Purplelake: Day 14-16 – Aug 2-4, 2019 Budapest, Hungary

Not knowing the host language when travelling is a drawback. Yet it also guarantees to leave you a fond memory of your trips. We had such an experience when entering Hungary from Slovakia. After crossing the border, I started looking for gas station where I could buy a Hungarian highway toll sticker. Yet km after km, unlike many other countries, there was no sign of any gas station in sight after the border. Not only that, there was no sign of even town or city around. So when I finally saw a large “Metro” and petrol signs, I quickly exited the highway and made my way to the store. Upon arrival, we discovered Metro was a gigantic warehouse store but it only had a tiny self-serve gas pump with no attendant in sight. When we got inside the store, we quickly discovered none of the staff could speak or understand any English. You can imagine the fun we had trying to communicate and explain to them our search for a highway toll sticker! At the end, we managed to find out which general direction to go to find a regular gas station, and we were granted free admission to the store to shop around. The selections of merchandizes (household, furniture, appliances, groceries, etc.) they had inside the store would put our Costco to shame.

Budapest is a big city in size. It is made up of two towns: Buda on the hilly side west of Danube and Pest on the flat plain east of the river. It did not help that we arrived right in the busy afternoon rush hours and we were stuck in crawling traffic into the downtown area for an hour. By the time we found parking and checked into our hotel, it was already dark. We managed to find a very authentic local restaurant for dinner not far from the hotel. Even though the service was quite slow due to lack of staff (the restaurant had to turn away customers even it was less than half full), the food was excellent: steamed trout wrapped in parchment paper and oven roasted pork knuckle. We later found out that the owner (who was also the head waiter) had to jump into the kitchen to help out the cook due to short staff.

Budapest is too big to explore just on foot. Fortunately, it has a fantastic public transport system with metro, bus, and trams. There are even public ferries on the Danube. It was a breeze to learn how to use the system and it was extremely affordable with a group day pass. In fact, the oldest subway line in Continental Europe is in Budapest. Its Line 1 has been in operation since 1896. As it was constructed using the cut and cover method entirely, the metro line runs very close to the road surface above. We set out from the hotel to the Parliament Building first. This iconic building is the most recognizable symbol of Budapest. Opened in 1904, its location on the banks of the Danube made its beauty more striking. From there, we took a tram south to the Chain Bridge, the first permanent bridge across the Danube in Hungary. There were many river cruise boats berthed all along the riverbank. The Great Market Hall is another tram ride south along the river. Inside this historic building, you can find all sorts of stalls selling produce, meats, pastries, wines, etc. Unfortunately, it seemed to be catering solely to tourists these days and not the city residents. Taking a bus, we next visited the largest synagogue in Europe, the Dohany Street Synagogue. Completed in 1859, it is unusual to see a synagogue built in the Islamic Moorish Revival style. From there, we slowly walked back toward our hotel while shopping for canned goose livers as souvenirs.

Our first dinner in Budapest is also the funniest. The waiter had to jump in the kitchen to help cooking as well!

