Budapest 21-22nd July 2010

Got off the hot train to Budapest at 7:30 and walked for about 30mins to the hostel. On first impression Budapest seemed much more western than the Balkans. The Tesco superstore next to the train station was a good example of this. The hostel I had booked was advertised as a bohemian hang out in the lonely planet but that was an understatement. I basically walked into the hippy lounge from Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. There were people crashed out on sofas and sleeping on the floor. A very chilled vibe run by a 22 year old American traveller who had ended up in Budapest the year before and stayed on. After the horrors of the last night’s hostel in Sarajevo felt right at home and the other people staying there seemed to be on the same wavelength.


That evening went to the town centre and met up with Fiona from Dubrovnik and some of the guys on her tour who were in Budapest for the night. Spent a pleasant evening wandering across the banks of the Danube and checking out some of the city’s more impressive architecture. The bus tour guys were leaving early the next morn so said goodbye around 1am and walked back through town to my hostel. As soon as I was on my own was inundated with offers to visit free entry strip bars. Budapest is a very liberal city….

After avoiding the touts spent a couple of hours drinking with the guys in the hostel and crashed happily on a comfortable bed….

Next day I headed out alone to check out the city. The architecture was even more impressive by day. But I began to struggle badly with the heat, made progress slow. Think 9 weeks of sun has filled the backlog from the last 5 years in the UK without a holiday and I began to seek shade like to locals.

That after noon went to the terror house museum, in the site of the former Nazi and Soviet secret police headquarters. Pretty harrowing stuff when you consider how many people had been tortured and executed in the building for no reason what so ever.

Spent the rest of the day in the park and then that evening got a proper Hungarian Goulash for dinner. It was amazingly tender beef , plus washed down with a pint of Edelweiss, ( from the tap not shelf in home bargains …class!). Spent the evening drinking in the hostel and having some deep hippy type conversations with the other slacker lefties staying there , was pretty refreshing after a month on the party scene….

Next morning left fairly early , felt like I could have spent an extra day in Budapest but on a tight schedule now. Budapest is right up there in the top of the cool city tables…amazing architecture, nice tree lined streets with cool bars and bistros and there were plenty of guitarists on the streets. It was modern but still had a good eastern vibe, would def recommend a long weekend there to anyone who hasn’t been before….next stop Vienna and the western culture.