Europe Travel Diary: Budapest
Our Europe Travel Diary is an informal rundown of our day-to-day activities while backpacking Europe, starting with Madrid. This travel diary entry is based on our six nights in Budapest. If you are after recommendations for Budapest instead, we have a Budapest Travel Guide coming soon!
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Day 31: Vienna to Budapest
03/11/21
The bus journey from Vienna to Budapest was only three hours which was nowhere near enough time to recover from our stressful morning. Luckily, we were very excited to get to Budapest! Surprisingly, we didn’t have to go through any border control in order to get to Hungary; this was despite Hungary being one of the hardest countries to visit during Covid – apparently.
Once we arrived at Budapest’s bus station, it took us some time to get a taxi; this was because there were no taxi ranks near the bus station (business opportunity right there). Thankfully a friendly local told us to download the app Taxify so we could call one but he was kind enough to call one on his phone instead.
We eventually got to our hostel which was situated right in the middle of the city. Now, I try not to be fussy with hostels, as you get what you pay for, but the hostel we opted for was pretty gross; it was undoubtedly a party hostel. Despite checking in at 2 pm, there were still a lot of hungover, smelly people in our large eight-bed dorm. We also noticed that the windows had no blinds and the singular toilet/shower room was to be shared by all; the bathroom itself looked like it had never been cleaned. Nonetheless, we decided to drop our bags and go out in search of food, hoping the problem would fix itself.
Thankfully, it wasn’t long before we found an absolute gem of a restaurant. I’d been to Budapest before so I was super excited to introduce Alex to some traditional Hungarian food. The owner initially told Alex off for not saying hello or introducing himself and going straight for “have you got a table for two”; I found this quite amusing and he then told me the food was going to be great! We treated ourselves to some beef goulash and ham & cheese langosh (we’d highly recommend) and some apple cider!
Once we’d finished, we spent the rest of the day wandering the beautiful city in the early evening; this included the Erzsebet hid bridge and Budapest’s Central Market Hall. Whilst walking along, Alex became very curious as to why there were South Korean flags lining the bridge; Google thankfully informed us that the South Korean PM was on a state visit to Budapest that very week. We then walked back along the river bank and through the main shopping centre to satisfy our window shopping cravings. Once my feet had gone beyond hurting, we plonked ourselves at a cocktail bar. Whilst sitting here and doing some online research, we eventually found a gluten-free restaurant where we had some amazing food!
We then ventured over to Szimpla Kert, which is a collection of vibey indoor/outdoor bars that is always full of people.
What was most entertaining during our visit was the fact we stumbled upon some traditional Transylvanian line dancing; as you can imagine, this amused us greatly for some time. I eventually managed to drag Alex away so we could actually get some sleep; he honestly could’ve stayed there watching for hours!
Day 32: Budapest
04/11/21
We woke up after surprising having a good amount of sleep; I actually got a full 11 hours which is unheard of for me, let alone in this hostel. Afterwards, we headed back to our favourite local restaurant again for some more goulash. This time, Alex tried some paprika chicken with dumplings which he really enjoyed.
We originally planned to take the day easy and wander around but we ended up exploring the whole of Buda. If you didn’t know, Budapest was previously two cities of Buda and Pest, separated only by the Danube River. We absolutely loved the walking around Buda Castle and the views from Fisherman’s Bastion were beautiful.
For some reason, we also decided to go to the Budapest History Museum which I remembered being a lot better a few years ago. Nonetheless, we did enjoy looking around the museum, although, as our travel diaries will highlight, we aren’t huge museum people.
We ended up spending the whole day in Buda and eventually made out way back to the hostel via a 20-minute taxi; we understandably then clonked out after so much walking. Previously, the Szechenyi Lanchid bridge provided a much shorter route to Buda Castle.
Eventually, we dragged ourselves out of the room and round the corner to a local restaurant. Unfortunately, despite the good reviews, we didn’t have the best experience here; having been amazed by the size of the schnitzels served in Austria, Alex decided to order one here. However, the portion was only fit for a small child and my chops came out cold. Safe to say we made a swift exit from here.
