Day 10: A Kind of Glitz and Glamour

Sunday, 18th November, was our last full day in Budapest so we cut down our list of things we wanted to do and put them in order of importance and opening times. First off we visited parliament, which we had kept postponing since the first day. The exterior of the building was beautiful and we had read that the interior was too, and it wasn't a lie. It was a stunning building and worth the visit and because Sarah and I are both travelling on Irish and British passports, we were allowed to do the tour for free as it is free for all EU citizens. My British passport finally paid off!

Part of the dome ceiling at parliament

 Another ceiling

 The left side of the front exterior of parliament

The view of parliament from the bridge to Margaret Island (please excuse the fog)

Next we walked to nearby Margaret Island, which is sort of like a smaller version of Central Park. Obviously being autumn/winter, there wasn't quite as much to do there than if it had been summer but as usual, we found plenty of fun could be had with the beautiful autumn leaves.

 On Margaret Island

Next on the list was a visit to the major shopping centre, West End. This ended up being a bit of a waste of time as we were both tired and hot (being indoors in all our layers) and didn't really feel up to it, although we did buy a couple of pieces in the end.

 The Christmas display at West End Shopping Centre

To cheer ourselves up, we stopped by the New York Cafe, which was voted the most beautiful cafe in the world. It really was amazing, with beautiful deserts and drinks. I had a fresh vanilla-apple lemonade and Sarah and some kind of coffee (sorry is that too general for you coffee lovers?). We also shared a plate of selected Hungarian deserts but the real clincher was the decor, it was beautiful.

Inside New York Cafe

We then headed back to the hotel and attempted to pack our bags for Stockholm, but found it too depressing, so instead we went down to the hotel bar and had a couple of cocktails. After getting tipsy way too quickly, we went for our last meal at La Botte before reattempting to pack our luggage, now slightly inebriated.

 Free cocktails are not necessarily a good idea...

Day 9: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Saturday, 17th November, saw us visiting the Central Market Hall, a double-story building that looks like it used to be a railway station and is now filled with local goods. The ground floor has fruit and vegetable produce as well as meat and cheese stalls. The upper level houses copious souvenir stores and local crafts, with everything from lace and traditional costumes, to ceramics, leather goods, snow globes and babushka dolls. Sarah and I went a little overboard with our shopping but it was worth it :)

 Central Market Hall from the upper level

Central Market Hall

 

After spending what seemed like half a day at the markets, we dashed back to the hotel to deposit all of our purchases and to grab a free coffee before heading out to do the other things planned for the day. First we made a beeline for the Budapest Christmas Markets. We saw them setting up on our first afternoon and couldn't wait to look around. We did preliminary stall shopping and taking photos while it was still daylight and made notes of where we wanted to go when we came back at night for dinner and proper European Christmas Market time.

Budapest Christmas Markets

 Budapest Christmas Markets

 Budapest Christmas Markets

We then headed off to the Parliament building, which we had seen the previous day from afar and decided it looked amazing. However, on the way there, we discovered we had less than 2 hours before a store we wanted to visit would close. Rododendron is a store featuring art and design goods by thirty up-and-coming local designers, and since it wouldn't be open on Sunday, our last day in Budapest, we decided to post-pone Parliament until the next day and so we could make it to the store in time. Good thing we did because I fell in love with a graphic design print, which I bought. We also had enough time to visit St. Stephen's Basilica (in the daylight) which was on the way to the store.

Ooo what's that behind our heads? St. Stephen's Basilica!

 The interior of St. Stephen's

In the evening we returned to the Christmas Markets to experience all their magical glory at night time. We bought a few little bits and pieces, tried local food (savoury this time!) and drank hot apple cider with cinnamon.

 Budapest Christmas Markets

 Mmmm... Hot Apple and Cinnamon!

After finishing up at the markets, we popped into Gerbeaud Cukraszda, which is a famous desert cafe (according to Lonely Planet). It was good, but very rich!

Royal Csokolade

Day 8: A Day at the Castle

On Friday, the 16th, we went down to grab some of our free hotel breakfast, only to discover that it wasn't just simply some croissants and jam, but a huge, six table spread of cereals, cheese platters, cold meats, jams and other spreads, hot cooked breakfast, pastries, about 10 different types of bread, fresh orange juice, champagne, tea, a coffee machine and multiple types of juice. It was quite a production!

