Budapest, Hungary
"My house in Budapest, my hidden treasure chest..." - I swear I had this song by George Ezra stuck in my head the entire time I was in Budapest. Two days in Budapest (pronounced boo-da-pesht, trust me we were corrected on this several times) was by far not enough time to see all of the city, but the group of friends I was with made sure to power through some of the major sights.
Day 1 started with breakfast at the Central Market Hall, which was a huge warehouse that hosts many food stalls for us to roam. From veggies and fruits to any type of meat you can think of, there was no shortage of options. Next we walked across the river to the 'Buda' side of the city to the liberty statue that is situated at the top of a large hill. It felt more like a mountain as we started the hike...I have been having one too many croissants in Paris! Up top there was a beautiful panoramic view of the city. Pictures taken and sweat wiped from our brow we headed to our next destination - Buda Castle. It should be noted that there is not an actual castle, it was destroyed many years ago. Instead there is a large palace that is today a museum. The Buda Castle area is very quaint, with colorful homes and small streets. While roaming this area we stopped at the Fisherman's Bastion (a small fortress) and Matthias Church. Our last stop was the Labyrinth - which was underground and was once the prison of Count Dracula. With that creepy backdrop, the labyrinth was 10x times scarier. We made it out alive and decided to head back to our airbnb by way of crossing the famous Chain Bridge.
That evening we had the most amazing meal at a restaurant called Mazel Tov. It was an amazing space with live music and the cuisine was delicious. It was all under 20 euros which added to the greatness of this restaurant. We next decided to stop by some of the famous Ruin Bars. If you have never heard of these bars before they are basically old warehouses and abandon buildings that were turned into large bars after World War 2. The whole concept of these bars was to keep the 'ruin' aspect of the buildings, and have artist come in and basically have free range over the space. As a result you have these incredible bars that look like they may collapse at any moment (but are completely safe), and have artistic designs such as graffiti or sculptures. The best bar that we stopped at was called Szimpla Kert, but there are many more you can discover here.
Day 2 started with a free walking tour of Budapest through this company. We probably should have done this the first day, because they took us to sites we had already seen the first day, but this time around we were actually given a history lesson. After the tour we decided to tour the St. Stephen's Basilica, which was beautiful inside. Finally we ended the day with dinner at Menza, a great restaurant where we were able to eat outside while enjoying some Hungarian wine (highly underrated!). The evening was relatively calm for us, since we were taking an early morning flight the next day. Budapest is yet another city I will definitely come back to!
