Weekend in BUdapest

March 6-9, 2019

Buda + Pest:

Historical fact of the day - in 1873 the cities of Buda and Pest merged to make Budapest, so one side of the river is actually the Buda side and the other is the Pest side. We stayed on the Pest side of the river, but we crossed the bridges to the Buda side everyday. The longest walk we made between the two sides of the city was probably 50 minutes, but it was a manageable distance with the nice weather and some short stops along the way. I preferred walking over public transportation, because it was nice to see the city at a human pace rather than being in an underground metro or bus. The public transportation was pretty easy to use, but it's going through some changes/updates so just make sure you know which transport options are open and running. We looked confused enough for strangers to finally tell us that we had to take the metro and not the bus while trying to get to the Széchenyi Baths.

View of Buda (left) and Pest (right) from Gellert Hill and Liberty Statue

From the lookout towers at Fisherman's Bastian

thoughts on Public Baths?

I didn't think that I was going to be a big fan of a public bath, because it was still a chilly day to be outside and I thought the place was going to be super crowded. But spending a few hours at the Széchenyi Baths was actually very relaxing and a memorable experience from this trip. We only made it to Széchenyi, but there are several baths in the city that are worth it to check out! There are the Gellért Baths and the Rudas baths, and these are both mainly indoors (Széchenyi is mainly outside). The Rudas baths have men only, women only, and co-ed days, so sadly we weren't there on any of the days that we could go in.

Tips: Buy tickets online to skip the line at Széchenyi + bring sandals because you need to have them to go in or you have to buy some there.

IMG_5231_Facetune_07-03-2019-14-12-07.JP

Rudas Baths

Széchenyi Thermal Baths

Sights to see:

Budapest was my favorite city that I visited this semester, because it was less crowded with tourists and had a lot of places to explore that were indoors and outdoors. The first day we walked to the Central Market Hall and walked through all the stores and grocery vendors inside. I love finding gifts and souvenirs at these kinds of places so I was happy we went there. After the market we crossed the bridge to the Buda side to visit the Hungarian National Gallery Museum at the top of the super steep hill that many of the city's popular buildings were on. Finding our way to the top of the hill was a hike since there were so many different ways to go up and lots of hidden staircases. I thought the museum was interesting and gave a good overview of Hungarian art and influences. If you are visiting the surrounding locations already, then the museum is definitely worth a look.

The next day we took the bus up the same hill that the museum was located on to visit Fisherman's Bastion. The lookout towers give a great panoramic view of the city and are free to go to. We explored the area after and also got to see the changing of the guards in front of the Buda Castle. After spending the morning there, we walked down the hill to see the Hungarian Parliament Building next to the river on the Pest side. We could see the Parliament building from different points of the city, but the gothic revival architecture was amazing to see up close. The Shoes on the Danube River memorial which honors the Jews shot into the river during WWII was close to the Parliament building, so we visited that site as well. There were a lot of people visiting the memorial and many left flowers and candles in the 60 pairs of iron shoes along the river. So if you are going to Budapest, I recommend visiting this memorial during your trip.

The last day also involved a lot of walking. We did a short hike up Gellért hill to see the Liberty Statue and saw another great view of both sides of the city from the top. The statue is another site that I saw plenty of times from the city and it was a nice hike to see it up close. The statue was erected after the Soviet liberation of Hungary during WWII. We got to watch the sunset from the top of the hill, and I thought it was a great way to end our last day in the city.

That night we had to visit some of the famous Ruin Bars in Budapest. Ruin bars are abandoned or old buildings that are turned into a mix of cool bars (and apparently also farmers markets during the day) at night. Szimpla Kert is a famous ruin bar and had tons of rooms to explore inside.

Central Market Hall

Hungarian Parliament Building

Shoes on the Danube River

Liberty Statue

Un-Exciting food stops:

To be honest, we didn't stop by very exciting places to eat during this trip. Except for a Georgian restaurant for Khachapuri the first night, our diet involved a hummus bar, a Mcdonalds, and a Hardrock Cafe. I still enjoyed all the food we ate though! Also, I had to get a Hungarian chimney cake dessert before we left.