I left my heart in Budapest.

I fear this blog has turned into a long exhaustive travel account. Meh. Read on at your own peril...

After a 7 and a half hour bus journey which took us through the beautiful mountains of Slovakia, we arrived in Budapest not knowing a word of Hungarian and with no money. Finally found a cashpoint and negociated the metro system and before we knew it we were at our hostel! A strange kind of hostel, I've got to say- it was like a big house with no locks on the doors and the people in the room next to ours had to walk through our room to get out. Still, it cost a mere 10 euros for two nights so we couldn't complain.

We had high hopes for Budapest. Everyone we knew who had already visited didn't have a bad word to say about it, so we decided to spend 4 nights there. Definitely worth it. Our first morning in Budapest was a bit drizzly at first as we met in one of the main squares in Pest (pronounced Pesht) to start our free walking tour. The tour showed us the main tourist spots in downtown Pest, full of ugly buildings from the Communist era before crossing the Danube on the famous Chain Bridge and heading up to Buda, the old part of the city.

View of Buda! Rub the knees of the statue for good luck.

If you go to Budapest, you have to do the walking tours! They're fantastic- our guide was highly informative, approachable and funny. She told us cheap places to eat and places to go to avoid tourists, plus some useful words in Hungarian. Hungarian is a bit of a language isolate really as it is not an Indo-European language and completely different to the Slavic languages spoken in surrounding countries. It is similar to Finnish and Estonian, and bloody hard to learn I can tell you. The only words I have managed to remember are Egészségedre (cheers)and Tíz sör, pronounced 'T-shirt' meaning 'ten beers'. The two most important words= memorised!

Our walking tour ended in a Hungarian cantine, akin to the Polish milk bar we visited where food and drink is dirt cheap. Coincidentally got talking to two people from the tour who turned out to be English language assistants in Nancy-Metz (Verdun)! Small world...Anyway Hungarian food is better than Polish food in my humble opinion- it's got spice! Paprika is the symbolic spice of Hungarian cuisine, added to everything, giving everything more oomph. Michelle and I loved the delicious paprika pork and dumpling stew that cost a mere 3 euros!

After fuelling up, we wandered over to Fisherman's Bastion in Buda- a terrace on Castle Hill with great views of the Hungarian Parliament and Pest. We climbed a statue of a horse, a tradition here in Budapest. According to our tour guide, if you climb the statue and cop a feel of the horse's bollocks, you will do well in your next exams. Plus you will have good sex. Either that or our guide just wanted to make naive tourists act like idiots....

Statue climbing, all in the name of good luck.

Later on we ended up walking by the Danube and up to Gellért Hill, home to the Lady Liberty statue. It was a long climb but definitely worth it for the panoramic views of the city. Amazing. The Lady Liberty statue was first erected in 1947 to celebrate the liberation of Hungary by the Soviet Union. After the transition from Communism in 1989, the statue was covered over with a plastic sheet for 3 days, in order to 'purify' it from Communism and the Soviet Union.

Liberty statue, all the way up Gellért Hill

The rest of the day was spent wandering round Budapest's Central Market- believe me, you will never see as much paprika again and cooking a nutritious meal of eggs and kidney beans. Not. We ended up going out with some people from our hostel- Budapest is famous for its 'ruin bars'- here's a better description than anything I can write...

Budapest now has several very interesting places called ROMKOCSMA (literally ruin pubs). These are pubs installed in the courtyards and gardens of empty houses. You don’t see anything from the outside (except people drifting with their plastic beer glasses and sometimes a beefy guard who is there to make sure people don’t get too noisy, as these places are usually in residential areas..), but once you get in the inner courtyardt, it is something else! There is music, alternative exhibits, some have films, and they are open until at least 4 A.M.…. Definitely a must. The crowd there is young and cosmopolitan!

Went to Szimpla, one of the most famous ruin bars- was packed out so we only stayed for one, before moving on to a club which played dubstep and decent electro. Made a refreshing change from all the crap music we hear in Nancy every time we go out.

Our second day in Budapest started slowly, as you can imagine. Headed to the Central Market for langos, a deep fried flat bread (Hungarian speciality). I opted for the cheese and Hungarian sausage topping, looked like a pizza, grease central. Felt like I never wanted to eat again after it.... After waddling up Váci utca, Budapest's main street (home to Marks and Spencer!), we went in the House of Terror. The building in which the museum is housed was the headquarters of the Communist government and the basement was their torture chamber. The museum was pretty boring in parts because everything was in Hungarian, which is impossible to understand for 99.9% of the world's population. Good one. The basement was pretty sinister- you can enter former torture chambers- see ropes where people were hanged. Uncomfortable, but v. interesting....

