Budapest

I’m not really sure why, but I have always wanted to visit Budapest. Maybe it was watching The Grand Budapest Hotel, I’m not sure. Either way, as we were putting together our plan, it felt like a great way to see a little bit of Eastern Europe before we headed to our next continent. 

In Budapest, you get a distinct feel for Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. It has a stark contrast of old and new. You’ll walk into a crumbling 1800s building to find a modern third wave coffee chain or an escape room serving Neapolitan pizza. It was like when communism left in the 1980s, capitalism couldn’t get in fast enough. We also found a huge difference in both sides of the city. 

The city is famously split into two sides, Buda and Pest, so we decided we would split our stay and try both.

Pest

Pest was our first stop. This is the heart of the city and where all the action is. We stayed in the Jewish Quarter which was more wild than we realized. Oy vey. Our Airbnb was surrounded by restaurants and the famous ruin bars, so people were out all day and all night. We got used to it, but had to bring out the earplugs a couple of nights to get some sleep.

We checked out the most famous ruin bar, Szimpla Kert, which was fun and reminded us of a huge, grungy Denton bar. Our favorite spot, though, was a few streets over at the Rumpus Tiki Bar. But to be fair, we almost always prefer a tiki bar as you probably know by now.

One of our favorite things we did here was a night cruise on the Danube River. Seeing the buildings lit up from the river was very cold, but incredible. The Parliament building is already impressive during the day, but at night, it really shines (pun intended).

Buda

Next, we moved across the river and stayed on the Buda side. It kinda felt like a different city, it was a lot calmer, greener, and even hilly. The Buda Castle and Matthias Church on this side were easily the prettiest parts of the city.

It was also home to our favorite coffee shop, Kazetta, which we ended up visiting almost every morning we were there.

Most of the legendary thermal baths are located here, as well. We originally planned to skip these since some of the big ones were currently being renovated and we heard some were notoriously unhygienic. However, at the last minute, we decided to try a local favorite, Lukács Baths. The baths are pumped with the thermal spring water, full of minerals from underneath the city. Then a bunch of old Hungarians soak in them to heal their ailments. We actually really liked it, and found the perfect rotation: warm spa, hot spa, cool spa, steam room, cold plunge, then repeat. After doing that twice, we left the bath feeling shockingly relaxed and energized. We definitely recommend if you get the chance.

One other thing we enjoyed was running the Margaret Island, which is a little piece of land in the middle of the Danube River. It has a nice park, but the cool part, is the track that runs all the way around the island and measures out to a perfect 5k. We decided to run that one morning to help burn off some of the goulash.

Etyek

In the middle of our stay, we took a bus for a short trip to Etyek, a small town known for its vineyards and film studios (they shot Blade Runner 2049 and The Martian here). Kaitlyn found a really nice countryside hotel surrounded by vineyards. The photos looked amazing and it was surprisingly cheap.

When we got there, we realized why it was so cheap... the town was basically deserted. Unfortunately, we missed wine season by a few weeks, and the entire town had basically shut down. Everything was closed. We did manage to find one restaurant open for dinner, but the staff didn’t speak any English, so when we ordered a jalapeño, pepperoni, and black olive pizza, it came out with black beans, corn, and bacon on it. Oy vey, again.

Miraculously, on our last day, we found one winery still open and were able to do a tasting and it was great. The town itself was really charming and if it hadn’t been such a ghost town, we'd recommend it. Or maybe just come when they are expecting people to be there. That might help.

Overall

Budapest surprised us in a lot of ways. The food was much better than we expected. You don’t hear much about their culinary world but paprika is a big part of it. We really enjoyed the goulash especially on the cold and rainy days. Also, they are experts in lemonade. Every place was serving their own version and each one was amazing. Plus, they invented the Rubik's cube, I bet you didn't know that.

We thought the transportation around town was really good up until we messed up our tram ticket one little time and were slapped with a $70 fine. The Eastern Europeans are strict, no mercy. We walked everywhere after that.

Which brings us to a negative we both experienced. The people weren’t exactly the friendliest. It felt like they tried to do the bare minimum to interact with people. Avoiding me, I get that, but it seemed like this with everyone. I know Americans tend to lay on the chat a little thick, but this was different. For a city with so many restaurants and hotels, you’d think they’d have hospitality honed in a little better.

In the end, we are glad we went. I liked it a little more than Kaitlyn did, but we were both glad we came to experience it. It’s got its own vibe, a really interesting mix of cultures, unbelievable architecture, good food, and a really unique history.

It was a good way to see another side of Europe before we made our way to the Middle East.

Next is Turkey!