We gave Larry his BD gift (the Faberge egg) during breakfast

View of Buda Hill across the Danube River

Hungary Parliament Building

Parliament Square

Parliament Building

Rows of river cruise boats lining the Danube riverbank

Chain Bridge - Oldest bridge across the Danube

Great Market Hall - now reduced to a tourist trap

Local products with prices only tourists can pay

Local Hungarian wines are surprising good

Hungary is famous for its paprika

Dohany Street Synagogue - largest in Europe

Hungarians are also known as Magyars. They were descendants from the ethnic tribes that invaded the present-day Hungary from Central Asia in 895. The Magyars knew they had to assimilate and adopted Christianity to be accepted by the rest of Europe. A millennium later, Hungary celebrated their conquest and settlement in 1896 with a big party. Lots of present-day landmarks were built to commemorate this event such as the Hero’s Square and Line 1 metro. Hungary also sits on the Carpathian Basin where the earth’s crust is very thin, and water rises easily to the surface. As a result, thermal bath and hot springs soaking are a fact of life for all Hungarians. It is even a prescribed health treatment for arthritis, muscle aches, or breathing issues for many Hungarians. After gathering our towels etc. from hotel, we took the historic Line 1 Metro to the most famous bath house in town, Szechenyi Thermal Bath. The Neo-Baroque bath house is located inside the huge City Park in the northeast side of the city. The $30 CAD admission fee is not cheap and only included the use of a locker without any towels. Given the hype in all guidebooks, we found the experience less than satisfying mostly due to the crowdedness. Even in the bigger outdoor pool, we were barely able to find a spot to go in. All the indoor hot pools were also jammed with people, making the water quality suspect. The hot steam room also had a long line in front of the entrance. On top, the water temperature was only lukewarm. In comparison, we found the hot bath experience in Busan, South Korea, a much better value. Nevertheless, we felt relaxed after the soaking.

Next, we headed to a highly recommended restaurant, Menza, for dinner as this was Larry’s birthday. The restaurant served wonderful dishes and did not disappoint. We went back to our rooms for more wine toasting afterward. Although not well known outside the country, we found Hungarian wines excellent value and quality. It’s too bad they are not more widely available elsewhere.

Taking Line 1 Metro to Szechenyi Thermal Bath

The subway line is only feet away from the road surface on top

Szechenyi Thermal Bath building

One of the indoor pools

The big outdoor pool is filled with people

BD dinner for Larry at Menza, a famous restaurant

Wines at our hotel room afterward to celebrate

Our last day was spent mostly on the Buda side. We first took a tram to visit another famous bath, Gellert Thermal Bath just at the foot of the Citadel Hill. We only went in to take a picture of its beautiful interior. Walking up the steep hill, it was a good exercise to reach the lookout for a fantastic city view on both sides of the Danube. Being Sunday, we saw lots of local families strolling in the park. Coming back down hill, we took a tram to reach the Chain Bridge on the Buda side. From there, it was another steep uphill walk to reach the Castle District where we found the best scenic spot of the whole city. This area is filled with landmarks like the towering Matthias Church and the pretty lookout spot, Fisherman’s Bastion. The Buda Castle complex is only a few minutes walk away.

View of Liberty Bridge

View of Pest from Citadel Hill

View from Citadel Hill

Statue on top of Citadel Hill

View of the other side of Buda from Citadel Hill

Citadel Hill. Locals joked that the statue is holding a surf board!

Beautiful interior of Gellert Thermal Bath

View of Parliament Building from across the Danube

Matthias Church on Castle District

Statue of St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary

Fisherman's Bastion

Best view of Budapest is from Fisherman's Bastion

Fisherman's Bastion

Walking to Buda Castle from Matthias Church

Buda Castle Museum

View of Chain Bridge from the Buda Castle

We found this beautiful rotunda building on our way down from the castle

Walking downhill for the last time, we crossed the Chain Bridge and the Danube back to Pest side. From there, we took metro to the vast Hero’s Square in front of the City Park. This huge square was part of the Millennium Celebration project and is flanked by the Museum of Fine Arts on one side and the Hall of Art on the other side. Another Millennium Celebration project was the construction of the nearby Vajdahunyad Castle, a Transylvanian style castle originally built with cardboard and wood since it was supposedly to be temporary. The city residents loved it so much that it was saved from demolition and rebuilt from stone and brick. We all agreed they made the right choice since it was a very pretty and photogenic castle with the reflection from the lake.

After dinner, we did a tour around both banks of the Danube using trams and then watched sunset over the river standing on the Liberty Bridge. It was a great conclusion to our tour of this great city. Overall, we loved Budapest the most among all the cities we visited on this trip. Not only is the cost of a Budapest visit low, it also boasts magnificent architecture and beautiful buildings all over the city. The setting of the city over the Danube is absolutely romantic. The cuisine is excellent. Even though there were lots of tourists inside the city, we did not feel choked as in Prague. The size of the city and its roads and streets are big enough that you do not feel crowded. We would definitely come back for another visit and highly recommend you come for a visit too.