Budapest, Hungary

Our recent trip to Budapest (pronounced Buda  Pesh) was a mixture of history lesson, hot house (a top temperature of around 37 degrees Celsius) and wonderful Baroque architecture.
The cities of Buda and Pest were established on either side of the Danube River and came together during the formation of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Budapest is often left off the 'must see' European city list - but we think that it should be. The people were friendly, food and drinks cheap and there is plenty to see and do - even just relax in the numerous public baths around the city.

Getting to Budapest
Our trip to Budapest involved the services of Ryanair. On this occasion, we had one 'happy' story and also one example supporting its reputation as the #1 most complained about airline in the world - see end of this blog post.

Firstly the happy story. Our trip to Budapest departed from Stansted Airport and on this occasion we had been a bit over-relaxed in our time management skills with leaving our house, catching the bus to Liverpool St station, as well as being a little overconfident in the Stansted Express's ability to get us door-to-door in 45 minutes. Also based on our experience with almost missing the train in Paris a fortnight earlier, we should have really learnt our lesson to give ourselves more time.

On arrival at the Liverpool station platform, we had just over an hour before the gates shut (Ryanair closes the gates 40 minutes sharp before the departure time). Somehow in our calculations with the train duration, we had assumed that we would have sufficient time to queue for the check-in counter (Ryanair forces non EU passport holders to undergo a rather beaurecratic visa stamping exercise at the check-in desk before travellers can board the plane); pass through security and then navigate our way to the correct gate.

It was soon obvious that the Stansted Express's claims to their 'average' travel time are really more of a stretch goal rather than reality, with the journey taking 55 minutes before the train had taxied into the platform. Bolting up the stairs, we then faced the dilemma of 'do we get the stamp' or 'do we just wing it'. Luckily for us, Ryanair decided to offer a level of the unheard of term: service - if you are ever in the unenviable position of running late for a Ryanair flight at Stansted, there is a dedicated Ryanair 'final call' counter/queue where we called out our flight destination, and the attendant was happy enough to stamp our boarding pass. Passing through security was no issue (we know the routine quite well) and by luck our flight had not been allocated a terminal using the shuttle. In the end (with a lot of running), we made it to the queue just after the official gate close time but luckily the plane was slightly late in its previous flight - hence happy story.

Fashion Street

Despite the drama of getting onto the plane, the overall flight was smooth and we exited the airport quite easily and used the Tripadvisor recommended minibus service straight to our hotel - La Prima Fashion hotel located in the old town area of Pest, next to the Vaci (Fashion) Street. Upon check-in to this very modern hotel, we noted that all the employees spoke excellent English and were extremely helpful. 

Map of our travels around Budapest

Fashion street

Not the temperature
- the London Olympic countdown outside the British Embassy

Pretty flowers along the streets

Danube River

Through our previous travels around Europe, we have already been a visitor to the Danube river; as it is the dividing line for many country borders or the main river intersecting a number of capital cities. The sight of many luxury river boats docked up in Budapest has inspired us to put a river cruise holiday on the to do list.

The luxury river boats on the Danube

The Danube

Exploring Budapest

Our first exploration of the city included a walk down the main square (Erzsebet Ter) where we did our due diligence on the different tourist bus companies before settling on the Red Bus.

The Red Bus hop on hop off tour

Baroque architecture - very pretty

Expressive artwork

Heroes Square
The bus route took us up the main avenue (Andrassy Way) towards Heroes Square.However, the combination of severe heat, dehydration and classical music between the guided commentary soon resulted in us falling asleep, waking up just as the bus crossed the Danube to Buda.

The Opera House

Trams - looks like St Kilda Road

St Stephen's Basilica

On route to the main attraction (Buda Castle), the bus passed by the statue of a medieval bishop, Saint Gellert who attempted to preach Christianity to the locals in the 11th century and they showed their displeasure by locking him into a nailed barrel and throwing him off the side of a cliff.

