I mentioned briefly in the last post our night train from Krakow to Budapest. Let me tell you, what an experience that was. It was not one that I will repeat in a hurry, but it could have been worse! The train itself was so hot, we were desperately trying to open the window which wouldn’t open, then it got freezing cold through the night… You just can’t win! Not much sleep was gotten on the train that was for sure. But, if I had to get one again, I wouldn’t mind it…that much.
We arrived in Budapest on a Friday, and we stayed there for three nights at the Flow Hostel. From the outside, and walking up the stairs of the building, I was a bit dubious about the hostel as it wasn’t the most modern or well kept building. But, from entering the hostel, my mind was immediately put at ease. It was so modern and clean, one of the nicest hostels we stayed at, and we have stayed in a fair few! It was also pretty cheap too; I think it was around £10-15 per night, forgive me, I can’t remember the exact price! It is definitely worth checking out if you’re going to Budapest!
Day 1
From the hostel, it was about a 10 minute walk to the Liberty Bridge – the green bridge that everyone climbs on and walks up! Naturally, we jumped on the band wagon and had to try it for ourselves.
After crossing the bridge, you can walk up the cliffside that you can see in the first photo, to the liberty statue. It was a steep walk, and it got very hot as we were doing it, but the views on the way up are so worth it!
At the top of the cliff is, yep you guess it, the Liberty Statue! Now I don’t know the history behind this, so you’ll have to do some research on that yourself if you want to know it. It was nice to sit at the top in the sun for a bit. There was also an area where you could shoot a bow and arrow, but we didn’t try that out. You can buy drinks and ice cream at the top, which is nice if it is really hot like it was when we were there!
From the liberty statue, we descended down to the riverside and walked along to palace and castle. Neither were anything too spectacular in my opinion. There wasn’t much to do there, we didn’t pay to get in anywhere, just walked around. If I’m honest, I didn’t see anything where you could pay to go inside either the palace or the castle, so I’m not too sure about that! Needless to say, the architecture of both were still impressive!
We then carried on walking to the Margit bridge, crossed over the river and walked back down along the other side to the Parliament building. It’s fair to say we did a lot of walking that day!
The sunset in Budapest is something to behold that is for sure, so it made for a lovely walk along the riverside. The parliament building is beautiful from the outside. I believe you can go inside the building, but we didn’t get chance to do this. I would definitely like to see if it is as impressive on the inside as it is on the outside!
Just down along the river from the parliament building is ‘The Shoes on the Danube Bank’. This is a memorial on the riverside, created to honour those ‘who were killed by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest during World War II.’*
After a long walk back to our hostel, we relaxed for a while before getting ready for a bar crawl. Our hostel sold wrist bands for the bar crawl. It was €10 for a band, and you got a ‘free’ shot in every bar. I would say it was worth the money, as we didn’t know anything about the area, so it’s more relaxed being taken from place to place by someone who knows where they are going, and the shots made it a lot more fun!
One thing I would say, is make sure you know how to get back to your hostel/hotel. The bar crawl we went on didn’t end at the same place it finished, which made it a lot more difficult for us to find our way home. But, after some much needed pizza, we used our map and our *lack of* sense of direction and somehow made it back to our hostel.
Day 2
On this day, we decided to take it easy after our night out the previous night. So, we made our way to the Gellért Baths. This is one of the many public baths in Budapest, and is located right on the other side of the Liberty bridge from our hostel, so it was convenient and easy for us to get to. We were originally going to go to the Széchenyi baths, which is typically the most famous baths in Budapest, but after our roommates told us the Gellért ones were as good, if not better than the Széchenyi baths, we decided to choose to go here instead.
I can see why they are so popular with the locals and tourists alike. There are multiple different pools inside and outside. None of them were too overcrowded, which meant you could still relax in the thermal waters. The architecture and decor inside the baths themselves is beautiful which makes it so much more enjoyable than sitting inside a dull dark room.
*Images taken from google images*
The nice relaxed day meant we were ready for round two that night! Us and a few others from our hostel went out to Szimpla Kert, which is a big ruin bar. It has various rooms and a large outdoor courtyard area. It is a really good place to go on a night out and you get a real feel for the famous ruin bars of Budapest when you’re there! We went to a few on our bar crawl the night before, but I can’t remember the names of any of them, I just followed the guide and enjoyed myself, sorry! If you’re in Budapest, go to some of the ruin bars (if you’re over 18 of course), they’re a great place to go for a night out.
I really loved Budapest; it is definitely in my top five places that I visited when interrailing, and I would love to revisit again sometime in the future!
Next stop…Vienna!
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoes_on_the_Danube_Bank
Introducing Georgia 