing afternoon we went back to the city centre to have diner and walk some more in the historic area and along the river. We ended the night again around ‘the Aquarium’ until the night shops were closed.

The Sunday I did spend my time on Margit island, the island in the river.  My feet felt heavy due to all the walking in the past days, so I spread my towel on the grass and did nothing but reading a book and get some tan on my skin. On my last night in Budapest I went to a few ruin bars with a Canadian guy that I met in the hostel.  

On Monday after a brunch and a last walk along the river (to the Market hall) it was time to get back to the airport for my flight back home. The Budapest box on my bucket list was ticked.