Becoming a Szitizen of Budapest in 3 days

As I mentioned in my last post, I took Friday August 10th off of work in preparation for VACATION!! Now, if you’ve been paying attention, you may think, “Vacation? Dude. This girl just got back from 10 days of galavanting around Bavaria with her boyfriend. Does she ever work?”

The answer is, “Meh.” Ha. But what really happened is that as soon as I defined my departure date for Italy, Matt and I started planning his visit and our vacation in June as a way to split up our time apart. Once I actually got here, though, I found out that our office here actually closes for a week in August for everyone to take vacation. (For the record, most Italians take 2-3 weeks off each summer, and I swear 90% of them take that time in August, so if you ever wish to travel here, plan for early summer, otherwise you may run into shops and restaurants being closed for holiday).

So unfortunately my hands were tied- I HAD to take 2 vacations. Ha.

As I started thinking about and planning this trip, it evolved in a similar way to my vacations with Matt- high level first and then more detailed as specific events emerged. So for this trip it went kind of like this:

I want to spend my week outside of Italy because I will have seen much of Italy just through weekend trips.
Paris is on my list of cities I feel the need to see while over here.
What if I did a whole week meandering through France and drinking wine and eating baguettes?!
Mmm, train times aren’t really working out to allow enough time in the cities I want to see in France.
I also really want to go to a music festival in Europe… just because.
***Googles ‘European music festivals’***
Hmmmm, Sziget! The dates overlap with my vacation week, and I recognize some of the headliners! Never been to Budapest before… sold!
Ok, I still want to see Paris, and really need more than a weekend trip, so maybe I’ll do a few days in Budapest and the rest of the week in Paris.
Hmmm, flights on the cheaper airlines don’t really go between Budapest and Paris so it would be expensive and time consuming to make that transition…. Maybe I can find a “Transition city” to in between
What city is cheap to fly to from Budapest and also connects to Paris via a cheap airline?
Prague?!
Done.

I had never really thought about or planned to go to Budapest OR Prague, so I really knew very little about them. I tried to do some initial research to see how much I thought there was to see, and therefore how I should split my time between the 3 cities. From what I could see, they honestly all sounded neat, so I just split it pretty evenly- about 3 days in each city.

As I started telling folks in the office my plan, the almost unanimous response I got was, “Ah Budapest is great! Prague… eh.. Yea you really only need 2 days to see the whole city.. And oh Paris, you really need a full week or 2.” Oh well. I was incredibly excited nonetheless.

That Friday I took a nice relaxing morning, got a workout in, finished up the laundry I needed etc., then around 5:30pm caught the bus to Milan Bergamo Orio al Serio International Airport (it is the only airport near Milan that RyanAir flies out of).

I have to say, I hate RyanAir, but they’re cheap. Every flight I have taken with them has been delayed, and the customer service is never anything more than sufficient, if that, but the flights are crazy cheap. So. How much can you really complain?

The bus to Bergamo takes about an hour from Milano Centrale, but only costs 5 euros. When I arrived at the airport, the bag drop area was a MESS. So many people and the lines indeterminable, yet I somehow got my bag checked in and got through security relatively quickly. I had left extra time just in case since it was international, but it was still within the EU so there were no extra custom stations or anything. Basically, I had a lot of time. And then my flight was delayed an hour (because it’s RyanAir), so I had even more time haha.

I found a spot to grab a big piece of focaccia and a donut (what? they looked good!), sit, and start to read the book I had bought in the airport shop. We eventually boarded, and there were no issues once we were on the plane.

We landed in Budapest around 11:40pm. After waiting a bit for baggage claim to produce my suitcase, I headed out towards the ground transportation. I had preemptively had my hostel book a shuttle for me (I had emailed them for the best options for getting between the airport and the hostel, and a shuttle was only 10 euros, so it was completely worth it to not have to figure out Hungarian public transportation in the middle of the night). I was KIND OF expecting a shuttle where someone would be standing there with my name on a sign, so I wandered the arrivals area for quite bit reading the dozens of signs looking for “Vanderkolk” or “Avenue Hostel” which was where I was staying. Nothing.

I walked outside to see what there was to see. Nothing.

I eventually called the hostel, and they told me to look for a stand that said “MiniBud.” I saw that right away, so I went over.

I told them my hostel had booked a shuttle for me, they gave me a strange look, but then handed me a ticket. The guy behind the counter gave some vague directions where all I heard was “outside.” So.. outside I went.