 The bread/pastry table at breakfast

After breakfast, we set off on our first full day in Budapest. We walked first to the Gellert Monument and the Queen Elizabeth Monument which are across the river from our hotel.

Gellert Monument

From here we walked over to Buda Castle and caught the funicular up to the Royal Palace, Matyas Church and Fisherman's Bastion. These were beautiful. The exterior tiling on the church was stunning and Fisherman's Bastion was striking.

The Royal Palace

 At Buda Castle. The view of Pest is behind us.

Matyas Church

At Fisherman's Bastion

We also grabbed a bite to eat by trying a Hungarian pastry called Kurtoskalacs. They are basically dough that is cooked and rolled in something, mine was rolled in cinnamon and Sarah's in nuts. They were ok, but nothing amazing, and we didn't feel the need to try them again.

Trying a kurtoskalacs

After spending hours at Buda Castle, we descended and walked across the apparently famous Chain Bridge and then walked along the Pest side to the Shoes on the Danube. This is a memorial to the Budapest Jews who were shot by Arrow Cross militiamen between 1944 and 1945. The victims were lined up and shot into the Danube River and they had to take their shoes off, since shoes were valuable belongings at the time.

Chain Bridge

 Shoes on the Danube

We then randomly discovered St. Stephen's Basilica which looked beautiful at night. We plan to visit it in daylight during the next few days.

St. Stephen's Basilica

Before heading 'home' we made an effort to find Szimpla Kert, a bar that we were told had quite an eclectic mix of decor. It did, with all sorts of junk on the walls, it looked like a flea market had been regurgitated onto the walls and roof. That sounds gross, but it wasn't, it was just really quirky. It was created inside an old apartment block and had exposed brick, coloured pipes, bicycles hanging from the roof, lampshades, mismatched furniture, road signs, old computer screens, anything really. We then found our way back to our hotel and grabbed a quick dinner at La Botte.

Szimpla Kert

Day 7: Buda + Pest

On Thursday the 15th, we had to get up at 4am to drive 1.5hrs to Charleroi airport for our flight to Budapest. On our flight we met a Hungarian girl who works in Brussels who was flying home for the weekend and she gave us a bunch of tips for while we were in Budapest.

Check out the clouds as we flew across Germany!

When we arrived in Budapest, we had a ride organised with our hotel for them to pick us up but there was no man with a sign. After originally thinking maybe he was late, we realised our flight had arrived at the wrong terminal so we lugged our stuff to the other terminal to see if our driver was there. He wasn't :( After continuously searching new name cards, we decided to bite the bullet and turn our phones on and call the hotel. You may think we should have done it earlier but we just thought he would turn up after a while and we really didn't want to get charged for international phone calls. Anyway, after a couple of calls back and forth with the hotel, our driver arrived and an hour after landing, we were on our way to the hotel.

Our hotel is amazing. It's called Bohem Art Hotel and the interior is awesome. Sarah and I now know we can't go back to staying in hostels. Haha. It is situated one street from the Danube River and one street in the other direction from the main shopping street. If you can't tell from the photos below, the entire hotel features artwork from Hungarian artists.

 Our room at Bohem Art Hotel

Our room at Bohem Art Hotel

 You can't tell from this angle but there is a bar in the middle of the back wall.

 One of the foyer walls

We spent the afternoon shopping along the Vaci Utca and I got a bit disconcerted by the fact the sun goes down at 4:30pm. It feels like 9pm and it has been a bit hard to get used to. It'll be worse in Stockholm.

For dinner we found an Italian restaurant that also had a mini Hungarian menu. Don't get annoyed at us for choosing Italian. It's difficult to judge a restaurant as we are in a touristy area and most want to rip us off. The restaurant appealed to us because the menu and prices were amazing plus a lot of Hungarian food is meat based (Sarah is vegetarian) or has capsicum in it (I hate capsicum). Anyway, turns out we picked the right place because the food was so fresh and delicious and alot of locals were eating there. Our waiter was a really funny guy and to even out the food, we ordered Hungarian deserts. It was a good balance of trying something new and being happy with what we were eating. The best part, for 4 drinks, 2 mains and 2 deserts, it only cost us $20 each. Bargain!

The interior of La Botte

Our Hungarian deserts! I had Apricot Cream "Kecsskemet" Style, whatever that means, and Sarah had a Cottage Cheese Pancake with Hot Raspberry Sauce. Both were delicious :)