Budapest.
So then, Wifey and I are just back from a long weekend in Budapest. Just the 2 of us!
There’s a really long story on how we ended up in Budapest, and I won’t bore you with it, but it was the silver lining to a bit of a grey cloud.
Let me just say this; it was fantastic! Fact. And if you haven’t been then Wifey and I can thoroughly recommend it as a great city break.
Where were we?
We stayed in Pest, in a new build apartment about 15 minute drive from the airport. We were a 5 minute walk from the Danube in 1 direction, a 10 minute walk from Raday Utca (this is known as Restaurant Street – not a true translation), and is pretty much where the hustle and bustle starts, and a 10 minute walk to the nearest Metro Line Station called Klinikak.
Although, the area where the station is located was pretty much a shocking reflection of Eastern Block life, grey dismal derelict buildings, in much disarray, with a spanking new College plonked in the middle of it all! Very odd.
What to do.
We didn’t really have a plan of what to do, although we knew a few places where we wanted to visit, but we pretty much played it by ear. Here are a few things to do/ see that we found and can recommend;
Budapest Christmas Market.
WOW. What an amazing place the Budapest Christmas Market is. It has beatiful, unique little stalls adorned with many local gifts and treats from christmas tree decortions, clothes and pottery, to local foods, hot wine (very much recommended) and much much more.
It starts around the 29th November and ends around 29th December…if you go to Budapest during that period, then you will regret not paying this place a visit.
Szechenyi Spa.
The Szechenyi Spa is the largest thermal spring bath complex not only in Budapest, but in Europe. Built in 1913 in neo-baroque style. It is breath-taking in more ways than one! Wifey and I had planned to go there and had packed our swimming cozzies.
It was a 10 minute ride on Metroline 1 from Deak F. ter to Szechenyi Furdo, which is literally bang in the center of the main city park area, which hosts a large funfair and Budapest Zoo.
Bear in mind that it had been snowing, we paid our entrance fee, got changed in some very cleverly worked out changing rooms, and waded through some cold water, past a load of indoor spas full of people chilling out, then we went through a pair of doors that opened out onto a breath taking view of 3 external spas.
Remnants of the previous evening’s snow lay on the ground, wifey and I were in our cozzies and we walked the 50ft to the nearest spa bath, and stepped pensively into the warm (37 degrees) water.
The thick steam billowing across the bath mixed with the warm water slowly defrosting our cold bits was heavenly, and extremely theraputic. It was surreal sitting in warm water with snow laying around us.
Getting out and getting back to the changing room was erm bloody cold! ha ha ha, but worth it. It costs about £10 each for 2 hours…we could of stayed in there longer…the train ride was about £1.50 each return. Great value for money.
Great Market Hall.
A massive indoor market, the Great Market Hall offers 3 floors of market stalls and locals selling their wares and trading to everyone from the rich to the poor to the tourists. The majority of them are multi-lingual and very fluent in English. The building is stunning from the outside and inside alike, internally pictures adorn the walls telling the story of over 100 years of trading history. It has hardly changed in all it’s years.
Ground floor is mainly butchered meat (we came across a stall with skinned goat’s head on the main counter, complete with eyes in tact – erm…yummy!), sausages, vegetables (proper vegetables straight from the local farms, no EU regulations on size and colour), alcohol stalls, and thankfully stalls that sell sweets and cakes.
Lower floor we guessed sold fresh fish. We didn’t visit this floor as the smell was some what over powering. We could smell fish. And neither of us wanted to buy a fish. We gave it a miss.
Top floor was mainly tourist type gifts, plenty of traditional hand made clothing, which was stunning and it was obvious the Hungarians take great pride in both what they produce and their history too. There were also the local eating / drinking stalls, where most of the traders themselves would come to eat their breakfast, lunch and dinner, often necking a glass of hot wine or Tokaji (the local white wine), or even some Unicum.
We sampled a local delicassy (?) called Langosok, with was basically a pizza like base made from bread, deep fried and covered with a choice of topping. I went for the cheese and bacon option and did not regret it at all. It may have been high in calories, but I never saw 1 fat Hungarian, so figured it couldn’t be that bad! It was yummy. I had two. It set us back about £1.50 each. A true bargain.
Rustico Restaurant
We had walked past this place several times, it had a life size bright green cow statue outside it, and when we looked inside it was always full. We decided we would eat there on out last evening.
We walked the 2.5 miles to Rustico in the hammering snow, when we opened the door, the dozen or so customers and handful of staff looked in amazment at the two snow folk standing there dripping all over the entrance steps that led down to the wonderfully decorated restaurant.
Our apology filled, typically Weston, entrance over, we we shown to our seats and after we had spread our coats, scarves, hats and idiot mittens on the many hooks around the place to dry out, we sat and marvelled at this cracking little place.
The walls were festooned in history, and the staff were always on hand to advise us on what certain parts of ornaments (mainly old farm tools including bloody great scythes and ploughing instruments) were. They spoke perfect English, and were well mannered and equally amusing.
The menu is split between traditional Hungarian and Italian. Don’t let the thought of pizzas and lasagne put you off, from what we saw every dish was made from fresh produce and made from scratch. And if you didn’t know what something was, they explained it to you in simple terms.
Our meal, a starter for me, a main each and a desert between us, with a couple of beers included came to just under £40…another bargain!
Budapest in one paragraph.
Not easy, we worked out that we walked over 30 miles in 4 days. We marvelled at how beautifully lit the buildings on the Buda river side were of a night time as we walked along the river on the Pest side, we took funicular railway ride to Alexader Palace in Buda, we ate in a small cafe and had a 3 course meal based on traditional meal for under £7 each, we drank in a bar called For Sale which had 1000′s of business cards all over the ceilings and walls (we added ours) served great beer and food, and each table had a basket of monkey nuts on whichyou ate and threw the shell on the straw covered floor! We travelled on the underground, we trawled in and out of local shops, we spoke with Germans (in English), we were snowed on, we laughed, we cried and most of all we enjoyed it.
And would we go back? Damn right we would, but in summer and with the boys next time as there is so much for them to experience and enjoy too!
