Budapest has been on my list for a few years now, this summer I finally got a chance to fulfill my wish. One of my best friends wanted to go somewhere abroad with me and after a short discussion we came up with Budapest and instantly agreed to go there.
The Hungarian capital seems to be quite a popular destination recently what is understandable for the number of its atractions and considerably low prices. Seriously, there were so many English tourists that I was under impression that Great Britain decided to invade hungary and join it to the realm.
We walked 65km in four days. Come and have a glimpse of what we saw!
Budapest is divided by Danube river - left side is Buda and right side is Pest. Our hostel was located in the latter, by Oktogon metro station. Actually, it was within a reasonable walking distance to the centre so we didn't even bother to buy the 72-hour tickets as we initially planned. But about the hostel itself, it was quite hidden but once we got inside the building we went through a stunning courtyard. It felt so... majestic. Like in a film.
After getting there we refreshed ourselves and rushed out to sightsee. On our first day we covered some parts of Pest but we also crossed to Buda side, seen the Buda Castle and all the sights located near it. The weather was beautiful, 30 degrees and sunny and in the evening it was also warm enough to walk without any sweaters.
We ended the day by enjoying Hungarian beer in a small pop-up pub by the bank of Danube, just by the famous chain bridge. It was an absolutely fantastic spot to chill for an hour or two, specially after sunset while watching the bridge slowly light up.
The next day we spent on walking around Pest and discovering new interesting places. It is full of hidden and charming passageways that transform into lively pubs after dark. We remembered to return there later in the evening.
We walked the promenade by the Danube passing by the Parliment and a memorial of arrow-shooting people into the river. This memorial made a massive impression on me just by it's simplicity. It's a number of bronze shoes facing the bank... Then we dragged ourselves through the heat onto Margaret's Island where we chilled by a fountain.
The key point of the day were Széchenyi thermal Baths. We waited over 40 minutes to enter because of the massive queues, but it was so worth it. We deserved cooling down in the pools after a day full of walking. I didn't risk entering the baths themselves with my DSLR so I only did a shot or two peaking through the reception window. Later we headed downtown to spend a nice evening there.
On the third day we discovered the ruin pubs. By accident, actually. We were walking in the morning as usual, picking random routes as we went and we stumbled upon a curiously looking gateway, with a bunch of random objects hanging in the entrance. So we entered and there they were. It reminded me a bit of that artsy district in Hamburg. So cool. Both at day and at night.
In the afternoon we climbed up Gellert Hill. It was quite an effort and once we got up we stayed there on top for an hour. The wievs were truly amazing. The best viewpoint to see all the major attractions such as the Chain Bridge, Buda Castle and Parliment.
On the last day we did yet more random walking in Pest. This time, though, we went in the direction of Budapest Keleti train station (which we called Budapest Khaleesi because we couldn't remember the name).
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