Budapest is the Budabest

Final stop of the friends segment of the post-grad trip

Paros to Budapest (6/21)

After grabbing a fantastic Greek breakfast, we took the bus to the airport to fly from Paros to Budapest with another layover in Athens. Of course, our Ryan Air flight from Athens to Budapest was delayed, but not before we enjoyed a final Greek gyro meal in the airport (surprisingly decent).

Once we arrived in Budapest, we went for a nearby easier meal: pizza. It was actually quite delicious. While eating however, we got caught in an insane lightning storm. So after we finished the pizza, we ran back in the hot and muggy rain, barely managing to live another day.

Budapest (6/22)

Budapest is hot! After a troubled night of sleep in our overheated Airbnb, we grabbed some donuts on the way to a free walking tour.

Free walking tours are a great way to see a city and they operate with an interesting business model where you pay the tour guide at the end depending on the quality.

On the tour, we learned about the history of Budapest (pronounced Buddha - Pesht) from its creation with the start of the Hungarian empire in 896 all the way through the Ottoman, Austrian, German, and Soviet occupations. Our tour guide - who went by Matt - taught us history, basic Hungarian phrases, and background information on major locations. My favorite part was a more somber moment when we looked at a relatively recent World War Two memorial put up by the Hungarian government. The monument is quite controversial as many accuse the government of ignoring its own cooperation with the Nazi party in the deportation and murder of countless Hungarian Jews. It was interesting to hear Matt express his own passion in the form of distaste toward the wording on the monument which blamed Germany and painted Hungary as a mere victim.

After the tour, we went to a butcher shop and tried an assortment of meats: pork belly, spicy sausage, and blood sausage. To work off the cholesterol spike, we hiked over to the Pest side of Budapest on the opposite bank of the Danube river and got a fantastic view point from the Fisherman’s Bastion which is on Castle Hill.

In the evening, we went out for a Hungarian meal before hopping on an unlimited Prosecco boat. We got our moneys worth and then went to one of Budapest’s large ruin bars. The bar has many bar counters inside of it and a couple of levels. It was quite fun.

Budapest (6/23)

In the morning, we went to a Budapest bath which is essentially a huge pool area with many pools at varying temperatures. It kind of reminded me of a Vegas hotel pool in terms of size and all the people. There was even a beer spa where you basically paid to sit in a tub and drink unlimited beer from the tap next to you. We saved the beer spa for next time.

We had an Airbnb experience scheduled for the afternoon. We met our host George who showed us around the Budapest central market hall and then took us back to his apartment to cook some chicken paprikash. For dinner, we shared wine, palinka (fruity Hungarian spirit), pickled vegetables, sausages, pork tongue, bread dumplings (similar to homemade noodles), and of course the chicken paprikash. It was so good. I think George enjoyed our company as well as he joined us on a hike after dinner up to a nearby vantage point from Gellert Hill (not a mountain because it’s under 300 meters). It was a steep walk after a big meal, but nonetheless we made it up just in time before another Budapest lightning storm appeared. We caught a taxi home before getting severely drenched but still fought off some wind and rain while crossing one of Budapest’s bridges.

Budapest to Glasgow (6/24)

Today, I departed from my friends in Budapest to fly to Glasgow and meet up with the family. I was pretty sad to leave the “fantastic five” because we shared some really quality time together. From Patrick’s dedication to buying fake Rolexes in Istanbul, to Lily’s help in fixing my sea urchin injury, to Elizabeth’s discovery of the best travel app ever (Splitwise), to Nate’s killer vocals on “Vienna” by Billy Joel; there’s no doubt that we will definitely travel together again.