Hello, my name is Annette and I’ve had the honour of contributing with
some of the experiences I had in wonderful Budapest on #myjetsetlife. Thanks to
Annlaug, the biggest cosmopolitan I know. And sorry in advance for my lack of English gramma skills✌.
I went to Budapest in the middle of May with 14 of my fellow students
from Musicology from Copenhagen University. It might sound as a lot of people
travelling together, and it sure was, but surprisingly, it became a wonderful
and joyful trip with a lot of laughing and good moods. It might have been a
unique experience, where everything for some reason went well, but even having
this in mind, I can recommend travel with a bunch of good friends and here’s why
1) You’ll
never get bored. There’s always someone to talk with.
2) You don’t
get tired of the one travel-buddy you’re travelling with.
3) You can
divide the main group into smaller groups if you’re not interested in seeing
the same things (of course, you need to be aware that these sorts of
arrangements can evolve to separation of the group).
4) There’s
always one who wants to be the travel guide, when others don’t.
5) There’s
always at least one who wants to share a bottle of wine with you.
6) There’s
always at least one who wants to party all night and always one who wants to go
early to bed. Then there's the rest in the middle.
Of course, these are the obvious advantages, travelling with a lot of
friends will imply that you bring your bag of patience and a willing to
compromise 😉.
My travel buddies (new EP coming up).
Now, to the main subject, my small guide for Budapest. A beautiful,
European capital city placed in the north-middle part of Hungary with a
population of 1.7 million inhabitants. The city is separated in two, “Buda” and
“Pest”, Buda is the area where the old and beautiful buildings are, and Pest is
where ‘the real people live’ – at least this was what we were told by our guide.
Where we lived
We lived in district 6 "Terézváros", very close to the old Jewish area (district 7) and is very central to many places including the Opera House (see map) and the big station Oktagon. The
place was booked through Airbnb, where there could live up to 16 people and it was
super cheap. Recommendable. Click here to see apartment on airbnb.
The group in front of our temporary home (the car is not ours).
Some info about the city
The weather was like the warmest kind of summer you can imagine in
Denmark (around 25-26 Celcius degrees), perfect time to be in Budapest. The
city is full of historical monuments along with old building (some of them
rebuilt and some of them quite tumble-down), very long boulevards (bring the
best sneaks you have) and beautiful parks.
Ways to see the city from a viewpoint
In the middle of both sides: On our first day, we went to the island "Margitsziget" between Buda and Pest, where there is a very nice park and here
you get a nice impression of how big the city is.
Picture taken from Margitsziget.
By sea: One afternoon we went on a boat-trip (one hour) on the Danube
for about 2000 HUF (in euros that’s around 6,5 €). Was very nice to see the city
from the famous river and also you could buy beverages for cheap money.
By hike: You can hike up the Gellért hill on the Buda side, where you
get a beautiful view over the city. Especially in the evening, where you will
see the lights turned on. It takes around 20 minutes to walk the hill. On the
way to the top, you’ll see a waterfall and on top of that you'll find the Saint Gellért
Monument, which surrounds the statue of Bishop Gellért, who wanted Hungarians to
convert to Christianity (it took 100 years after before Stephen I, the first
King of Hungary, made Christianity Hungary's national religion).
Saint Gellért Monument.
On top of the hill
you’ll see the Liberation Monument, which was built in 1947 and is a symbol of
the Soviet liberation of Hungary from Nazi forces during World War II.
Me, perfecting the liberty stature
By stairs: You can get a nice panorama view over the city if you take
the stairs up the St. Stephens Basilica (one of the World’s 10 most
photographed buildings). It’s located in the middle of the city and pile up
with its 96 meters (Danish ‘Rundetårn’ 2 times, ladies and gentlemen).
Stairs to heaven .. or just to the top of the Basilica.
