Buda + Pest = Budapest

Budapest was formed by the merging of two towns, Buda on the west bank of the Danube, and Pest on the east bank, in 1873.  According to news reports at the time, the residents of Buda, the Budas, were not too keen, but the Pests voted overwhelmingly in favour of the change, and so we now have Budapest.

Monday 20 June


Although there is no border control any more since Hungary joined the EU, all the control booths remain, abandoned like a ghost town. We stopped at the border area to buy a E-Vignette which pays for the road tolls. 

Pest on the East Bank of the Danube

Some places accept euros but the currency here is HUF – Hungarian Forint. 200 HUF equates to approximately 1 Aussie dollar, so it was a little disconcerting when we bought our first coffees and had to hand over a 2,000 HUF note! But things are relatively cheap here – the coffee's about HUF620 apiece – just over AU$3 for a large one.

Our campsite has somewhat basic facilities but it has good quality WiFi included as well as the use of washing machines (brilliant) and if you stay 3 nights you get the 4^th free. We're already liking Budapest!! The onsite manager was lovely and couldn't do enough to help us settle in. The weather is also warm and sunny with a lovely breeze.

Tuesday 21 June

Caught the underground into the city where we decided to do the Hop On Hop Off bus for the first time. You get 2 days for the price of 1 and it includes a boat ride along the Danube, so we didn't miss out on doing that after all. We stayed on until lunch and went to find Govinda's Vegetarian Restaurant. Sylvi was introduced to the one in the Elizabeth St arcade in Brisbane years ago so was pleased to find one here.

We then did the hour long boat ride complete with commentary, which was really enjoyable. The Danube splits Buda on the west bank and Pest is on the east. Most buildings, bridges and churches have been destroyed and rebuilt during many wars and revolutions, but they are still outstanding. The Fisherman's Bastion looks fantastic (will explore that more tomorrow) and the Parliament House building looks very much like those in London.

Buda on the West Bank of the Danube

To visit the churches here is free, but if you take a photo it'll cost you 200 HUF, or some have a collection box as you enter with an attendant hovering which basically means make a donation. St Stephen's Cathedral is stupendous. Gold, gold, gold. And for the spooky factor, St Stephen's mummified right hand is on display in a gold lined glass casket. You can take a photo for free (no flash) but if you want it to be illuminated for 2 minutes to get a better shot you can pay 200 HUF for the privilege.  Here is a free photo of the poster!  And the exterior of the church...

Although the exterior of most buildings need a good clean and there is a lot of renovation going on, a lot of abandoned buildings too, this city has a good feel to it. The people are super friendly and helpful, the prices are good and transport is excellent. A couple of reasons why buildings aren't as gleaming as elsewhere in Europe could be that the population was too busy trying to stay alive and fight for democratic freedom during the many years of oppression from the Mongol, Hapsburg, Nazi and Soviet domination.

Speaking of which, we walked down a long wide Andrassy Avenue to the Hero's Square which also has the Millennium Memorial  with statues of the leaders of the seven tribes that founded Hungary in the 9th century and other outstanding figures of Hungarian history. The construction of the memorial was started when the one thousandth anniversary was celebrated (in 1896), but it was finished only in 1900 and the square got its name then.

Headed home on the oldest underground metro line in continental Europe - Budapest's M1 - which was built in 1896, after London, but before Paris.  The public transport system here is very efficient if still mainly very old.  We only ever had to wait 4 minutes for a metro or tram.  They do get crowded and hot at times, but its quick - we had a metro station about 150m from our camp site which had us in the city centre in 10 minutes.

The local community hall next door to our camping ground had a dinner/dance going when we returned. Luckily they finished at a very reasonable 9pm but there was much yipping and yehawing throughout the band's performance. To us their music sounds like they're racing to finish the song.  We did not try our local burger joint!

Wednesday 22 June

Exploring Castle Hill today and started off with a visit to the Gellert Hill Cave Chapel, which is run by the Paulite monks - the cave dates back to 1308. They named themselves after an Egyptian hermit, Paul, who exiled himself to be closer to God and whose only companion was a raven he'd trained to bring him half a slice of bread each day!! The temperature in the Chapel is a constant 20 degrees. This was certainly the most plainly decorated church we've seen so far but just as impressive in it's historical value. The temperature outside was an amazing 36 degrees but a lovely breeze kept it from being oppressive and it's a drier heat then Brisbane so not as noticeable (yet anyway).

Onto a tram to the back of Castle Hill and did our aerobic stair climb for the day to see the Fisherman's Bastion, a very impressive structure overlooking the city, built to commemorate the defence of the city wall in this place by the local fishermen in the middle ages.

Next door is the church of St Matthias which has a magnificent ceramic tiled roof.

For something completely different we dared the Buda Castle Labyrinth where the temperature is 10 degrees, quite a contrast. Due to the abundance of thermal springs throughout Budapest (over 50 bath houses) the underground limestone was easily carved to make this labyrinth measuring 4000 square meters and used for many purposes throughout history including as a hiding place for many during the Second World War. There are many quirky statues, recreations of prehistoric wall paintings and a fantastic Ivy Grotto containing a four headed fountain continuously spewing red wine. 

Before exiting we tested ourselves in the Labyrinth of Courage in which you are in completely darkness with only a thin rope to guide you. We were both very courageous!!

For an afternoon treat we had coffee and cake at Ruszwurm, the oldest coffee house in Budapest then made our way home via the banks of the Danube, across the Chain Bridge and a train home.