I probably stood there looking like an idiot for a minute or two and then eventually saw a few shuttles off to the side with “MiniBud” written on them. Ok. I walked over, and another couple was also trying to figure out what to do. After another few minutes of looking like idiots, we asked a driver if we just wait for the next empty one or what. He directed us back inside and mentioned a screen.

Back inside.

We realized that in a little nook next to the MiniBud stand, there were two TV screens showing ticket numbers to announce when your shuttle was ready. You would think that would have been easy to point to from the original counter, but noooooo. Anyway. I grabbed a spot on the floor, called Matt, and waited for my number to pop up.

My shuttle finally departed with about 7 other folks around 1:20am, and I arrived at my hostel just before 2am. Unfortunately, I arrived just after 4 guys who did not have a reservation, so that took some extra time, and I did not actually get to my room until almost 2:30am. So tired.

(Taken the next day)

Details on Avenue Hostel:

Kind of in a hidden corner off of a roundabout area called “Oktagon” near District 6
In a semi-residential building, so you need to be quiet in the stairwells
It DOES have an elevator, though it’s mildly sketchy
When you first get there, you buzz up to reception to let you in, and they are on the first floor
Behind reception is a kitchen / small dining hall kind of area with tables and chairs to maybe seat 75 people where they serve breakfast in the morning. They also serve dinner 2 or 3 nights a week, but I was not around for that
There is also a small bar in this area, though I was never around in the evenings to see what times they were serving or how many people actually utilized it
There might be rooms on the first floor past reception, but I know there are some apartment areas on the 2nd and 3rd floor, each with about 4 rooms.
The door to the apartment areas on the 2nd and 3rd floors require a passcode which is only given out at reception
At least the 3rd floor had 2 full bathrooms, one of which was HUGE, but the toilet… let’s say.. Its plumbing apparently struggled
The 3rd floor also had its own small kitchen area with a fridge and stove if you wanted to cook your own food
It cost about 47 euros/night… but I also booked it through the festival website, so I’m not sure if that is normal pricing or not
My room did not have air conditioning. There was one floor fan, but I am not sure if the hostel provided it or if another guest actually brought it, because one guy pretty much kept it pointed directly at him the whole time.

It was hot as all get out that first night, so even though I was exhausted, it took me a bit to fall asleep.

The next morning I headed back down to the reception floor kitchen area where I ate a bowl of Cocoa puffs with warm milk and headed out the door haha.

A friend from college had literally been in Budapest the weekend prior, and she had recommended doing the Free Walking Tour. I had never heard of such a thing, but at least in that part of the world it is actually quite common. Companies will host tours around a city on a set daily schedule, and the only payment is the tip at the end. If you thought they were very good, you pay what you believed the tour was worth. I believe at least for most companies the tour guides are still full time and ‘certified’ and everything, so you really do get a wonderful 2-3 hour tour of a city. I doubt we have these ANYWHERE in the US, but if you come to Europe or go anywhere else, do a quick google search and see what you can find!

My Budapest tour was done by a company literally called “Free Walking Tours.” We met in a plaza near the river, then they split the tourists up into groups and had about 5 guides ready to take each group through the city. My guide was a girl who went by “Eddy.” My guess is that Eddy is some shortened nickname form of her Hungarian name that would likely be impossible for a native English speaker to pronounce :-)

Eddy was fantastic and gave a perfect amount of history as she showed us around the city. The tour started at Vörösmarty tér plaza and ended at the Fisherman’s Bastion near Matthias Church.

Brief history of Hungary as presented by Eddy (and filled in by Wikipedia):

