So, initially I actually wanted to try and use my phone to do a vlog or video overview of my holiday, but I don’t think I really took enough footage to do this, coupled with the fact I don’t actually have any gopros etc, didn’t shoot any of my meals, and apparently I don’t even have Sony Vegas on my computer.
So instead, have a quick summary, some pictures, and some travel tips
Oh, I want to add that this is the first holiday in literal years where i’ve not taken my Canon DSLR with me, all these pics were just shot on my new phone, is it super obvious? I didn’t touch them in post either, I know the phone does some weird filters and stuff also so some shots aren’t artistically mine!
Day 1 – Arrival, Airbnb, went for dinner and then went to sleep because I felt a bit ill
Day 2 – Walked around the park, saw Vajdahunyad Castle, did a loop around the outside of the spa, saw Heroes Square, home for a nap, Went out to catch the sunset over the danube, walked along the danube for a bit just taking in the sights, saw the Budapest eye, went to Caviar & Bull (£90 per person, most expensive meal of my life, #3 on tripadvisor)
Day 3 – Went over to the castle district, Fishermans Bastion (very cool), walked around trying to find some gardens before it started raining, went to Central Market to have a look around, was going to eat there but way too busy, went to a local hungarian place for Goulash, Went out to a huge ruin bar, there was a small food cart street nearby where we tried Langos (traditional hungarian snack) and some chimney cake
Day 4 – 6am Wakeup to go to the famous Budapest Spa (no pictures), went over to St Stephens Basilica, food at Meatology (#6 on tripadvisor) where I had an amazing pork belly burger, long walk across to the other side of budapest to see the church in a cave, dinner at a Thai place
Day 5 – Lazy morning, tasty BBQ beef sandwich at Smokey Monkeys BBQ (#11 on tripadvisor), went to the highly disappointing 3d museum (0/10 would not recommend) and then went over to see the parliament building before starting to make our way back home.
First meal
Airbnb
Castle
Castle church
Heroes Square
Caviar and bull
Caviar and Bull – Oysters
Caviar and Bull – Steak Tartare, with mustard ice cream
Caviar and Bull – Prawn pasta thing
Caviar and Bull – Lobster popcorn
Mojito Ball (imagine biting into an egg yolk, but its cold mojito)
Caviar and Bull – Foie Gras
Caviar and Bull – Chocolate cake pebbles
One GBP is 360 Forint
Castle district
Fishermans Bastion
Fishersmans bastion
Grand Market
10/10 Fitness
Goulash
Langos
Chimney Cake
Ruin Bar
Ruin Bar
Still the same ruin bar
Yes, still the same ruin bar, it was huge
Pork belly sandwich
St Stephens
Cave church
Cave Church
Pulled beef sandwich @ Smokey monkeys
Parliament
Parliament
Travel tips:
- Széchenyi Spa ‘Cabins’ are actually just a changing room that you can use to lock your stuff in, the lock seems pretty robust and so you’re probably safe, they say you need to have slippers but nobody called us out on it
- Cash is king for smaller businesses, but larger restaurants and chain stores do all take card – the rate on ,my revolut card was actually much better than the exchange rate when we tried swapping cash.
- Budapest is very walkable, but I do suggest grabbing some travel tickets, we used 10 in 5 days (each), the shuttle bus tickets are separate
- Budapest is pretty affordable as long as you don’t go fine dining, most nice meals with a drink will cost less than £10 per person, if you want to go really budget you can easily do £5 per person per meal. We saw beer as cheap as £2 for a litre.
- Whilst you can technically get lunch at Central Market, I’d recommend making a plan B as it was mental while we were there
