Danube Capitals – Day 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 – 🇭🇺 Budapest

The train from Vienna to Budapest was supposed to arrive at 16.14. It was a bit late, but nothing too bad. It especially didn't matter because the hostel check-in was open until 10.

First thing was to take the metro to the parliament. I got annoyed at the official public transport app to get mobile tickets—I get annoyed at bad apps and websites since that's what I do. To be fair, it could be worse, but it's just needlessly complicated. Anyway, I managed to get my metro ticket and got to the parliament to get my first look at Budapest.

Let me tell you I was quite surprised. I didn't expect this city to be so big and beautiful. Overall, it seems every other building I came across was picture-worthy, or at least deserved some admiration.

After a quick look around, I hopped on a tram to get to the hostel. This time I took a 72-hour ticket for convenience. I also thought I'd be saving money, but not at all in the end. I just ended up walking to most places.

For my first full day in Budapest, I set out to wander around the city as I usually do, to see where I end up.

I started by crossing the Liberty Bridge over to the Buda side of the Danube. The city of Budapest is essentially Buda on the east side of the Danube, and Pest on the west. I walked along the Danube for a bit, then saw some stairs going uphill, so I headed to the top of the hill.

The first landmark I saw was the St. Gerard Sagredo statue. Somewhat underwhelming, nothing much to see; we can barely see the statue properly since it's facing the river and right on the cliff.

The next place I ended up in was the Garden of Philosophers.

This was a very surprising find. It seems to be a normal park for local goers, especially with their dogs, to take advantage of the space.

The thing that surprised me was a circle of statues of spiritual leaders such as Jesus, Abraham, Gandhi, and Akhenaten. I've no idea why they are here, but it's quite impressive. There's also a statue with a prince and princess over the city of Budapest.

Moving along the side of the hill, towards Gellért on the south, I walked past the Liberty Statue, nothing like the American one.

Everything on that side of the hill seemed to be in the middle of major renovation, so I couldn't see those landmarks up close. The picture of the Liberty Statue was only taken from afar, from behind the barriers.

All along this hill, the views over the city were a treat. I could really see far into the city, admiring the beautiful buildings from the top. The ones along the river are some of the nicest, along with the old bridge.

After another walk around town, I sat down in a lovely little coffee shop.

And back out again for a stroll in the city, with the final objective of finding a place for dinner. I had a bit of trouble finding a good, reasonably priced restaurant without having to wait half an hour for a table since it was Valentine's Day and all local and tourist couples were eating out as well.

Earlier in the afternoon, I got in contact with another French guy called PM who was visiting Budapest and staying in the same hostel as me. I met him for a game of pool in the hostel common area after dinner, and we got joined by a couple of other hostellers.

I had to check out of my room to check back in again in the evening. I had originally booked only for 2 nights, but extended my stay to 4 nights when I arrived. The bed I was staying in was already booked over the weekend, so they put me in another one.

It wasn't too much bother, I could just leave most of my non-valuable stuff—clothes, toiletries, etc.—in the hostel luggage store, as most hostels have.

I started the day with another aimless walk around town, in the hope of finding a nice place to eat, and I did.

I ended up at this sort of food truck market place. I later found out it was in the Ruins Bar area, right next to a very popular bar among tourists, which explains the writing in English and touristy prices.

The food was still decently good. I had Lángos, which is "an ancient Hungarian flat-bread" with dough very similar to pizza, except fried in oil and not baked. The result is a very crunchy exterior with a nice and soft inside, and cold toppings.

Continuing my walk with a full stomach, I found a statue of the famous Romantic Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, or Liszt Ferenc as they say in Hungarian.

Chatting with PM the night before, he gave me the idea to go to the university library to finish off a couple things I needed to do, so I picked one that looked good from Google Maps, and headed off there.

To get there quicker, and also try the old metro, I took the M1 line. Build in the late 1800s, it's the world's second oldest underground after the London underground.

It's not properly underground, just beneath the road, but the station and trains look very retro.

The University library is located in a very imposing building in the centre of Pest. It was built in the late 1800s and apparently contains nearly 2 million documents.

First off, the entrance and staircase leading up are immediately astonishing in their own right. The marble staircase and pillars lead up to the main room.

The room where I sat down to work is the main reader room and apparently the most beautiful of the library. In my opinion, it’s a historical masterpiece, with absolutely beautiful engravings and frescoes. The glass roof provides plenty of natural light to the entire room, but it also looks impressive and cosy with all the little lights when it gets dark outside.

Needless to say, I fell in love with this majestic library. I'm amazed it's free to access for all.

I left the library shortly before closing time and headed back to the hostel for another game of pool with PM and his friend who had just joined him. After a couple of games, we went out to find something to eat and just walk around the city by night.

We went into this very fancy hotel in the center of Pest. It's apparently quite popular with tourists. We could obviously only go into the lobby, but I immediately felt so out of place, surrounded by all the staff in suits and guests in fancy dresses, while I'm just in my baggy trousers, bright blue raincoat and red polar vest.

For my last day in Budapest, I decided to enjoy an afternoon at the famous baths. I went to the Gellért baths, considered the most beautiful of all in Budapest with its Art Nouveau decoration.

I don't have pictures of the inside but there's plenty online if you're curious

The inside of the baths is a bit of a labyrinth. I first went up some stairs to get to the lockers and changing rooms. The path then leads back down to the main swimming pool, where I couldn't go because a swimming cap is compulsory. That's not a problem though, since there are plenty of other pools and other facilities around.

I'm a big fan of saunas, so I spent most of my time in the sauna. There were 5 different ones, with varying temperatures. The hottest one wasn't that hot, just shy of 80ºC.

Around the saunas were some medicinal baths with some stuff of some kind—calcium among others—in the water. It didn't feel much different but was supposed to be good for you. 🤷‍♂️

I left right before closing time, although ahead enough to avoid the crowd of people leaving at the same time, and met up with PM for dinner again.

I booked a bus to Bratislava with RegioJet, on the direct line between Budapest and Prague. The driver was quite unfriendly but barely spoke with him, so meh.

It was only €2 extra for the "special seats" with more legroom; it was definitely worth it. So much room for my long legs! I think it's safe to say that was the best bus ride of my life.