Another dinner/dance on at the Community Centre, this time until 10:30pm, but we were both knackered from our day in the sun so slept pretty well.

Thursday 23 June

Bill's dad's birthday today so made the call home. The big day in the sun yesterday had really taken it out of Sylvi so we spent the morning loading photos etc then lunch at the local shopping centre where Bill also got his first haircut from someone who couldn't speak a word of English. The result was not disastrous, although it seems a “Number 3” means something other than a haircut in Hungarian!!  Fortunately that misunderstanding was corrected.

As we assume the Community Centre will be on again tonight we're going to outsmart them and head into Margaret Island for the afternoon and dinner out somewhere. Because it was another hot day our sole purpose on Margaret Island was to visit the Palatinus Swimming Pool for a cooling dip in the thermal fed springs. This is a huge complex which can cater to 10 000 people.

There are other interesting places to visit on the Island which measures 2.5km – St Michael's church, the ornate water tower, several restaurants – but we didn't have the time. We did see the ruins of the convent where Margit, the daughter of King Bela IV, was raised as a nun from age 12 as a result of the King's promise to God to do so if Hungary emerged safely from the Mongol invasion. She died aged 21 from tuberculosis.

We had a voucher for a free margarita at the Mexica restaurant “Arriba Taqueria”. In Brisbane, “Tuckeria” on Brunswick St is another of Sylvi's favourites, so we had to try it here, and it didn't disappoint. One thing that amazes us in Europe is that people bring their dogs with them everywhere – camping, into shops and restaurants, on public transport. It's just the norm. The animals are obviously used to it and well behaved like this cute little pooch.

We did a final lap of the city before heading home and came upon a large gathering of mainly young people having a few drinks outdoors and enjoying the balmy temps. There were no police or security anywhere to be seen. That also seems to be the norm in Europe, drinking in public anywhere you like.

Our cunning plan had worked as the Community Centre was just letting out when we arrived home. We heard some fireworks in the distance as part of the Summer Festival celebrations before a late storm which lasted for quite awhile, didn't really bring too much rain but certainly cooled things down a lot.

Friday 24 June

Another bright, sunny day but much cooler to begin. On the recommendation of a Danish couple we met here, we're leaving today to visit Lake Balaton which is Central Europe's largest expanse of fresh water covering 600 sq km.

After a 3 hour drive to what will be our most southern point in our trip, we arrived at Camping Napfeny, under steady rain and super cool temps, but no where near as cold as Hopfensee a couple of weeks ago. 

Our site directly faces the Lake so we can watch the water traffic as well as the swans and ducks. We also get to observe the locals who go for swims no matter what the temperature is. The Lake is actually 24 degrees but the wind chill factor makes the outside temp around 15 degrees, making it a bit too chilly for even Bill to venture in.

The Hungarian Mozzies were out tonight – they are large and slow moving, very passive and easy to kill – the mozzies that is.

Got a little taste of what drunken Hungarian teenagers sound like in the wee hours of the morning – just like drunken Aussie teenagers. Confirmation the next morning that the park did actually have some kind of security around reassured us that, as the other campers, we shouldn't be too perturbed by the occurrence.

Saturday 25 June

Thought someone had brought their cuckoo clock along on their holiday early this morning, and was cursing them, but later realised that it was actually real live cuckoo birds in the trees nearby sounding off.

Wiiiiiinnnnddddyy today and the temp quite cool but the rain had stopped so we headed off to the local village for a looksee. This area goes off during summer holidays and the facilities reflect that. We are on the quieter side of the Lake. The opposite side is known as the Ibiza of Hungary.

We thought we had encountered all the variants of pets people bring along wherever they go, but today we extended the list further – a tortoise!! complete with enclosure so it could eat the grass without being eating by any of the 2,000 dogs here in the park.

Headed back to the village at 10pm for the Mid-Summer Festival fireworks. The Lake is so huge and each cove doing it's own thing that we had to wait half an hour to see our 5 minutes of splendour. The turnout wasn't huge, but not a bad effort for a small village. One spectacular set of fireworks was launched into the Lake (effect one) and then each ball of explosive set off it's own stream of colour out of the water (effect two). Had never seen that before.

This venture to the Lake was our way of recharging our tourist batteries and just taking time out to relax a little. It sounds funny, but it gets tiring looking at extraordinarily beautiful objects day after day, and because we've got a long time to go on this trip and want to appreciate all we see, it was nice to just be able to do not much for a day in such a beautiful location.

Sunday 26 June

Awoke to rain and cold so decided to pack up early and head for Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia - which we were previously going to skip. The roads from the lake out of Hungary were mostly off the main highway and were not the best but at least not narrow or with any low bridges. And we were amongst fields and fields of beautiful sunflowers. We spent the last of our HUF on fuel as Slovakia takes the Euro.

Not wanting to leave Hungary without trying the traditional food, we stopped in a small town for lunch. Sylvi ordered the Bean Goulash and Bill the Beef Stew. “Surely they've not made a mistake and called it 'Bean' instead of 'Beef'” Sylvi quipped. Well no, there were definitely beans in the Goulash, but also lashings of beef. It was delicious anyway and Bill got to have two helpings of beef!!

So far we've found that no-one in Europe makes a good cappuccino like we have in Oz, but we keep persisting. The one served here topped Sylvi's calorie horror count by having a good swirl of sweet, vanilla flavoured cream on top. It was delicious though.

More Budapest photos here.
More Lake Balaton photos here.