- Budapest is actually pronounced Budapesht. This creates a bit of a problem really as if you go around pronouncing it correctly in New Zealand you’ll get a few sniggers and jokes about lisps behind your back, but if you pronounce it the Kiwi way in Hungary, you’ll be swizzed out of several thousand Hungarian forint on souvenir tea towels and would be better off tattooing the word TOURIST to your forehead.
- Buda and Pest are two cities, separated by the river Danube, which is the second most important waterway in Europe behind the River Rhine, and starts in the Black Forest, finishing in the Black Sea
- Hungarian is the fifth hardest language to learn in the world
- The Hungarian people originated from central Asia (now Mongolia). You might be familiar with one of the founders? Attila the Hun?
- Hungary is the home of 14 Nobel prize winners – by far the smartest nation in this respect pound for pound
- They’re famed for their inventions, which include some quite noteworthy gadgets including the Rubix Cube, Volkswagen Beetle, telephone exchange, electric lightbulb, Kodaly method (do, re, me) and the tried and tested Atomic bomb
- Famous Hungarians? Zsa Zsa Gabor and Harry Houdini to name a small few
- Hungary is a temperature of extremes and it can get to – 34 degrees in winter and 39 degrees in summer!
So with an impressive list like the above, how couldn’t we fall in love with Hungary?
We arrived into Budapest, flying Malev airlines (don’t worry, we hadn’t heard of them either) on Friday evening, where we had splashed out and arranged for a shuttle bus to our accommodation. Thanks goodness we did that I might add as we managed to time our visit with a refuge collection day and the streets were so piled with rubbish, that you couldn’t actually access the door! Mind you, the next morning the streets were sparkling again so the night elves did a great job.
Our accommodation was so amazing – Brad had found us an authentic wee apartment in a huge old fashioned Hungarian style building right in the loft. We wished we could stay there forever, whereas usually we’re looking forward to sleeping in our beds! We were asleep before our heads hit the pillow and awoke the next morning, with excitement firing in our bellies. Our drive through the city the night before has us rearing to go!
We got off to a bit of a rocky start by heading to the famed market which sold Langos for a spot of breakfast. We had heard many wonderful things about this mystery Langos, which I kid you not is deep fried bread in a Frisbee shape, covered in sour cream, cheese and garlic. OMG can you imagine something so amazing?! Needless to say we were more than a little anxious to get there. Sadly our navigation skills let us down and we ended up heading in the opposite direction, only having to hot foot it to the town square where we were taking a walking tour of the city. With disappointment and unsatisfied appetites, we kicked off the tour, but soon turned our moods right around when we saw just how amazing and beautiful this city really is. Hungary is so unlike any other European nation in the fact that they originated from Asia and their language isn’t related to any other, meaning they truly are a one-off right in the cozy continent of Europe. It has had such a sad and complex history, which was summed up by our guide who said ‘basically every war or battle we’ve been involved in, we have lost, so make sure you’re not on our side in a fight!’ More recently their country was devastated by WWII and of course, the Nazis. They fought on Germany’s side, but soon tried to pull out once they got wind of what was going on. By that time the Hungarian Arrow Cross party had their roots deep and the exterminations of hundreds of thousands had begun. In 1945 Hungary was finally ‘liberated’ by Russia’s Red Army, who of course, forgot to leave, meaning the country endured another 40+ years under totalitarian communist rule, secret spies, lies, torture, unfair imprisonment and death sentences. There was no such thing as free speech in this country and even now, the generation our age still grew up with communism, so they still don’t really view themselves as a democratic republic.
The city itself is so stunning though and it just feels so foreign. Every ten seconds I found myself reaching for the camera and we both agreed that if we could only ever visit four cities in the entire world, Budapest would be one of them.
As always, the walking tour was a great bet as we essentially had a three hour walk around the city, ticking of all sorts of amazing sights – buildings which we would have previously walked past without a moment’s thought all had an amazing story behind them, and the time just flew by.