Nightlife / Budafest
So, as the title indicates (‘fest’, which means party in Danish,
Norwegian or Swedish) Budapest could as well be called Budapest-party, mainly
because of their hip and awesome ruin-bars located in the old Jewish area. We
went to three different bars: Szimpla Kert, Kuplung bar and Instant bar.
Especially Szimpla Kert is worth a visit, a never-ending pub, which continues
upstairs and downstairs. Drinks and shi sha for cheap money (like anywhere in
Budapest, drinks and beers are cheap). Even on a Sunday, Monday and
Tuesday there a lot of people in these pubs.
Two of my friends posing in front of Szimpla.
Where to eat
Every day one person in the group booked a table for the whole group in a
restaurant, so we had delicious meals every evening. I can recommend doing
this if you are a big group, because even if you split up during the day, you’ll always know where to meet
in the evening.
First evening we ate at a restaurant called Most Bistro. Giant menu card
(they literally served anything from authentic Hungarian food to American
burgers to Italian spaghettis to traditional fish courses to Asian courses),
very hip once again and the food was delicious. The service could have been
better, but all in all a nice place.
A selection of the menu card at Most Bistro.
Second evening we ate a very fancy and almost-brooklyn-kind-of-vibe
restaurant called Mazel Tov located in an old, but newly renovated “ruin”. As
the name indicates it’s a Jewish restaurant, where you could get a large range of
delicious Jewish cuisine. The service was in top and had it been a restaurant in
Copenhagen the price would have been 3 times the Budapest-price compared with
the location and the quality of service and food. Oh, and did I say there was a
saxophonist playing solemn jazz background music?
Mazel Tov.
The last evening, we ate at a small, romantic bistro called Kispiac
where they served food from the Hungarian cuisine. Paprika and lamb dominated
the menu card. It felt very true to Hungarian food traditions and definitely
worth a visit if you want to have an authentic sip of Hungary.
Kispiac.
What to do
The third day we split up in smaller groups and some people went to see
the old city of Budapest and others went to go shopping. The old city is a very
beautiful area with historical monuments, churches, the Fishermen’s bastion and
the spa. Click here to find a guide for what to see in the old part of the
city.
I went shopping with three other girls. We took a stroll down the street
called Király u. in the 6th district of Budapest. Here we found a
lot of vintage shops (I can recommend Gardrob Second Hand and Ludovika) used a
couple of hours in the area. We had some nice Asian noodles for lunch at Pad
Thai Wokbar, which was in a beautiful courtyard called Gozsdu Courtyard filled
with small bars and restaurants.
We also went to swim baths, a must-do when in Budapest. We went to the
biggest in Budapest called Széchenyi baths and pool. Here we used a lot of
hours and it was fun to swim around in historical old buildings. There are a
lot of spas in Budapest and some are open to late in the evening – we didn’t
get to do it in the evening, but I have heard that it’s a nice experience to
swim around in the old beautiful spas when it's getting darker.
Don’t forget to see the Great Synagogue on Dohany street. It is huge and
very beautiful, but be aware that you are not allowed to enter if you are
wearing shorts/mini skirts and uncovered shoulders. The synagogue commands the
Jewish museum as well. Unfortunately I did not get a good picture of the synagogue, but you can find information about the synagogue and museum here. Just
around the corner of the synagogue you’ll find a small shop called Fragola,
where they sale the famous cinnamon roles. If you like vintage shops there is a
big Humana on the same street just 5 minutes away from the synagogue.
Me being very excited about the cinnamon role, which is basically "dough with cinnamon" as my friend Anne Marie romantically describes it.
The last day we only had the morning and early afternoon, so we went to
the big food market ‘Central Market Központi Vásárcsarnok’ close to the Liberty
bridge. A perfect place to go on the last day when you’re running out of cash.
Here you can easily use 1-2 hours if you want to see the whole market. You can
buy anything from Hungarian paprika, salami, fruit and berries to Hungarian
souvenirs, clothes and bags.
Pictures taken by: Annette Scharling, Smilla Bundesen, Ditte Nebeling and Anne Marie Roel.
