Wandering Spud: B U D A P E S T
BUDAPEST
Beautiful Budapest, what a stunning city.
If I'm totally honest it was never on my top 20 list of places to go and I have no idea why, I'm so glad that my friend Emma invited myself and one of my best friends Ruth to go to Budapest to celebrate her 30th birthday with her lovely friends because it was amazing. Not only was it the perfect girls trip with lots of sunshine and Hungarian wine (something we lovingly christened 'danger juice' because it was so easy to drink) but it was a fantastic way to see this magnificent city.
AIR BNB- Grand Astoria
I used AirBnB for the first time for this trip as Ruth and I wanted to be stay close to the other girls who were in another AirBnB in the Jewish Quarter. Our hosts had this amazing guest portal where we got all of the information that we needed which was great for me as a planner and we were able to book tours and airport transfers as well.
BEAUTIFUL BUDAPEST
After my trip to Iceland I was so worried that everything would cost the earth, but thankfully Budapest is quite affordable; 1000 Fornit is about €3/£2.75 and the wine that we fell in love with (Szent István Korona Irsai Olivér) was 749 fornit per bottle (£2.07). We did a mini shop for our apartment and bought so much food for about £25. The Hungarian language is very difficult, its not phonetic at all so we did get lost quite a lot but we laughed with the locals about our pronunciation of street names and drinks.
We got tickets for the Hop on Hop Off Bus Tour for 72 hours with 2 boat tours for 9900 Fornit (£27) which was great value. We really could have done with another day because there was so much to see and do, by the end of our trip I still didn't feel like I had my bearings- Budapest is HUGE!
We didn't do a full loop of the bus but we saw so much:
St Stephens Bazilika
The Chain Bridge (Pest)
Synagogue
Astoria
The Opera House
Heroes Square / Hosök tere
New York Palace
Castle Garden / Várker
The Parliament Buildings
We also serendipitously ended up going up the Buda Castle Funicular and being at Buda Castle and the Fisherman's Bastion at sunset which was incredible. The views were stunning and seeing all the lights come on was just beautiful. It really is a very pretty city.
BATHS
We decided to go to the Szechenyi Spa Baths and we ended up spending the entire day there, it really exceeded my expectations; I thought we would go for an hour or two but we had such craic and ended up being there for the full day!
They also served danger juice by the pint and I don't know if its because of the Blue Lagoon in Iceland but we didn't bring water or sun screen with us (which is so unlike me) so guess which eejet got sun stroke and a week long hangover!
FOOD
The food in Budapest was out of this world; my favourite thing that we tried was Langos- so fricking tasty with this fried deliciousness, cheese and sour cream. We also found a food market place called Karavan with loads of different food trucks and it as awesome especially when it was so warm. There were food markets everywhere and they were a great way to try all the local food- we even tried Somlói Galuska (Hungarian cake).
My favourite stalls by far were the lemonade stands; the elderflower lemonade was perfect in the hot weather but didn't have so much sugar that made you feel sick.
COFFEE
Surprisingly we didn't drink a lot of coffee and we ran out of time to go to the New York Cafe but we did go to My Little Melbourne. The the coffee was expensive for Budapest but about the same price as home and it was amazing, just like the coffee I'd had at Toby's Estate in Melbourne on honeymoon. Its definitely worth a visit.
WINE
I genuinely took me a week to recover from all of the delicious wine that we drank. In Budapest a nice bottle of wine will cost you about 1000 (£3) and a really nice bottle between 2000-3000 Fornit (£6-9). As I said danger juice was ridiculously cheap. We stayed in the Jewish Quarter so there were plenty of bars to visit. We went to the Ruin Bars, which is the most ingenious concept of taking the old and abandoned and making it something beautiful and a little bit magical. We also visited a wine bar called DiVino where the staff made some incredible recommendations and where I learned that one should always order sparkling water with white wine.
STILL TO DO
I would really recommend at least 4 days in Budapest to even do all of the major things once. I still feel like there is so much to explore and we didn't get to do:
Shoes at the Danube
New York Cafe
Eat a Kürtös Kalács
but what a great excuse to go back!
FASHION
Budapest was roasting, between 31-35 degrees everyday so I'm glad we packed mostly little Summer dresses. I always find it really hard to dress nicely in the heat because I end up so hot and bothered that I don't care anymore and just want to jump into water so I make sure I plan out my outfits with a few spares in there as well.
TIPS
Baths- for the love of God bring sunscreen and water!!
Drink all the wine!
1000 Fornit is about 3 euro/£2.75
Metro -validate your ticket! You buy tickets in packs of ten, and you tear one off every time you use it. Validating it stops you using it again and you must. Inspectors are everywhere and they will march you to an ATM to pay a fine if your ticket isn't validated. There are little machines on the platform that you insert your ticket and you get a time stamp, its so simple.
Check the time of the sunset and try and do the Fishermans Bastion- it was really special
Bring dry shampoo; we could not find any for love nor money
Don't wear heels- all the awesome bars are gravelly. Wedges were a perfect alternative
One of my tips for shine free photos in the heat is Maybelline Matte Maker (£3.99), a quick dust and you don't look like you perspire at all
HASHTAGS
#Budapest #Hungary #TopBudapestPhoto #Thirty #30 #BudapestBikini #WanderingSpud #Travel #InstaTravel #InstaEurope #IGBudapest #InstaBudapest #TravelGram #Wanderlust #BucketList #BudapestBucketList #Hungry_Gram #VisitHungary #VisitBudapest @ig_budapest @topbudapestphoto @travelhungary @welovebudapest @insta_budapest @budapest.hub
VISZLÁT BUDAPEST
We had such a blast in beautiful Budapest what with new friends and new adventures- you just cant beat it!
