Four Days in Budapest
Our tour of Central Europe continued by train when we left Vienna for Budapest. This was our third train of the trip and we were starting to feel like we were getting the hang of it, which led to us cutting it a little close and getting some cardio in running to the platform. The train was a relatively short 2 hours and 45 minutes, and not particularly scenic, but we fell into our routines to pass the time (for me, writing these recaps).
We arrived earlier than our AirBnb would let us in so we took our time getting from the train station on the Buda side of the river, to the Pest side where we were staying in District 5. Close to the river and very touristic, it was a convenient jumping off point of us but when we come back, we will stay in the old Jewish quarter in District 6 as that’s where we spent most of our time. On our walk we passed some main sights, like the Liberty statue, the Chain Bridge, and the Elizabeth Bridge.
The first place we stopped was Kiosk, a cool restaurant with high ceilings and a tree growing behind the bar. It used to be a school and has some cool features from its past life. It’s also connected to Michelin-starred Babel. We had a healthy brunch there while a DJ played music and multiple bachelorette parties and dogs filed through. This passed enough time for us to be able to check into our AirBnB, on Vaci Street where every other store was a souvenir shop. Once checked in, we made no apologies about relaxing for a bit as the pace of the trip starts to shift from “go, go, go, do all the things!” to “just be present”.
Saturday was a great day to arrive, as we got to take advantage of the bustling nightlife. At first it was to our detriment; we walked through the Gozu Court looking for dinner and were turned down by six different restaurants. Every place was packed with vacationers visiting for the Easter holiday. Finally we found dinner at Antré Etterem, which was a great reward for our trials! They offer traditional Hungarian food which is exactly what we were after and we enjoyed duck confit with salty apple strudel and and chicken paprika.
We grabbed a beer from the market to drink in line for Szimpla Kert, the most famous of Budapest’s ruin bars. Ruin bars, a Budapest staple, popped up in abandoned buildings from before WWII and Szimpla Kert is one of the best known for good reason. We were instantly in awe when we walked in; pumping music, lights and disco balls, and wild colorful decor surrounded us as we walked through to the bar. They serve inventive and delicious cocktails in giant glasses, and you can even order hookah at the bar. We took ourselves on a tour of the whole place before settling into a dance floor upstairs where they were projecting fever-dream visuals on a wall across from the DJ. We bounced between that DJ and another dance floor downstairs until one in the morning. It was a perfect place for a fun night out.
The next day, we woke up to church bells for Easter mass (there are a lot of Catholics in Hungary) and took our time getting out of the apartment. We headed to Karavan, a street food park, where we had Lángos (traditional Hungarian fry bread). I had mine with roasted paprika (red peppers) and Marcus had his as a lamb burger. The sun was shining and we headed to a perfect spot for a relaxing Sunday, the Szechenyi Baths.
We rode electric scooters through the park to the building, which has a palace-like facade. A lot of people had the same idea as us and we waited in line for over an hour, but made some friends and read my book and the time passed quickly. Once inside, we headed to our separate locker rooms and changed into swimsuits and then walked through all the different indoor baths. There are 17 pools total and 11 saunas, fed by natural hot springs so the water is nice and warm. The real “wow” moment was when we stopped outside, though. In the center of the building walls, there are two massive outdoor pools and a lap pool. It was the stuff of Instagram pics, too pretty to be real, but here we were! We moved from pool to pool until our fingers were pruned and it was nearing closing time.
Leaving the baths, we walked through Hero’s Square and struck out on electric scooters. Luckily the metro turned out to be cheap and easy to use! We rode the M1 to TwentySix, a restaurant where we were hopeful we would have better luck than the previous night. We got lucky! They had two seats at the bar we could squeeze into and enjoy their beautiful setting. The restaurant was in an atrium-like covered courtyard with live plants and trees all around. The food was just as good as the setting! We recommend a reservation if you’re going on a weekend.
Closing out the night, we checked out a cocktail bar on our route home, Hotsy Totsy. A few steps down into the bomb-shelter-esque narrow brick walled bar, we were greeted by the hostess who brought us several menus. There was no shortage of inventive cocktails here, and we were most excited by the criminal case file-themed menu. We both had totally unique drinks to cap off the weekend.
Marcus especially enjoys being a foodie, at home and on our trips. He found that Budapest had several Michelin-recognized restaurants and was set on finding one for us to try. So we got a reservation for Monday night at Costes. That day, we only left the apartment for breakfast, and saved up our appetites for dinner. A pre-dinner drink next door at Púder Bárszinház and we were ready for our 6-course dinner!
First off, the service was amazing. I had mentioned in our Vienna recap that we were getting accustomed to lowering our standards when it comes to restaurant service. But Costes was redemption for all of those poor experiences. We opted for the wine pairing and the sommelier was so thoughtful with the pairings and so friendly. Our servers were also attentive and kind, enough so that I’ll dedicate a paragraph to it here.
We were taken on a jaw-dropping culinary journey, starting with the amuse bouche, to raviolis, to tartare tortes. A chorizo/asparagus dish and then black cod with lobster foam warmed us up for the main course, duck three ways. The dessert, and even the bread (a roll with 3 types of bread) and butter (with kimchi spice and some kind of charcoal), were all thoughtful accompaniments and we enjoyed them alongside Hungarian, Italian and French wines. It was another massive gold star for Budapest which was already impressing us so much.
A stop at Paris, Texas bar offered some balance to our fancy night out, with a few rounds of pool and some massive lemonade-based cocktails. We continued the slower pace the next day as well, with just one thing on the agenda - a tattoo. Marcus had found an artist to do a tattoo for him that he had been picturing for many years. We headed to Queen of Hearts Tattoo around noon and I settled into the waiting room with my Kindle while Marcus and the artist negotiated the design on an iPad before prepping his arm. It took about 4 hours from start to finish and it came out amazing.
Just 24 hours left to go in Budapest after leaving Queen of Hearts, so we swung through the Great Market Hall which we kept meaning to check out but hadn’t gotten around to. It’s a massive building with stalls for fresh meat and produce, cooked food, souvenirs and tchotchkes. It wasn’t much to see compared to, say, Foodhallen in Amsterdam or the Ferry Building in San Francisco. For dinner, we went to the poorly named Beerstro 14, where we expected a brewery vibe but instead found ourselves at a somewhat fancy bistro serving steaks. Food was good though!
Similar to the ruin bar vibe, we found that some of the cafe bars had a similar collage-decor style. Csendes Letterem was like that, crowded with tiny tables and the walls covered in all kinds of memorabilia and any blank space tagged. We enjoyed our last night in Budapest there with some cards before turning in for the night.
Budapest has so many more sights to see and history, and we did miss out a bit on seeing those by prioritizing out rest. But either in spite of that, or thanks to it, we had an amazing time and count Budapest as one of our favorite spots so far. Luckily we get to continue our slower pace in Croatia, once we survive 2 travel days of 6 hour train rides…
