With my in-laws we are going to the Hungarian capital Budapest for a few days on Saturday 19 May for a family weekend. Friday evening after work I pack quickly, because Saturday morning we leave immediately.
We will be flying from the airport in Dortmund, so after the alarm goes off at eight and we are getting ready for departure, we drive to the airport by car. We fly with WizzAir and this all goes smoothly.
To the hotel
When we arrive in sunny Budapest, where the temperature is higher compared to the Netherlands, we are taken directly to the hotel by an airport shuttle. We have booked this at the airport and will pick us up next Tuesday and bring us back to the airport. Ideal! Converted, a return ticket costs 17 euros per person, but since we were with six people and the van was immediately filled, we got a discount. In Budapest, despite the fact that the currency is different here, you can also pay with the euro. The official currency in Hungary is the forint.
When we arrive at the hotel everything is well taken care of. We are staying at the Fraser Residence and I have our own apartment with my boyfriend. The staff is very friendly and the service is perfect. The location is also good: our residence is about a ten-minute walk from the center of Pest.
Liszt Ferenc Tero
We soon find out that the best restaurants are located in the back streets. The eateries in the center are purely aimed at tourists, which is reflected in the prices: around four euros is charged for a cup of coffee, while in the streets behind you pay less than 50 cents.
After we have completely settled in our apartment, we walk to a small square nearby, called Liszt Ferenc Tér, where there are all kinds of cozy restaurants and bars. This is why the square is known for. The weather is lovely and everywhere on the terraces are screens showing the Champions League final of Chelsea – Bayern Munich. We eat something on the terrace. The food in Hungary has a lot of Italian influences: there is a lot of pasta and pizza on the menu. I order a salad and get a big bowl full. My friend orders a meat dish and where in the Netherlands we are used to getting vegetables, that is absolutely not the case here: with a meat dish you only get potatoes. After dinner we go to a nice local pub. This pub is called Szimpla and is very atmospheric and definitely recommended. Szimpla is partly indoors and partly outside and offers space to sit, but also to dance or smoke water pipe, which you can rent here.
After a nice and late evening, we go back to our hotel. We decide to take a taxi, as we are tired and have already walked a lot today. When you take a taxi in Budapest, you pay around 2000 to 2500 HUF, which comes down to about eight to ten euros. This is for any destination, no matter where you go. Taxi drivers can sometimes be a bit impatient if you do not immediately have the address of your destination to hand, they may then put you out of the taxi and drive on. When we arrive at the hotel, we go straight to bed.
Hop On Hop Off bus
The next day we get up at eight o'clock and gather in the breakfast room of the hotel. Here we have a choice of different types of croissants, yoghurts, cheeses and delicious fresh fruit. After breakfast we get ready for a trip with the Hop On Hop Off bus. The bus travels a route that takes about two hours, passing through Buda and through Pest. Budapest is split in two by the river Danube, with Buda on the left bank and Pest on the right. There are headphones that you can wear on the bus, through which you hear the history of Hungary. This is very interesting. We also take a cruise on the Danube, which is included in the Hop On Hop Off ticket.
Building on the Danube, Budapest, HungaryBuilding on the Danube, Budapest, Hungary
Shop
After we've had the tour of Budapest, we'll fill up the rest of the day by shopping. Most of the shops are open on Sundays, which is very convenient. The clothing offered here is quite similar to the shops in the Netherlands. The prices of the products are also about the same.
In the evening we eat at a restaurant with live music. The terrace was already full when we arrived, but the waiters were happy to get tables from inside to outside. Here I ate a green pasta. The waiters went out of their way for us and were very enthusiastic and friendly. This was not a touristic area, which is very nice, because we had already noticed during lunch that afternoon that the tourist restaurants use a fixed tip of ten percent and this is also mentioned on the receipt. Since we didn't eat until ten o'clock, we walk back to
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