Budapest travel highlights
stayed: An air bnb in the shadiest looking building but holy geeze, it was amazing on the inside. It looked straight out of an IKEA catalog all shiny and white-like. I didn’t want to leave! I wouldn’t consider Budapest an easily walk-able city, but this apartment was in a decent location to all public transportation lines. It was also close to plenty of good restaurants.
saw: A whole ton of PDA. European teenage boys are the kings of it I think. On the bus, at dinner, on the street…you name it. We saw one try to get to second base on the tram! Sheesh.
A laid back ruin pub. As I recall it was a Sunday night, so things weren’t poppin’ but I could see why this outdoor bars were so popular.
The infamous Kelti Train station. We’d seen this place on the news a lot prior to our trip and I was a bit worried about what it’d be like there. We arrived on our second overnight train around 8:00 a.m. and found the station to be very quiet. As we made our way to the subway, we did see some tents and a few groups of people sleeping.
conquered: The Szechenyi Baths. We weren’t able to check in until later in the afternoon so figured chilling at the bathhouse was the best way to kill a few hours. The hot water felt SO good after another bumpy train ride. All shapes and sizes were present strutting their stuff. It’s a huge facility with three large pools outside plus a bunch inside with hotter than hot steam rooms.
Drying laundry on a train – check!
The highly recommended Absolute Walking Tour which included a strudel stop and a recommended gelato stop, which we made later that day. Oh and yes, they did show us the main sights in the city too 🙂
Fisherman’s Bastion – the best view of the city IMO!
other travel notes: They’ve got small cabins (basically a small closet) to rent at the bathhouse that fit all of our backpacks, etc. so we didn’t have to worry about storing our stuff in another location. Note to travelers – Bring a towel if you got it, or else you have to rent ‘em. OK to bring in food and booze too.
All of the buildings on the hill of the Buda side were destroyed by the Nazis so everything you see there has been re-built. A big bummer for this history buff because things felt a bit “new” over there, but what can you do?
The streets can look rough, but it’s totally safe to walk around. I’d feel totally comfortable walking around by myself at night.
Note to travelers – Order the chicken paprika with dumplings. You won’t regret it. Best strudel place: Reteshaz. Best gelato place: Gelarto Rosa.