Pest & Buda

06 - 10 August

I arrived in Budapest (pronounced Budapesht), Hungary's capital and a city with a rich and colourful history, whose name is derived from the combining of the cities on either side of the Danube River - Buda (west side) & Pest (east side). This fascinating city has ties to the Austro-Hungarian empire, but also many communist influences in the post-war period, and I found it to have a wonderful character that wasn't present in some of the more famous European capitals, such as Vienna, Berlin or Rome - and there were less tourists around too!

I stayed in a refreshingly small and friendly hostel that accommodated just 13 people and had a neat atmosphere and lots of Euro backpackers like-minded to me - not the stereotypical drink-alcohol-and-sleep-and-take-photos variety. Somehow I ended up spending most of my time with Canadians, with three different groups staying there.

My first morning there, I headed up to Várhegy (Castle Hill), the oldest part of the city and with an excellent view over the river towards the Pest side:

Statues of the Magyar horsemen & Hungarian flag

Mátyás templom (Mathais Church)

View from Várhegy over the Danube to Pest & the third-largest parliament building in the world

More of the view

A large inner-city square made a good spot for evening beers - liquor licensing laws are definitely more relaxed than in NZ! - which I enjoyed with Lindsay and Hannah, two Canadian girls from the hostel.

The next morning, Lindsay, Hannah & I joined Jan & Martha - two more Canadians - for a free walking tours, which are generally very excellent - often they are run by local students working during the summer, and they give a good overview of a city for the price of a few tips.

Jan, Martha, myself & Hannah trailing the tour guide around Budapest

Guards sweltering in the heat - apparently for show only - outside the president's offices on Castle Hill

The tongue-less lions of the Chain Bridge between Castle Hill and central Pest over the Danube River

The European summer heat wave was hitting it's high point, and one day the mercury even topped 40°C. It made going outside pretty hot, but one popular "attraction" in the square outside the Szent István Bazilika (St Stephen's Basilica, named after the first Hungarian king) was the water sprayers...

Martha & Hannah cooling off in the water sprayers... Who seemed to be there just to cool people down, and not actually doing any work!

I think what I liked about Budapest was not necessarily anything specific about the city, but more the character and atmosphere in and around the city. No doubt that was related to the people I met at the hostel too, but I thought it was a lot more interesting and colourful than Vienna.

Budapest also has hints of the architecture of more famous cities - some advice I got was not to forget to look up, where you could see more of the detailed decorations on the buildings. Hungary's capital also hosts one of the largest parliament buildings in the world, which, at 96 m, is exactly the same height as St Stephan's Basilica - except during the communist era, when a red star on top made the parliament building taller than the church.

After meeting three more Canadian guys travelling together and the 7 Canadians and I enjoying some drinks in the hostel, we headed out to an excellent example of Budapest's more interesting character - Szimpla, one of the famous "ruin pubs". Basically these inhabit old communist apartment blocks that fell into ruin, until someone came up with the bright idea to put a funky, off-beat pub in the inner courtyard. Filled with all sorts of slightly-hippy decorations, it served as a great place to spend a few forints and a night talking. Lindsay and I ended up there until almost closing time, after 3am.

The next morning I headed off by myself to the city park, Városliget. This large park is home to one of the largest Turkish baths - more about them later - as well as the Hősök tere (Heroes' Square), which hosts the monument celebrating the countries' millennium existence, and the Vajdahunyad Vára castle.

Heroes' Square

One of the heroes of the founding of Hungary

The fairytale-like Vajdahunyad Vára castle

Vajdahunyad Vára castle again

Lindsay and Hannah had left for Croatia that morning, but that night, the remaining Canadians and I headed off to one of the Turkish baths of the city. The city was occupied by Turks for a long period of its history, and the city is covered in public bathing houses, many of which are single-sex and togs-optional at various times (we went during a unisex, togs-required time!). The process of moving between hot pools, cold pools, hotter pools and the steam room etc was quite fun and all very relaxing and no doubt good for the muscles!

So, after 4 days enjoying a city I had no real expectations for, I was a bit sad to be heading off again. However, the call of the Croatian coastline and the Mediterranean was getting pretty strong, so the next day it was back on the trains and off to Zagreb...