The area of Budapest was originally a Celtic settlement and then a Roman city
Budapest as a united city was created when the 3 cities of Obuda (Old Buda), Buda, and Pest combined in 873 A.D.; Buda is still considered the high class, royalty side of town, where Pest is more for the working man. Though they have been joined for over 1,000 years, there is still a small rivalry between the two sides of the river
Present-day Hungarians are actually from Asian ancestry, but ended up in the current area around 896 A.D.
After migrating to this area, they were surrounded by Christian nations, so essentially became a Christian nation to fit in
They were occupied as part of the Ottoman / Turkish empire until about the 16th or 17th century; this occupation brought cultural aspects like the Turkish baths and paprika to Hungary
They were then occupied by Austria as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; when they split into Austria and Hungary in 1918 at the end of World War 1, Budapest became the capital of Hungary with Vienna the capital of Austria.
Hungary got to be their own entity for a solid… six months? Then became the Hungarian Soviet Republic. Then the Romanians occupied them. Then in 1920 the Hungarian government and Prime Minister were restored.
Then in 1944 Nazis occupied the country
During World War 2 over 70% of the buildings in the city were bombed
After World War 2, the Soviets occupied Hungary until around 1990, coinciding with the general dissolution of the Soviet Union; Hungary tried to overthrow the Soviets during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 but were crushed by military forces
She showed us the first statue put in place after the Communist era (and after all of the communist statues were removed), called the Little Princess; she was modeled after the eldest daughter of the artist who created the statue and sits on a railing as you face the Danube and the Buda side of Budapest
You will frequently hear about the “Ruin pubs” in Budapest; the ruin pubs started in the Old jewish Quarter where many buildings had been abandoned due to the poverty which started after World War 2. The first one, Szimpla Kert, opened in the early 2000’s when a group of friends decided that the city needed a social meeting point for cheap drinks. They gathered donated furniture and art and knick-knacks to hang on the walls and started serving beer. Each ruin pub apparently has a different feel or motif, but they all serve cheap drinks and host community events.
Due to Budapest’s diverse history, the city takes on the feel of many cultures. Not only does this characteristic make it incredibly lovable for people like me, but apparently makes it a hot spot for movie filming because a director can make Budapest appear to be many different cities throughout the world
Budapest contains the second largest synagogue in the world
St. Stephen was the first king of Hungary, and a basilica on the Pest side is named in his honor; Within St. Stephen’s Basilica, you will find at least two unique things- 1) the right hand of St. Stephen which was cut off by pagan rebels (after St. Stephen turned Hungary Christian) stored in a box just left of the main altar as an important relic, and 2) the tomb of Ferenc Puskas, a Hungarian soccer player regarded as one of the best players of all time….
In the 1840’s the Chain Bridge was built which was the first permanent bridge across the Danube in Hungary and now symbolizes modern Budapest as a united city
A Hungarian man invented the Rubiks cube
The domes of the Parliament building (finished in 1896) and St. Stephen’s Basilica (finished in 1905) in Budapest are the exact same height (96 meters) to symbolize the equality of church and state; regulations now prohibit construction of anything taller than these buildings
Matthias Church (originally built in the 13th century) is now named after King Matthias from the 1400’s; his third wife, Beatrice, was Italian (Napoli, woot woot!) and was the reason that the Italian Renaissance was introduced to Hungary
The Hungarian Prime Minister is the leader of the government, and after their elections this year it sounds like they are going through some of the same struggles that much of the Western World is currently going through
Hungary, although part of the EU, does not use Euros. Some places will accept them, but for the most part you have to use the Hungarian Forint

Hm. Maybe not so brief. But fascinating, right??

Little Princess.

St. Stephen's Basilica.

Looking across to Buda side.

Chain Bridge.

Looking out at St. Stephen's Basilica.

Matthias Church

Fisherman's Bastion

We finished the free walking tour around 1pm. I COULD have taken the bus/ tram system up to the festival, but Eddy warned that the Hungarian transportation controllers are mean and do not speak English… so… I chose to take a long, long, long stroll instead.. right along the Danube up to the Obudai-Sziget, the island where the music festival is hosted!

I knew it would be about an hour and half, but the weather was nice, and I thought walking along the river would be relaxing. I was correct for about half an hour or so. Then the sidewalk ran out and Google Maps had me walking on the side of the road like hitchhiker.

The Buda side promenade.

Looking out at the Parliament building.

Someone call Shel Siverstein, I found where the sidewalk ends....

I pressed on anyway and finally made it up there. I had to follow some girls to find a little opening in the fence to let me through, but then I checked in, got my bracelet, and crossed through the Sziget bridge tunnel.

So. Sziget is an INSANE music festival hosted in Budapest since 1993. I really only say “insane” because it is 8 days long. 8 DAYS. I have never even HEARD of a festival that long. Each year over half a million people come into Budapest to attend the festival which is hosted on an island in the Danube. Pretty much the entire island is taken over with stages and vendors and campsites and facilities for those camping.

On one end of the island there is a small beach where they set up an area to allow folks to swim in the river (but only in a very small and shallow portion). On the beach they also have more bars and food stands, and they hosted sessions all day long such as Hatha Flow yoga, Death Cafe Budapest, and Prananadi Tibetian Energetical Treatment. Really. They had the Sziget “Sports” zone where they had a rock climbing wall and a small soccer field. Then all over the island there were dozens of different bars and stages and “play” areas where you could do karaoke or go on what was essentially a giant see-saw. You could watch a Hungarian documentary playing on a big drive-in type screen. You could charge your phone. You could buy clothing or beach accessories. You could get your hair done or your face painted. There was a spot called the Colosseum that had a DJ playing all day starting around noon, so any time you wanted you could walk over, grab a drink, and dance for a bit under the sprinklers they had (it was soooooo hot out). It was constant chaos, and it was absolutely fascinating. I loved it.