As we were staying in a party hostel that surrounded a bar (that went on until 4 am every night) the hostel put on many functions. This included a bar crawl; a bingo bar crawl, where you had to complete challenges to earn prizes; and a boat party. For each of the bar crawls, there were two prices; one with free drinks included for the first hour and another where no drinks were included. We’d also get a free welcome shot at each venue on the bar crawl.
For this particular night, we decided to go on the standard bar crawl but without any of the free drinks; this proved to be a wise decision, especially as the ticket cost doubled the standard price. The meeting point was in the hostel’s reception area and when the tour leader started outlining the rules, there were only 15 other people in the room; this was definitely a red flag.
Whilst it was a Thursday, we’d been swindled that the crawl which was “always really busy”. Anyway, we went downstairs to the bar/club and into a back room where, stone-cold sober, we started playing beer-pong. As you can imagine, everyone was very hesitant to start talking to each other. Thankfully, a drop of alcohol did the trick and once Alex finished off the beer pong, we started talking to a group of lads. Turns out, four of them were in Budapest that weekend to celebrate one of the groups’ 21st birthday.
Anyway, we end up chatting with them for a while before the tour guide rounded us up like disobedient sheep. Naturally, the tour leader decided to lead the way but to his detriment, decided to carry around a red flag 2m above his head as if we were in primary school.
We then arrived at our first “bar” on the pub crawl which turned out to be just another hostel; the evening’s second red flag. In order to make himself feel better, Alex decided to get an Espresso Martini; however, having taken a sip, he immediately realised something was quite wrong. I then tried a bit and immediately agreed. We then got the barman to try and he agreed it tasted funny. He then looked back in the fridge to see what ingredients he’d used instead of the pre-made coffee mixture; turns out he’d poured habanero mixture into the drink. No wonder it was so spicy!
By this point in the night, I was a little fed up getting dragged around to other hostel bars; having been to Budapest before and I knew there were far better bars nearby that we could go to for a fraction of the price; as a result, I set on starting a revolution! I decided we should ditch the pub crawl and go to Szimpla Kert where our new friends hadn’t been before. They swiftly agreed and once the group leaders rounded everyone up, we headed off in the opposite direction.
After a few drinks at the Ruin bars and losing a few weaklings on the way, we headed to Instant-Fogus nightclub. Everyone we’d spoken to about Budapest had always recommended Instant and once we got there, we knew why; apparently, it’s the biggest indoor club in Europe with seven floors and 28 rooms!
Anyway, we had a boogie and drink and both ended up babysitting the 21st birthday boy; we eventually decided that we’d had enough and pied responsibility over to his mates before heading home. On the way, Alex decided he was again hungry (it was about 3 am) so we went to a nearby pizza place that did slices for 50p. Thankfully it was only a two-minute walk to our hostel where we crashed! If you thought that was the end of the night’s antics, you’d be wrong!
Once we got to our room, we were about to jump into bed before being met with quite a shock; a very drunk Irish guy was sleeping in Alex’s bed! With no care for the other six roommates, Alex lost it and started having a go at him; asking what he was doing there and that he had to get out immediately. Poor bloke was in absolute shock and whilst it wasn’t his fault, Alex wasn’t having anything of it.
When the bloke got out of his bed, Alex went downstairs, at 3:30 am, to complain and ask for fresh sheets. According to the hostel world reviews, they assign people taken bed quite often.
Once Alex was out of the room, the poor guy explained to me that someone else was in his bed and he thought Alex’s bed was empty.
We finally got into bed (Alex with fresh sheets) before falling straight asleep; a very eventful night!!
Day 33: Budapest
05/11/21
As you can imagine from our late night, we had a bit of a lie-in. Although, Alex soon got hungry which made me drag myself out of bed.
As is customary when we’re hungry, we only start looking when it’s too late so we quickly get hangry. Nevertheless, we thankfully found a place nearby where I had a slice of some very nice suckling pork; Alex opted for a burger which must’ve been very small as he ate it very quickly, shock. Whilst we were eating, a guy behind Alex spilt a pint over himself and his laptop bag; poor bloke!
