I was amazed at the blending of apparent contradictions in Budapest – a centuries-old community with a modern feel; a huge confusing city that’s easy to get around; a dignified history infused with a contemporary culture. Even public transportation, the Szent Gellert Square metro station below, exemplifies the past and present fused together. Budapest was the fourth stop on my trip around Eastern Europe.
Budapest became a city in 1873 when Buda and Pest, two separate cities separated by the Danube River, and Obuda combined to form, more or less, the geographical boundaries of what is now the capitol city of Hungary. This region of the world is fraught with a history of military occupation, violent conflict, and oppression. It also has tremendous ethnic and religious diversity which are both the cause and the result of this history.
I immediately looked for the machines that sell multiday passes for the public transportation system. These are by far the best deal. You get unlimited use of the metro, trams (left), and buses for, in this case, three days for $12. The advantage of hopping on and off as you please makes for a much more pleasant and simple experience exploring a city. The moments of discomfort as you learn a new system are minimal compared to the advantages.
I took the metro a couple stops towards the city center and walked ten minutes to my Airbnb. I had booked the place for two nights but immediately realized I wanted to stay three. That’s the courtyard with funky elevator shaft, to the right, from the balcony outside my 4th floor flat.
I walked four flights up the stairs and rang the buzzer at apartment 28. A woman who was about 70 years old, the “auntie” of my Airbnb host, answered and took me next door to apartment 25. She spoke excellent Hungarian and no English. When she realized I couldn’t understand her, she spoke louder and slower but my Hungarian still did not improve. After minutes of gently shaking my head and shrugging my shoulders, she left, defeated. To Airbnb hosts everywhere, please just let me in and leave me alone. I can find the light switches, the towels, and refrigerator on my own.
Budapest has such a vibrant, social, diverse feel. Streets are lined with hundreds of tiny bars and cafes, some practically hidden down a few stairs that disappear into a dark basement door. Many are no larger than an average living room with a service counter, a few shelves on the wall that serve as tables, and room for a dozen people to congregate.
Gellert Hill rises 235 meters above the western bank of the Danube. A jumble of paved paths and stairways crisscross up the grassy, wooded slopes leading, eventually, to the stunning views (above) in every direction. The Liberty Statue stands majestically as she has given hope to many generations that freedom and humanity will prevail over authorianism and oppression. On a less lofty note, this is a super cool place! The statue shares the hilltop with the Citadel, a large stone fortress, and a café that serves drinks on a patio with sweeping views of the cityscape.
I joined a different walking tour each of my three days in Budapest, and two of them were very good. Eszther hosted a Ruin Bars experience; and Vali explained the impact of Communism on Budapest through Free Tours Budapest. That’s Ronald Reagan to the right, saving Budapest from the Soviets.
The best experience was the Ruin Bars Tour. Eszther met us at the Akvarium, an underground music venue and restaurant with a large reflecting pool right above it, thus the name. She guided us around the city center and shared lots of history and then introduced us to the main attraction. In the early 1990s, the Soviets went home and left the Hungarians with a dilapidated infrastructure, including many buildings that were uninhabitable. But an entrepreneurial local recognized an opportunity for cheap rent and convinced the city to allow him to sell beer from the ruins. And Ruin Bars were born. Today, ruin bars are very popular in the Old Jewish Quarter of Budapest and offer a quirky curiosity where tourists line up to visit. We went to three, the most famous being Szimpla Kert (above), definitely a highlight of my whole trip.
I had lots of time to wander around the neighborhoods of Budapest and found it an amazing place to explore. With a public transportation pass, walking shoes, and a mild sense of adventure, I entertained myself for hours.
Street Food park on Kazinczy Street 
Street musicians on Fashion Street 
Budapest Eye ferris wheel in the city center 
Books for sale in the Lagymanyos neighborhood near my Airbnb
I tracked down a post office to buy stamps. The clerk explained that “this office” is to pick up mail, and the stamps are at a different office. Another customer explained that I needed to go around the block, and, when she saw the expression on my face, offered to show me! This photo is the “stamp” post office.
The Central Market Hall was built in the late 19th century and was packed with shoppers on the morning that I visited. The enormous two-story building is on Vamhaz street just to the east of the beautiful Liberty Bridge, the site of grand block parties several weekends during the summer. I think I need to back for one of these.
Liberty Bridge with the Central Market across the river 
Front of Central Market 
First floor of the market from above 
Sausage anyone?
I love hot tubs and thermal springs, and Budapest has great ones. I spent a couple hours in two different bath houses. The first is Kiraly Baths, a Turkish bath house dating from 1565. This was such a cool place, constructed of huge dark blocks of stone with the main tubs under a beautiful dome that was softlly lit with many small skylights. A central round bath was three feet deep and ten yards across at about 100 degrees. This was encircled by four smaller tubs with water of various hotter temperatures. There was also a wooden tub outside where I enjoyed the chill of the air on my head with steam rising around me. I paid about ten dollars to have full use of the pools for as long as I wanted.
Street view of Kiraly bath house 
Outside view of Kiraly main bath house
The second bath house is Rudas Thermal Baths,a facility with more modern amenities and more of a spa feel. Rudas has an older section that is similar to Kiraly, and it has a newer section with a traditional lap pool, nearby hot pool, and a large hot tub on top of the three-story building. This rooftop tub is very nice and provides incredible views of the Danube River and the Pest side of Budapest. Despite the lovely accommodations, I found the cell phones very unpleasant. Several people were taking pictures and photos while sitting in the hot tubs. Most annoying, for me at least, were the people who were talking to their friends on Whats App, with the speaker on, showing them videos of everyone in, and the view from, the tub. For this simple reason, I would not go back even though it is otherwise a beautiful place.
On my last morning in Budapest, I had a couple hours before the bus left for Zagreb. I had heard about the Shoes on the Danube during my stay but had not seen it. This is a very moving memorial that you don’t even notice until you are upon it. This monument, opened in 2005, honors Jewish people who were subjected to a horrifying practice during World War II. They were gathered up and taken to the Danube River where they were ordered to remove their shoes and then shot, their bodies falling into the river leaving the disordered shoes on the river’s edge.
I took the tram back to my place, gathered my backpack, and hopped on the metro towards the bus station. The next six hours were spent on the double decker Flix bus to Zagreb.