And of course, there was music. There were maybe 12 stages dedicated to musicians, most of which from Europe, playing almost all day long. Along with the headliners from the UK, I got to see a hip hop group and a punk group from Hungary, an indie folk rock group and a general indie.. Almost ska-esque? group from France, a German rap group, and an incredible afro-fusion (I thought she sounded a bit reggae) singer born and raised in Kenya but now living in Switzerland.

It would be difficult for me to give a play by play of my two days at Sziget, but

here are the highlights:

I ate a bunch of overpriced festival food from stands
I saw some incredible music, many of the musicians I plan to continue to listen to going forward
I got glitter painted on my face both days… just for fun… and will now be finding glitter in my clothes and possessions for years to come
The island is incredibly dusty, so whatever you do, whatever you wear, you will end up covered in dust, coughing on dust, and with dust up your nose and covering your feet. It is inevitable.
I realized that I HATE being in the big crowd in front of big headliners.. It is so crowded, there is no room, no one has personal boundaries, you end up standing for hours just to “get a good spot” and then can’t really see anyway because there are so many people, it’s hot, you get stepped on and pushed over…. But still, the headliners were pretty neat
Bastille puts on an amazing and energetic show
At some point between Bastille and Mumford & Sons, the crowd broke into, “Heyyyyyyyyyyyy, heyyy baby (Hoo. Ha.) I wanna knoooowwwwwww if you’ll be my girl”... universal truth
Europeans LOOOVVEEE Liam Gallagher
I struggle to maintain energy for music and dancing past about 12:30am, at least when I am alone
I wasn’t sure at first how to get back to my hostel from the island since I did NOT want to walk the hour+ back after midnight, so I first texted Matt asking him to help me google it remotely, and then I asked the “Customer Service” tent… and they were not useful. They told me to take the tram, but when I asked if there was a machine to buy a ticket (I hadn’t used it yet, I wasn’t sure), they said,

“.... Yea, probably..”...

“So I should be able to buy a ticket this late at night?”

... “Yea…. probably…”

So instead I hopped in line for “Taxi island”- I waited about 20 minutes and took a 10 euro equivalent cab ride that took about 10 minutes back to my hostel. Worth it. Did the same the next night.

Sunday morning, however, I was determined to figure out how to use public transportation to get there. Due to my European public transportation disability, it took maybe 2 hours to get there when it should have only taken 45 minutes… but that’s fine.
I want to camp at a music festival someday

Dope Calypso

He also let one of the audience members take the mic and sing for about half a song

Punnany Massif

The Colosseum

Bastille

German rap group... Keine seitz I think?

Sziget Beach

Glitter face plus the guy behind me rockin out

Breaky Boxes

Mon Cote Punk

Claudia Masika

Liam Gallagher. And yes, he played Wonderwall, and yes it made me feel 10 years old.

The public transportation automatic ticket machine. Also, if you go to their website you can translate to english and they have a map of Automatic ticket machine locations!

The validation hole punch.

So that covers Friday through Sunday. My flight from Budapest to Prague on Monday wasn’t until 7:40pm, so I had most of the day to further explore the city.

As an additional recommendation from my friend, my first priority was to go to the Gellert Baths. I packed up, left my suitcase at the hostel reception, and bought my tram tickets towards the bath. I was able to get there with limited mistakes (maybe just 3 or 4.. For instance, the machine that validates your ticket on the tram was just a manual punch that you have to pull forward with some force to actually get it to punch a hole through your ticket… It took me awhile to figure that out). There was a line when I arrived, but not more than a dozen people.

As a reference on the Gellert Thermal Baths:

The baths are part of the the Hotel Gellert and are really a spa / pool type facility
The current building was built in the early 1900’s, but there is record of baths being in that location as early as the 13th century
During the Middle Ages a hospital was located at the same spot for use of the “healing powers” in the water
The thermal baths are small pools filled with water from the hot springs in Gellert Hill
The more popular thermal bath in Budapest is the Szechenyi thermal baths on the Pest side, but I was told they are bigger and much more crowded
It cost me about 6000 forint (or about 21 USD) to buy a ticket into the baths for the day with a locker or “cabin” to keep your stuff in.