We decided that today was the visit to the well renowned Széchenyi Thermal Bath. Therefore, so we went back to the hostel and grabbed our bikinis, thongs and towels before jumping on the metro.
N.B. Everyone we spoke to said Budpest’s metro was quite basic and having become metro connoisseurs, we couldn’t agree more! Plus, we failed miserably to get a ticket as there was no information anywhere. Funnily enough, there was a manned ticket-style office at the station with a sign saying “tickets cannot be bought here”; who knows what their job actually is!
Anyway, we hopped off at the closest metro stop before walking five minutes to the thermal baths where we bought a ticket and got changed.
Safe to say, it was quite an experience. Whilst the baths were a must try and very warm, you got very cold as soon as you left the pool. Moreover, it left us both looking like wrinkly old people in our 80s. The worst part however was how dirty the large baths were; it was particularly worse inside due to the heat but you could literally see dirt on the pool floor. I mean if you think about it, having 100s of people in the same stagnant water source is quite disgusting; looking back, this is probably where we picked up our future colds from! Having said that, it is something you have to do in Budapest, even if it is a little dirty.
We then made our way home to the hostel for some more chill time (we were just about getting over our hangover at this point) and relax after a whole day of relaxing.
We then got up and out for food some food at the Karavan Park nearby before some very diluted cocktails. Our friends from the previous night got in touch and said they were at a rooftop bar close by. Whilst we did get on with them the previous night, we did give it some thought as to whether we should go; mainly so we didn’t have to look after them again. However, we decided to go as we do like a cocktail.
Having been assured there was plenty of space for us in the giant igloos on top, we bought our drinks and found them in an igloo. Turns out they seemed to be attempting a Guinness World Record for how many people could fit inside an igloo. Our four friends were joined by two more guys and three American girls who seemed amused by the boys talking absolute rubbish to and between them.
Having managed to find ourselves a chair, we dipped in and out of the conversation with everyone before the guys decided to head to the next bar. This left us with the Americans who seemed relieved to get rid of the guys that’d ambushed their quiet cocktail night. We ended up chatting to them for quite some time, mainly comparing English and American culture; and by this I mean Alex discussing how/why healthcare is so expensive and the classic political stuff, how boring! After many Espresso Martini’s, the girls left for the club whilst we finished off our before heading back to bed; a very civilised evening.
On our way back, we instantly noticed how full the streets were of household rubbish; litter-ally filling the pavements forcing pedestrians to walk on the roads to get by. After I sought the help of Dr Google, we established that today was one of the two days in the year that residents could legally dump their rubbish onto the street.
Day 34: Budapest
06/11/21
Today we rose with big plans in mind but instead decided we needed to catch up on some washing and scour the streets for a gluten-free wrap at a cute cafe. We were also shocked as to how clean the streets were compared to the previous night as street cleaners worked through the night to clear the rubbish from the street.
On the way back, Alex popped in to get a traditional Chimney Cake; these are basically massive hollow doughnut funnel things that you can fill with multiple sweet fillings. Despite the fact he was wearing a jacket for the cold, he picked Vanilla Ice Cream and Nutella.
We then collected our washing before some chill time at the hostel in preparation for another night clubbing; this time we planned on attending the weekly boat party along the Danube.
After some hesitation, we got ready for the boat party and met Tunnels (our friend we met in Vienna) at the Caravan Park for food. Alex and Tunnels both opted for some traditional Goulash stew in a bread bowl before we all walked half an hour to the meetup point at another hostel nearer the river. We ended up having a few ciders and bumping into the American girls from the previous evening.
We eventually got to the boat party where the two-hour ride consisted of free drinks from the makeshift bar. Whilst it sounds like an amazing deal, tickets were €38 each; as a result, you had a two-hour timeslot to get as much as you can for your money. The boat party was definitely one of the highlights of Budapest and we’d definitely recommend going; especially if you find a mate like Tunnels who can talk to a brick wall.
