BUDAPEST

Helló, and welcome to part two of our European adventure! This time I’m going to bore you to death regale you with tales from Budapest, Hungary. This city was definitely one of our favourites from the whole trip, with more kebabs, avant-garde bars and boiling weather than you can shake a stick at (do people really shake sticks at things? If so, I would like to meet these people).

After recovering from the food poisoning incident in Split, Croatia (read my Croatia blog post first, if you haven’t already!), we braved the 14-hour overnight train and arrived in Budapest at around 8:30am…

By this point, we had begun to refer to the crazies you get in Europe as ‘unsavouries’, and upon leaving Budapest train station, we ran into the most memorable unsavoury of the entire trip. We were looking for a cash machine to get a taxi to where we were staying, and looked pretty touristy with our huge backpacks and ‘where-the-F-am-i’ countenances. Train stations (and the surrounding areas) are usually pretty dodgy, but it seemed that Budapest was extra dodgy, especially considering it was about 9am.

A huuuuuuuge, round, sweaty man, who was holding a tinny and smoking a fag, wearing a vest that read “Fuck This Shit”, approached us AS we were getting money out of a cash machine and offered us a ride. “You want taxi??? I give you good price! I drive Mercedes!” Chris and I made some crap excuse up and all-but legged it back up towards the station, where we booked a cab using mytaxi, which is a really good app for booking cabs in Budapest.

We were lucky enough to stay in one of Chris’s family friend’s apartment in the city centre. We had a shower and had a nap, and then went to get a McDonalds. Because what says traditional Hungarian cuisine and experimenting with new foods than ‘McDonalds’? Side note; the way money works in Hungary is HILARIOUS, but also a bit tricky to get your head around. Two burgers cost 3700HUF, which is only £10gbp, but still almost gave me heart failure while paying. I did manage to get used to the money after a few days, and we found it to be one of the most affordable cities to eat, drink and do activities in. Four pints of beer during happy hour in a nearby bar cost £2!

Then we discovered Margaret Island, which is a big island in the middle of the Danube River. It’s massive; it has thermal pools, a zoo, bars, botanical gardens, bike hire and fountains dotted across it. On the first afternoon, we just walked around it for a while and decided that the following day we’d visit the thermal pools for a swim. That evening, though, we visited the bar next door to our apartments, and got a kebab (because y not?) and had a relatively early night.

We were up pretty early on Day 2 and made our way back to Margaret Island to get ourselves in the pools. They’re called the Palatinus Open-air Baths and seem to be really popular during the summer months. We were just about dead in the 37-degrees that day and were desp to get in the water. There’s 14 pools, including a wave pool, kiddie pools, fountains, slides, olympic pools and the thermal pools, one of which is a ridiculous 42 degrees (no ta). It was really good fun and tired us out, so we had a drink in Hippy Island, a bar on the way back, to break up the walk.

The highlight of our visit, however, was visiting the ruin bars of Budapest. We visited Morrisons 2, which is more of a nightclub/backpacker’s bar, but had a very affordable drinks menu. Then we went to Anker’t, which is an open-air bar hidden through a very normal-looking door on a normal street. This one’s a bit more pricey, but still a fun and unusual bar experience.

Then we went to Szimpla, which is the single weirdest place I’ve ever been in my life. It’s the most famous and highly-rated ruin bar in the city, and it’s pretty easy to see why. You come through the doors (after being ID’d and searched) and get punched in the face by neon lights, bathtubs hanging from ceilings, bright colours, plants and tv screens showing static everywhere. It’s an unreal place (with very unreal drinks prices to match ££££££££!) but such an experience. It was a weeknight, but packed with people. Chris and I got chatting to some Argentinian graduates and a Swiss guy travelling round Europe by himself.

The next day, we battled hangovers to go and see some monuments, including the Millenniumi Emlékmű and the view of the city from Buda Castle. That evening, Chris’s family friend was due back in the apartment, so we tidied up all our crap and met him for a drink. We ended up going out for dinner at the unbelievably good Taverna Dionysos, a greek restaurant that was nearby. I had stefado and about 3 gallons of chilled red wine, and I’m pretty sure that I can die in gluttonous peace now.

Keep a look out for the next post about our month-long eurotrip!

Next stop: Vienna, Austria!