Langos from the Central Market!

One of the highlights of the whole Central European trip was to come that afternoon at the Szechenyi baths. Budapest is famous for its thermal spas, so when in Budapest, make like the Hungarians and go to one! Some of the baths are very expensive, some aren't, most are single sex only. We opted for the mixed Szechenyi as we had heard great things about it from friends, plus it was cheap- around 11 euros for a day pass! The baths have around 30 pools which vary in size and purpose. There are hot cools, warm pools, cold pools (went in one for literally 4 seconds before jumping out like the big coward I am), medicinal pools, sulphur pools, saunas, steam rooms. It was a perfect afternoon! My favourite was the outdoor heated pool but all of it was relaxing- it was the perfect antidote to the previous day of sightseeing and clubbing. Felt like we were really on holiday and not just sightseeing.

The Szechenyi baths, pure paradise.

After dragging ourselves away from the baths (it had to end sometime....) we went over to our new CouchSurfer's flat. Reka was a fantastic host- upon our arrival she presented us with a traditional Hungarian stew made from pork, dumplings, potato, and yes, you've guessed it, paprika! All that was washed down with some Hungarian wine and a shot of Becherovka- a spirit previous 'Surfers' from the Czech Republic had brought to Budapest. After originally thinking it was going to be a quiet night, we ended up being treated to a night tour of Budapest from Reka and her boyfriend, going to a bar for Palinka- Hungary's traditional spirit which is distilled from fruit (very strong, I couldn't taste the fruit personally...). Ended the night in a Hungarian folk dancing club- watched as mainly young Hungarians danced the night away. Was so interesting to see, more to come on that later....

Palinka

Our final full day in Budapest was a blinder. After stocking up on much needed Activia and bread in Spar, we headed to Szimpla (remember- the ruin bar) for a quick coffee and wandered round Budapest's Jewish District. The synagogue is the largest in Europe, I'll have you know. Then went in the cathedral, headed across the Chain Bridge over to Buda, took a LOT of photos in the sun and ate in a Hungarian café which was recommended by our hosts. Finished the afternoon with the Communist walking tour which was so so soooo interesting (I realise I sound like a bit of a history geek but go to Budapest and you will be exactly the same!). Our tour guide lived under the Communist regime, so was telling us lots of stories about her life as a child in Hungary.

We found out that

• Hungarians used to have two passports- one for travel to countries East of Hungary and one to travel West. It was relatively easy to travel East but virtually impossible to travel West. Our guide travelled West once, to Vienna in Austria. Upon arrival at the Hungarian border, officials told her family they couldn't take bananas they had bought back into Hungary. Said she never eats bananas now because they ate as many as they could manage at the border.
• The education system was good. Foreign language learning= Russian.
• Old people are nostalgic about the Communist era because the television was decent! And it was cheap to go to the theatre/opera. Nowadays it is too expensive.
• Even today Hungary is pretty corrupt. A number of people told us that virtually anyone official takes bribes. Quite sad really.

Our last night in Budapest was spent in the Hungarian folk dancing club with our hosts! The club also did AMAZING red wine that tasted like grape juice, and at less than one euro for a massive glass, it was guilt free! The dances came from Transylvania (home of Dracula) and pretty much EVERYONE in there knew how to do them. Arg. Still, we joined in- it was a lot harder than it looked though. There was a live band playing the hurdy-gurdy, the violin and the guitar. Felt like we had gone back in time. Apparently, a lot of young Hungarians are sent to dance camps in the summer holidays in order to practice and perfect all the national and regional dances, the culture is completely different to my own. The night ended with us eating Hungarian pork (from a pig the couple had killed 2 days earlier, can't make this stuff up) and trying a very spicy Hungarian pepper at 3 o'clock in the morning. Finally went to bed at quarter to four and after an 90 minutes of sleep we dragged ourselves out of bed ready for the bus to Bratislavaaaaaaaa!

Rub his belly for good luck...

My high hopes for Budapest were thankfully not dashed. We definitely had the Hungarian experience, burning the candle at both ends, sampling as much cuisine as possible, dancing traditional Hungarian dances (thank god no one took a video) and learning learning learning about Hungary's fascinating history. They sometimes call Budapest the Paris of Eastern Europe- perhaps that's why I fell in love with it?!

Egészségedre!