Budapest in one day

Hello from the road. Leaving from Helsinki was a mess. A traffical one. We had an hour to get to the airport through Club Hague (it's the name of my and my roommates' apartment) and the clock started ticking the minute I got off from work. But to make it all more exciting, our usual 13-minute drive from work turned into 30 minutes because every darn road in Helsinki is under renovation. So we had a bit more than 20 minutes to change, eat and pile up the clothes that had been washed. Then we ran to the bus which also ended up being late because every darn road in Helsinki is under renovation. And when we got off the bus we ran to the train. And from the train we ran into the airport, through check in and straight to the gate that was on the opposite side of the airport. Just made it.

In the plane we were staaaarving.. And as we landed in Budapest, the airport had lost the stairs so it ment 10 more hungry minutes before getting out and heading towards the bus. We were smart enough to buy our bus tickets from Relay as all the other tourists were lining for the official ticket desk.

Our riverboat hotel :)

After travelling an hour with a bus and a train to the city, we walked our bags to the hotel we found super cheap online. A riverboat hotel, 25€/night. A really cute boat in the Tonava river that splits the city of Budapest in two sides called Buda and Pest. But even though the hotel was super cute and we were super super tired from working all day and travelling all night, the hunger we felt was pulling us towards the city center, with a speed of a photographing 20-year old. Even as we stopped every 10 meters to take pictures of all the beautifully lit places we made it in time to be late for anything else but some kebab. No restaurants serving food after 11pm. Well the kebab got us back to the hotel and bed.

Sleeping in the ship was peaceful and cool due to the water. The next morning we woke up pretty early and headed out to the city. We walked around for one and a half hours to settle ourselves down for a good breakfast and very tasty it was indeed. We both had huge freshly baked hot chocolate croissants and omelets – mine with fresh veggies and Arno's with sausage, ham and potatoes. He also drank an orange juice and I got myself the best ever caramel coffee (let me tell you I have had quite many special coffees while living in America and this one topped all of them)!

After brekkie we decided to rent a bike. One bike. It was a good way to save money and not to rent two. One can rest and take pics as the other one is pretending to be athletic. And it was easy to get around from one place to the other faster than by foot, enjoying the sun and stopping wherever you want to. So I sat on the back and Arno pedaled. Then Arno sat on the back as I drove. We went over old bridges to the other side of the river, Buda. We drove around, stopped for pics, switched drivers. Stopped to buy sodas, switched again. Found a cute phone booth, made jokes about it, almost called my roommate a prank call and kept going. We parked the bike after a few hours at a market and went shopping for little shampoos and stuff. Then we continued walking and found this cute little ice cream place where we bought cinnamon-plum, bounty, raspberry and tiramisu flavored ice creams from a non-English speaking man who was rather friendly. We ate under the sun by the river.

After that snack we bravely climbed all the way up to a church that is one of the main sights and from there walked to the royal palace. The view over the city was great. We also saw the change of guards by accident. After all the walking and all the surrounding tourists we were so tired we took a public transport boat to our boat and went to rest for a moment before heading out to find a restaurant for dinner. It was Arno's choice and it was super good, I have to give him that. The only thing was that the dress code was a liiiittle fancy and everyone looked at us as we walked in with our jeans and t-shirts (luckily I wasn't wearing my tennis skirt as earlier). I ate the tastiest pork medallions with mushroom sauce and veggie rice and Arno had gnocchi with chicken & pesto. For dessert we split a brownie and went through a store to our hotel.

So how did we like about Budapest overall? It is a beautiful city, cheap to travel and nice to walk around for few days with all the cultural history. We didn't want to do all the churches, just feel the overall vibe and that we really succeeded in. The bike was a good idea to rent and costed only 5 euros, tho it was a pretty heavy bike to carry up or down stairs :D. Another tip would be to go by roller skates, the streets are ideal for that.

How much money did we spend?

Sleeping in the boat hotel was 25€ for two people, it makes 50€

Kebabs and drinks were 6€ all thogether

The breakfast was 15€

Ice cream and sodas were 4€ all thogether

Bike was 5€ boat and bus-train tickets 2€ per person, so 4€

And the dinner costed us with desserts and all 20€

= 99€ for two people

So yeah we both recommend Budapest. We'd never been there before and surely will go again (at least when we fly home) :D.

Hugs,

Linnea