Overall impressions:
- Old subways and old trams that are very clunky
- Second oldest subway in the world is here
- Cheap relative to rest of Europe, but not as cheap as Prague
- Very scenic city
- Lots of German stores, e.g. Lidl and DM
- Parts of Pest are very hilly
Day 1:
- Arrive and take old subway into the city
- Check into fairly inexpensive hotel in the city centre, which was a bit sketchy as it was the third and fourth floors of a commercial building and was only accessible through an inner courtyard elevator
- Eat cheap ice cream (don’t pay more than 220 forints for a scoop if you’re thrifty!)
- Walked around waterfront, saw the Galeria and the Central Market Hall
- The Galeria has a free dome you can access on the rooftop with lovely views of the river and city
- Took the historic tram
- Saw Akvarium Bar in the park
- Walked around Andrassy Blvd – beautifully lit up at nighttime
Day 2:
- Breakfast at McDonald’s
- They have a funny breakfast sandwich that uses hamburger buns inverted and toasted as sandwich bread (essentially for a grilled cheese)
- Funicular
- Sort of pricey so we took it up and then walked down; not a bad way to conserve energy
- Soldiers on changing of the guard
- Very fun to watch as they have a band and have really synchronized formations
- Buda castle
- Now a museum, but we didn’t go in
- Lovely views from the outside wall of the rest of the city
- Fisherman’s Bastion
- Tall look out point right next to the church
- Costs money to go onto top floor but bottom floor offers great views anyway and is free
- Matthias church
- Costs money to enter, and we didn’t go…
- Beautiful roof worth noting from the outside
- Parliament
- Lots of lovely flowers and seating all around and a lovely square to walk around
- Memorial just outside dedicated to Soviet era attack
- Main train station
- We were lucky and caught a real steam engine in the station when we went as they were filming an old movie of it; quite cool to see!
- Looks very, very old in general and definitely not the same as most central stations in other European cities, though also quite a quick pit stop
- Lunch at Kajahu
- Great restaurant with fun set up – you order from tablets at your seat
- Szechenyi baths
- Pricey but kind of fun…they’re quite beautiful and there are a number of different baths
- Lockers are a bit confusing to figure out but there are staff around to help
- Would advise that you take care to remember where your locker is since it can be confusing to find your way back after
- On the warm sunny day when we went, it felt like large bathtubs outdoors but if you’re lucky, you can also get a spot to sunbathe at and enjoy the outdoors and not just the water
- Opera
- There are cheap tickets but we found out we had to enter from the side door and climb up 3 consecutive floors of stairs (with no view of the main lobby or rest of the Opera)
- The views are definitely obstructed even if they let you move forward once the show starts and no one is in front
- Can be hard to read English subtitles since they’re usually at the top of the subtitle screen
- Not bad view of stage in general though, especially with the screens they now include with live broadcast of what’s happening on stage
- Ruins bar: Szimpla Kert
- Kind of fun to walk around and get a nice drink or two (can be pricey)
- Can be noisy and gets more rowdy later at night
- Next door is a great little beer garden style set up with a few food trucks; I had a paneer burger and it was amazing! They fried paneer and made it into the burger patty part and had great toppings with it otherwise
Sunday
- Breakfast at Circuzs
- Good eggs Benny!
- Cute restaurant with bright, airy feel
- Walk around Heroes Square and adjacent park
- Heroes Square is a square like any other; worth a walk around and a photo or two but not much else
- We were there on Labour Day and there was a big labour day fair with rides, food stalls, vendors, etc. and also lots of people
- We went on one ride – the swings – which was quite fun though also felt relatively unsafe compared to North American rides where there’s usually a bigger roped off area and lots of safety gear
- Tried to find “Vaci street,” which was supposed to be a busy shopping street, and ended up on the wrong one…
- If you are going to look for the shopping street, make sure the one you find begins at the Central Market Hall! Not the other one that leads to Central station…
- West End Mall
- Near the wrong Vaci street but some fairly nice stores, though nothing is open on Sunday except food
- Air Show by water and bridge
- Possibly a Labour Day event too
- Lots of cool tricks with a helicopter and a few older military planes
- Intercontinental cafe
- Right by the river, great view of Air Show and also some very affordable cakes/tarts (relative to an international price point)
- Walk around the real Vaci street
- Go to airport