We ended up on Buda Hill in the castle area and by this time we were absolutely ravenous, so the only option for us was to wind our way down the hill taking 50,000 photos and make our way alongside the river, until we finally found our beloved market. As soon as we clapped eyes on one of these Langos gems we knew our lives would never be the same again. We absolutely devoured them, too hungry to even stop to take a photo. It was only when we were halfway through our feast that we took a quick snap. It isn’t the best shot as you can see and is a little blurry, but the fact that we couldn’t be bothered taking another photo says it all. Every second spent taking photos was a second spent away from our Langos. Each bite was followed with a sigh and a mumbled ‘this is sooooooooooooooo good’, until all that was left of the memory was a greasy napkin. God Hungarian food is good, although as our tour guide said, Hungary is not the place to start a diet. Like the name of the nation suggests, there is much to be devoured and a standard Hungarian meal can contain 2000calories! Yes my friends, your entire daily allowance!
After wandering around the market, we decided to head back to the main square where I was keen to catch a Communist Tour to learn all about these harrowing times. Brad wasn’t so keen, so we compromised and went to what is known as the Terror House – the old site of interrogation during Nazi and Communist times. We had been warned that it is quite a dark experience, but I was blown away at how moved I was. It’s a completely different experience to Auschwitz as this is like a big huge museum, and is so modern and arty that the contrast with what was being communicated on the countless video screens they had around the place, as well as the Jaws-like music playing made it all so very creepy and sad. I just can’t believe it – 60 Andrassy Ave, a beautiful building on what is referred to as the French Champs-Elysees, was a site of such atrocity that we can’t even imagine what went on. I just don’t know how it happened and was justified. One of the last rooms was called ‘The Gallery of Perpetrators’ and contained floor to ceiling photos of all those who worked there. Many of these people were still alive, so this happened very much in this lifetime. It leaves you shaken.
Afterwards we managed to stumble across a street art exhibition where artists were doing their thing right in front of us. One of the lasses was using this paper stencil she had made and we had no idea what was underneath, until she pulled it and back and revealed this amazing picture which she had crafted with spray paint. Imagine it people – try and get your head around it! Budapest is very much like a low-key, less talked-up version of Berlin – such an awesome place.
Next up – a quick detour past the local supermarket and a 20 minute rest at our beloved apartment. We always spend all of our weekends walking, but this was something from another league. My knees are still sore four days later! After knocking back a few local chocolate treats I’d been urged to try (rubbish – Hungary aint famed for its chocolate that’s for sure), we set off to catch a night time river cruise down the beautiful Danube river. Such a treat – we’ve always been a fan of the night cruise after our experience in Hong Kong and this was no exception. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – Budapest is so amazing!
By this stage we could just about fit a bit more food in so we set off to the famed restaurant street, a street which was suggested by locals as it was devoid of tourist traps, where we had a delicious traditional Hungarian meal – paprika (Hungary’s national spice) chicken and Hungarian pasta, goulash, chicken crepes, sausages and a side of stodge – bliss! We also shared a bottle of the famous Hungarian red wine Bukvar, which translates as bull’s blood. Let’s hope it’s not a literal translation. We also picked up a bottle of Unicum, which is a famous liqueur and is described as a ‘cross between Christmas and death’ – needless to say, we haven’t been brave enough to try it just yet! Maybe when Gemma and Mum come over for Christmas…
Budapest is quite famed for its Turkish Baths and it would have been utter sacrilege if we didn’t indulge, so we were delighted to learn that the most traditional baths in Budapest (one of 22 complexes!) was open until 4am on Saturday nights and for that one night only, both sexes were allowed to bath at the same time! As much as I’m keen to give anything a go, I didn’t fancy soaking next to 50 Hungarian ladies by myself. So off we set and it was clear from the get go that we did not belong, a fact which was heightened by having 60 sets of eyes staring at you as you try to ‘relax’ and let the healing waters do their ‘magic’. Don’t get me wrong, it was great fun and we sniggered together as beefy Hungarians in speedos grazed past our legs, while we sweated and squinted through the steam staring horrified as girls in high-waisted bikinis frolicked from pool to pool. We loved Budapest, but it does feel as if you’ve gone back a few decades – I mean at dinner the restaurant was playing ‘Barbie Girl’ and ‘Boys, Boys, Boys’, while a girl in newspaper printed tights with camel toe sauntered between tables - yes, you read that correctly.