Sant Gellert statue and waterfall

Statue on Gellert Hill

Tradesmen with no harness or scaffolding

Fisherman's Bastion
As the bus travelled to the top of the Castle area, we got off to take a closer look at the Fisherman's Bastion, but we decided not to head into the castle as it was a relatively modern building that had been sacked by the Turks during their 100 year occupation and used as an ammunition store.

The Castle Hill area

Viewing Parliament House from a distance

The church on Castle Hill

Statue of one Hungary's kings

Fisherman's Bastion

Lunchtime

Lunch was eaten at a buffet restaurant where we enjoyed Hungarian pork ribs and fish. The weather was tempting for ice-cream, and by the time we re-boarded the bus we felt like we were being BBQ'd alive - heat-stroke didn't make the journey anymore enjoyable.

Lunch - fish and potatoes or rib and potatoes

The Citadel

Parliament Buildings
We left the bus soon after it had crossed over to the Pest side and passed the Parliament building. It was a long walk back to the hotel and luckily Olie bought a vitamin drink to rehydrate Mei. We camped back at the hotel for a couple of hours waiting for the heat to disperse before we took a walk to find a restaurant for dinner.

Rezkakas BistroOlie had researched a number of restaurants at the hotel and we found Rezkakas Bistro just off a side street from Erzsebet Ter. A live band was playing music and the waiter assisted us with choosing Hungarian wine to match our food. We ate a lot of goose liver - foie gras on steak and in salad. For dessert we headed back towards our hotel to Vorosmarty Ter, a tourist area where gelati could be paid in either Euro or Hungarian Florins.

Flower arrangement at the restaurant

Chain Bridge
We ended the night by taking a walk along the Chain Bridge (Lanchid) and admiring the view of the riverbank with the buildings lit up with flood lights, but also watching out for the hundreds of spiders that had come out of the daytime residences to hang about along the ironwork.

Buda castle at night

Buda Castle and the Chain Bridge

Chain Bridge

Chain Bridge with lights from the cars driving passed

Fireworks during the night

Danube Cruise
The next day we recharged on a filling buffet breakfast and by the time we stepped out of our hotel, the temperature was already in the mid 30's. A river cruise on the Danube seemed like a sensible idea and we chatted to a UK couple from Manchester as we admired the view along the riverside.

Riverbank during the day

Parliament House

Remains of a medieval fortress

Heroes Square
After the cruise, we took the Red Bus back to Heroes Square, took photos of the monument and walked through the gardens of the museum that include a fairytale like castle complete with a moat.

At Heroes Square

Heroes Square

Statues of the heroes

In the park near Heroes Square

Castle with a moat

Szechenyi Bath and Spa
The park also contained a famous Szechenyi outdoor spa and swimming pool. However the queue was too long, so Olie took some happy snaps from the reception area and we found refuge down a nearby street in a cafe that sold pizza, beer and had large fans that blew cooling water spray onto the patrons.

Pizza and beer

Public pools

Free Water

Budapest is a tourist friendly city, with free water available from the city fountains or from a spring water company promoting their products. As our flight back to London wasn't due to land  until 11:30pm, our goal was to find a place to eat but also to try and spend up all our Hungarian currency. We ended up eating at an Italian restaurant that accepted Euro as an alternative currency, ate more foie gras and our mini van came on time to deliver us to the airport.

Free water

Budapest airport is very slick and modern. We still had a few Florin coins left, but not enough to buy some of the famous paprika. And as the Euro2012 football final was on that night, Mei made good use of her 3G Kindle to connect to the BBC site and download the text commentary of the game. And despite all the complaints vented about Ryanair, the pilot did announce the half-time score during the flight, which makes you wonder whether they were focused on the game or flying the plane.

And the not so happy story
We shouldn't end the blog post on a negative note, but here is the not so happy Ryanair story that we alluded to at the start. On the way back from Budapest to the UK, we made note that although we always pay the extra £10 for priority queue (the dedicated line where in theory you get to board the plane first), beware of airports that use buses to ferry passengers from the terminal building to the plane.  Although the priority queue gets to board the bus first, stand in a special roped off area of the bus -  the privileges associated with paying that extra amount gets annulled instantly when the not so bright bus driver decides to open all the bus doors at the same time. Fail.

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