Budapest, Hungary – Ruled by the Romans nearly 1000 years ago, later the Turks for 150 years and eventually under Soviet control for decades. This place has an incredible story. And like so many other European cities, it’s skyline of massive cathedrals and domes doesn’t disappoint. One of the most interesting facts about Budapest is that it was originally two cities on opposite sides of the Danube river. Buda (and Obuda) to the West, Pest to the East. It wasn’t until 1872 that they merged.
We found a wonderful AirBnB flat near town centre and were quite pleased to find that our host, John, had left a fully stocked fridge and several bottles of Hungarian wine. What a treat. John Nadler, we learned later, is an accomplished Canadian journalist and author. Google him and read his books – super nice guy.
We spent about 10 days in Budapest (pronounced Buda-pesht by the locals). And unfortunately, had tons of rain – probably more than any other destination thus far. This doesn’t stop us from exploring but it does limit what things you can do. So after a week, we extended our stay a few more days as we felt a little jipped.
Anyway, our first day it was raining so we hopped in one of the enclosed ferries that transport people up and down the river. It’s a great way to see a lot of the amazing architecture like the Buda Castle and Parliament as well the famous bridges. Budapest has 8 spectacular bridges connecting the Buda side to Pest. We started at Liberty and headed north under Elizabeth, Széchenyi (Chain), then Margaret before getting off. Chain was the first permanent bridge built in 1849 Later we walked across both Chain and Margaret – each bridge having unique features and design.
On rainy days, we hung around our flat and watched the first 3 Pirates of the Caribbean movies. We also checked out the nearby West End City Centre mall (one of the largest malls in Europe). It’s kind of the opposite of all the history we were exploring – but modern is nice on occasion too. When there was a break in the rain we found our way to several parks. One had multiple trampolines. Another, a zipline – imagine a zipline at a public park in the U.S. Ha! That was fun. One day we even stumbled across the Budapest marathon! So we watched and cheered these amazing people of all shapes, sizes and ages – so inspiring.
The Royal Palace, built in 1265 sits atop the Buda Hills. We rode a funicular (hillside train-ish type thing) up and toured the National Gallery. It was our first art museum since The Louvre in Paris and it was awesome. Not a lot of the ‘rock star’ pieces that other museums market themselves with but the volume of beautiful paintings and sculptures was so impressive – highly recommend. Afterwards, we met friends Pete and Gertie from San Francisco who happened to be in town as well. The rains came again so we enjoyed drinks overlooking the Danube, Parliament and the epic Budapest skyline at night. So fun seeing familiar faces.
Some other interesting things about Budapest. The currency is called Forintz – and about 280 HUFs (Hungarian Forintz) = 1 US dollar. So our formula was to round up to 300 then divide by 3. i.e. 1000 HUF (a common bill) is about $3. It’s not super accurate but you’re usually within a few bucks. Most of the European cities we’ve visited use Euros with the exception of here, Prague (Czech Krauns) and London (British Pounds). Hungarian food is delicious as well. Myla ranted and raved about the goulash soup before arriving and she was more than right. Especially with the rain and cold weather, it so hit the spot. We also had some yummy pizzas, and the best burger we’ve found in Europe. The best part of all is that Budapest is incredibly affordable. Probably half the price (or less) of what we would pay back in San Diego. Because of this, we ate out often – but we did find time to cook at home too. The boys made some homemade squash soup one night (Jett says Mom’s sunglasses protect his eyes from the onion burn).
One thing that we take for granted back home is laundry. It’s so easy to pop in anytime you want and you have tons of options if something’s dirty. We, however, only have a handful of outfits. Shirts and pants can handle multiple wearings before a wash but underwear…? Actually, underwear can be washed in the sink and we’ve had to do that a few times. And luckily, many of our places have had laundry. But we didn’t here in Budapest. So one day, we loaded up a backpack with all the dirty clothes and hiked to a laundromat. It turned out to be closed. 😦 Sooo, we then hiked about a mile and a half to another – it was closed too! So we just went exploring with Mike carrying around all the clothes. Next day we went back to the laundromat and turns out it was a drop-off place where they wash it. Since it’s by the pound, we had to go through and pull out only the most necessary items to save money. Then Mike carried around the remaining dirty clothes for the rest of the day. This became a running joke in the family.
In the end, we had a great time here. We made the most of our bad weather – acting silly, playing games and having fun. We even went on a ferris wheel one day. Unfortunately we didn’t make it to any of the famous thermal baths. Apparently, they discourage children due to the water’s high heat. But we found the people here just as friendly and open as anywhere. Lots of English speakers and plenty that don’t. But those that don’t are almost always willing to help us figure things out. And we always make an effort to speak the local language. Hungarian is definitely a challenge, but we try. ‘Hi’ and ‘bye’ are basically the same word, Szia (pronounced See-ya) which is so funny to us and obviously easy to remember.
Wanting to head to Zagreb, Croatia next – we decided to see if we could find a Servas host along the way. And we did, just 45 mins from Budapest is a town called Szekesfehervar. And that’s where we headed next. Szia Budapesht!
Stivers Tribe 