Continuing my trip from Czech Republic, I arrived in Budapest early
morning by an overnight train from Prague. As soon as I, along with my two
friends walked out of train station there was Metro bang opposite. Budapest was
at first, a let down from Prague. It felt like; we have come from a fairyland
to a common concretized urban jungle. However it was a very bad presumption
which changed soon drastically. The weather in Budapest was cold but not very chilly during the month of April.
We stayed at MarcoPolo Hostel which also offered individual rooms and
more or less operated like a typical hostel. It was an average place however
situated in a prime area.
Once settled, we started walking
towards our pre-booked walking tour, now we asked for directions at the
reception and they said its twenty minutes walking basically to the next metro
station. My friend recommended let’s go by metro only then I insisted lets go
walking, lets experience our first walk in Budapest. As soon as we started
walking, it started raining; we didn’t reach in twenty minutes and took about
forty instead. The tour left without us and this was informed to us by some
other tour guides there, however we had the contact details of the person who
was organising the tour. So we immediately called and got the chance to join
the tour, they had not gone much ahead. The tour covered quite a few places in
the city and also the tour guide was superb, she also shared the history of the
country, gave us some important facts and yes even told us how Buda and Pest
are connected by bridges and what the importance of each of them is. 
The streets were quite lively even during morning times; we walked by
the Danube river which flows all the way from Austria. Also lot of squares are connecting
places. Buda being hilly area and Pest is plain grounds. The advantage is all
bridges have a pedestrian cross way and are not limited to vehicles. The tour
ended in the famous parliament building.
We liked the tour guide so once it was over; we asked her if she can
give us a private tour of Budapest Castle obviously at an extra charge. It worked out pretty well and we decided to
meet in early evening. She told us that she will also give us all required info for the rest of our stay and yes she was pretty sweet and helpful. I found Hungarian people quite heartwarming and friendly.
We moved to a
place for lunch and realised Hungarian food is pretty awesome. It’s spicy and has
great aromatic flavours. It perfectly meets the Indian Taste Palette. The
goulash was out of the world. Along with the food, a good glass of Hungarian Beer
called Soproni. Dreher is also quite popular. My favourite Czech Beer Pilsner Urquell was also easily available here. There were abundant choices of restaurants serving multicuisine, however Hungarian is a must try especially chicken paprika with a good wine. Hungary is also to an extent known for its wines and there is an excellent region of Eger town which is popular among tourists for wine tasting and buying. We had Eger planned for the last day of our trip which was quite overwhelming.
The Budapest castle tour was really spectacular. Now the advantage here
was there was a local with us so she gave us all the info we needed for our
trip here. Even in metro we bought a group train pass as per her recommendation
and it proved to be really economical. The fisherman’s bastion in the castle area was spectacular to take
pictures. Overall we enjoyed the tour and she gave us good tips to enjoy the
rest of the three days.
The streets were so well lit with people skating around, bicycling and
even running. What we realised that lot of people here commute by bicycles and
there are paths made almost on all streets for ease of crossing. Then we hung
out at the most popular street called Váci Street which is full of cafes and
restaurants along with ample options for shopping. The pathways are embraced by
street musicians who make the venue very lively during the evenings.
The second day we woke up late and decided to hire bicycles for roaming
around the city. As mentioned earlier the two parts of the city are very well
connected by bridges which have pedestrian’s crossovers as well. Hiring a bike
was super easy. And there was a choice of drop off point as per your
convenience which is superb. We took the bikes and headed to the parliament
building. Now the unique thing about Budapest is that there is a nice quiet
island in between the two parts of the city which is very well connected by one
of the bridges. We could easily navigate this route and found our way to
Margaret Island. It was just wow! The island was so beautiful full of parks, a
small zoo, jogging track along the river Danube and breath-taking views of the
city. It was a perfect hang out spot. No vehicles allowed on the internal of
the islands, so you can imagine the peace and serenity. Acres of lush green lands
with easily navigable pathways. It meets the vims and fancies of many.
After covering the island, we went through the side pathways across the
river, cycling around the town. We then headed to the Citadella which was located on the hill in
Buda. We parked our bikes on the foot of the hill and climbed upwards. The climb upwards is a bit tiresome but definitely worth the view. The hill
overlooks the city and hence offers picturesque views of the parliament
building, the river and Pest region. On the top of the hill is located the
Liberty statue also called as Freedom Memorial. It’s a must visit as it has a
lot of historical significance and again the views are breathtaking. We then headed down and returned the bikes. Once done with this there is a really good option of experiencing hot baths in Budapest in plenty of places. The thermal baths are very popular and the weather is superb for it.
This evening we headed to Heroes square which is also one hell of a
site in Budapest. In the night it looks glorious. It is the home to the seven
chieftains of Magyars (Hungarians), the oldest seven tribes. Later we went for
dinner at nearby lively street. We were waiting at a bus stop and got
approached by a lady. She asked us do we need help. So I was going to tell her
that no and then she just blurted it out openly ‘Do you guys need sex?!!!’ We
were stunned and right away said no politely. Then she did help us with some
directions for finding a dinner place.
The next day we did a grave mistake. We happen to knew that Vienna in
Austria is just three hours from Budapest by train. So we decided to skip
roaming more around Budapest and headed to Vienna by 7 am train. We reached
right on time and bought a Euro Rail Pass for entire day. We came out of the
train station and took a ring rail tour which covers most of the important
places in one circle with self-audio guide. It was quite educating, however
covering these places on our own was tiresome. One day was too less to cover
even half of them. It was a pathetic decision to do this while we could have
been enjoying Budapest even more. In the evening, we visited the Schonbroon
Palace which was a couple of metro stations away from city centre. It was
humongous and I wish we had more time to explore, however we had a return
journey ahead.
We were dead tired by the time we reached back Budapest. The next day
we had to get up early again as we had a day trip planned for a small wine town
called Eger. Budapest is known for partying and also the ruin pubs. This night we visited Szimpla
Kert and wow it was spectacular. It was divided into lot of huge rooms and was
so crowded. All of Budapest along with tourists was here. It was super lively
with good music and very multicultural. A good place to know locals and enjoy
good beer.
Next early morning we headed to Eger. This was also a good two hour journey
from Budapest. But this was worth a visit. The town was quite different when compared with Cesky Krumlov in Czech although it has the same kind of premises. The wine town has a lane of wine
cellars where they allow you to taste as many wines and the ones you want to buy;
you can buy in plastic decanters. It saves the packaging cost which leads you
to buying amazing wines at very economical rates. Then we had a lavish breakfast at one of the restaurants in front of a cellar. They all were very eager to serve and had good options. I tried citric beer which surprisingly went well with breakfast at such time of the day! The small town is a good
stroll, it is known for homemade ice cream varieties. There is a medieval castle also this town has with where a small entry fee has to be paid. Then after a long day, headed
back to Budapest. Last night around was
as usual very happening. People drinking on the streets, cafes all lit up, a
pure party place for sure.
We had an early morning flight and return transfer to the airport was
pre-booked. We were flabbergasted by the
way this city is always. So happening, so alive, always people are partying,
Margret island was full of fitness enthusiasts during day time on a weekday. I
started wondering when do these people work? No wonder Matt Damon after his
shoot of Martian said, if he had a choice, he would settle in Budapest.
Alas our fast paced enchanting trip of two beautiful countries in
Eastern Europe came to an end.
No comments:
Post a Comment