We also weren’t quite familiar with the bath etiquette and when you’re solely in your swim wear surrounded by hundreds of people, it’s really not the best environment to set you at ease. So many saunas, different baths and buckets of icy cold water you’re meant to tip all of yourself – what’s the drill, in what order? We almost ran ourselves ragged with the stress of it all. Oh god, was I meant to have a sauna (set at 1 million degrees by the way) before I tipped ice water all over myself and gave myself irregular heart palpitations? I felt like a right tit – you could just about see the locals smirking with glee at my discomfort. ‘See that yob over there, thinks she can play with us big boys, but she’s just keeled over from heat exhaustion and she’s only in the baby pool’. We basked in the ‘ambience’ of it all for an hour and a half, before we managed to summon the energy to crawl to the changing rooms (more etiquette issues – am I supposed to stand around naked having a good old chin wag, bending over to pick up my shoes giving everyone a second-to-none view of my a-hole?). We left there feeling exhausted and given it was almost 2am – in dire need of sleep.
We slept for all of five minutes before Brad had set his alarm to get up and watch the rugby! I had opted to stay snoozing and we had fashioned a plan to meet three hours later in the town square, which is why I awoke with shock a few hours later to hear someone knocking on the windows of our apartment. Nervous it might have been a creep from the baths, I reluctantly tiptoed to the window, only to see Brad outside looking rather chilly. Turns out, Hungarians aren’t the greatest rugby fans and not one sports bar in the city was playing the rugby – and he would know, he walked around for two hours looking for one! It was pretty chilly outside, but he insists he had a lovely time as he basically had the entire city to himself – no one else was that crazy to be up and outside so early on a chilly Sunday morning. He had the good grace to bring back a few gems from the supermarket, so we had a wee munch before getting up, reluctantly checking out of our beloved apartment and hitting the road.
We had fashioned a plan for the morning, which involved a delicious something to eat at a famous Hungarian cafe, Lukacs, followed by a big walk to one of Hungary’s largest city parks, which was home to a large flea market on Sunday. The café was amazing and uber flash – we had a pastry and shared a piece of cake, with a coffee for Brad. We soon realised that we had better blimmen get going, as working back from the time we knew we had to be back at our apartment for pick up we didn’t have much time at all. More fast-paced walking that would put an Olympic athlete to shame, and we arrived – no time to soak it all up, we continued to hoon it to the markets. En route, I spotted a stall selling Langos, but a quick jerk on my arm from Brad had me thinking I had just imagined it. Make no mistake, he is his father’s son. I couldn’t keep up with Brad’s legs as he frantically searched for this infamous market, and instead opted to collapse beneath a big tree and watch leaves fall all around me – very soothing. Not for long sadly as Brad was back, shouting manically about a stall he had found, begging me to go without food so we could spend our last few forint here. He had found the perfect souvenir for us – a bullet from a Russian AK47, complete with shell, although thankfully the gun powder had been drilled out, otherwise I’m not sure how we would have managed to sneak that through customs.
Then it was a sprint to the nearest Metro (the second oldest Metro system in the world after London), where we had just enough time to run back to the hostel, grab our bags in time for our shuttle.
An utterly perfect weekend and one that we will never forget. It’s not the last we will see of Budapest either, but next time we go we will be back for a week!
Much love
x
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