I honestly just spent maybe 20-30 minutes in one of the thermal baths and called it done, though. I wanted to experience it but had other things to do that day. Unfortunately, I did not think through the fact that I would then have a wet bathing suit with me… so I took everything out of my tote and shoved it into my purse so that my swimsuit wouldn’t ruin it and then carried around a wet bag all day. Brilliant.

Next up was walking to the top of Gellert Hill to see the Liberty Statue. Almost as soon as I started I realized I should have done this little hike first, but… hindsight is 20/20 eh?

The Liberty Statue was first built in 1947 to commemorate the “Soviet Liberation” of Hungary from the Nazis. When Soviet rule ended in Hungary, they changed the commemoration to those who sacrificed their lives for Hungary and the inscription (translated from Hungarian) went from

“To the memory of the liberating Soviet heroes [erected by] the grateful Hungarian people [in] 1945”

"To the memory of those all who sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom, and prosperity of Hungary"

The monument was also built next to a fortress from the 1800’s, but I didn’t really read much about it or see much of it. The walk up to the top is decently steep and tiring, especially in the heat, but it is a well maintained path / stairs combination. You also get a pretty nice view of the city from the top. There is ALSO a cart vendor up there selling ice cream, lemonade, and the Hungarian traditional liquor, Palinka. Excellent. I obviously grabbed an ice cream, found a small patch of shade to stand in for a moment to take in the scene, and then headed back down the hill.

Next stop, Szimpla Kert Ruin Pub for lunch.

The pub itself is really, really neat. Food, not so much, but the bar itself for sure. It’s almost impossible to look at everything. I would LOVE to have hung out there on a Friday night, but twas not meant to be this trip.

Then that was about it. That was essentially all I had time for, so after lunch I started wandering back towards the hostel. I realized I still had a just bit of time, though, so I decided to stop at a random coffee shop I found (with A/C) and have one last beer. Because it was hot. And I was tired.

After grabbing my suitcase from the hostel, I managed to make my way to the airport via tram and a shuttle bus. Woohoo! I don’t think I even made any mistakes along the way! Although… the bus was pretty full, and I didn’t want to leave my suitcase in the aisle like others were doing because it would roll around and annoy people, so I ended up sitting on a step near the back instead of a seat. Silly Leslie.

The lines at the check-in counters at the airport were ABSURD, and of course my RyanAir flight did not have a counter assigned when I first arrived so I just had to stand and wait. While waiting, though, I did see a few guys get in a big enough fight (I just saw it from a distance) that the Hungarian military men in the area came over to separate them. Not sure what happened after that. Anyway, when they finally announced at which counter our flight could check-in, they also announced that our flight was delayed 1hr 40 minutes. Go figure.

Unfortunately, the Budapest airport has minimal options for sit down restaurants (I was looking to waste time), so I ended up eating at an American “O’Leary’s”... the shaaammmeee.

Even by the time I was done with dinner, they still hadn’t announced a gate for our flight yet, so I wandered some more, bought a caramel latte, and sat on the floor reading.

When they finally announced our gate around 8:30pm, a large group of us immediately started power walking towards it. We came to a point, though, where it looked like we were going to have to go through security again. I was really confused, but started chugging my latte just in case. It ended up being a ticket check (which still doesn’t make much sense to me) followed up by a jet bridge which led to some stairs which led to a walkway which led to a warehouse type building on the tarmac that had been turned into a small waiting area for about 4 gates. Really bizarre.

We had to wait an additional 10-15 minutes inside the warehouse area and then they let us move outside towards the plane, but stopped us again and we had to wait another 10-15 minutes outside. By this point my back was killing me from being on my feet for 3 days straight and my stomach hurt from chugging a milk product, so I was not looking forward to the uncomfortable RyanAir seats. Despite all of that, I was SO excited to venture towards my Bohemian homeland in Prague!!

Overall, I know that I did not see ALL of Budapest in the 3 days I was there, especially considering that I spent most of Saturday and Sunday at the music festival, but I must say I loved Budapest as a city.

Sometimes the ‘soul’ of a city is hard to describe. I don’t always have concrete reasons for the ‘feel’ I get from the cities I visit, but to me Budapest has taken its really diverse past, its history of constant occupation by so many different cultures, and taken pieces from each to create its own mosaic of a culture. And I found it to be beautiful. I know that America is called the ‘melting pot’, but the term felt more appropriate and accurate in Budapest. It felt welcoming and vibrant in a way that no other city had felt up to that point. I left a bit of my heart there, and will gladly return one day to find it again.

See you soon!!!!