Once we got kicked off the boat, we made our way into town where the Americans decided to have a post-drink snack. From the fast-food shop, we jumped into a Taxi with Tunnels to Instant. The most amusing thing about our journey was that the taxi driver decided to play music at full volume; it was so loud we literally couldn’t hear ourselves think, let alone talk. Our eardrums only just survived the 15-minute journey.
We hopped out at Instant and saw a huge queue. Now I refuse to ever queue to get into clubs (probably an ex-bartender thing) so I managed to sneak us into a VIP queue and we got in after about two minutes.
Turns out we stayed in the club quite a long time; getting out at about 4 am before we walked back towards our hostels. I ordered some chips which prompted the American girls to laugh, jokingly, at me thinking that I was getting a bowl of crisps; a conversation that definitely lasted 10 minutes longer than it should’ve! Once I had my customary three chips I gave the rest to Alex and we made our way back to the hostel dorm where, surprisingly, we were the last ones in. Thankfully, no ginger Irish guy was in Alex’s bed this time and we fell straight asleep; an end to an extremely enjoyable night!
Day 34: Budapest
07/11/21
Unsurprisingly, we were both feeling quite sorry for ourselves today so we had a lie-in before we dragged ourselves out of bed to meet Tunnels for some breakfast. We each had a full English and it put our hangover at bay for a bit longer; it definitely wasn’t as good as the breakfast back home. We then quickly retreated back to the hostel where I napped during the afternoon.
In the evening, Alex and Tunnels wanted to watch their NFL teams play each other so we attempted to find a sports bar. Alex ended up pulling a paddy as the first bar didn’t have any space; we eventually got a taxi to an Irish sports bar which was showing the game. Turns out it was the exact same bar our remaining American friends were also at! Alex was also very proud that he beat Tunnels in a drinking contest – so glad his ego stayed intact.
Once the game had finished, we went back to the Ruin Bars until the early hours when we had more cocktails. The only way to get over a hangover is by drinking; hair of the dog and all that!
Day 35: Budapest
08/11/21
Having spent the last two nights drinking and socialising, we were quite exhausted. Nevertheless, we got ourselves out of bed to have breakfast with Tunnels and the last remaining American before she too left.
After we said our goodbyes to Tunnels, we decided to finish seeing the rest of Budapest we hadn’t yet seen. In particular, we visited the Budapest Parliament House and the Shoes on the Danube Bank; if you’ve never heard of the latter, definitely look it up as it’s truly horrendous to think what happened here.
We (I) had a little panic about whether we needed a negative PCR test to get into Poland. We eventually concluded, after a lot of research, that we didn’t need one which was definitely a relief.
Then it was back to the hostel to chill and recover some more from the previous days. Alex then dragged us out to a nearby Vietnamese restaurant where we had green curry, summer rolls, pho noodles and dumplings; I can confirm they’re the #1 ranked Dumpling place in the whole of Budapest It was then back to the hostel to pack ready for an early morning.
Day 35: Budapest to Krakow
09/11/21
We yet again got up early, as Alex keeps booking early buses, and got a 15-minute taxi to the bus station. Alex said he could tell I had had no sleep because I was already up and showered by the time he woke up, which is very very rare.
First things first, we made camp and got ourselves a coffee each and supplies for the journey. Alex the pig had not one, but two slices of pizza for his breakfast.
The bus ride felt quite long as I had multiple naps and we still weren’t in Krakow. On the other hand, Alex literally sat and played Candy Crush for the whole journey; no wonder he said it didn’t feel long. Despite the long ride, we did end up going through Slovakia which had the most beautiful high mountains, huge trees and beautiful houses; it’s definitely somewhere I could live in a pretty house by the mountains with some chickens, a cow and an army of dogs!!!!
Budapest Summary
We absolutely loved our time in Budapest. It is an amazing city and would recommend it to anyone. There are heaps of things to do and the food is amazing. We found the whole city really affordable even with the amount of time we went out. We met some lovely people in Budapest which I think made our experience even more enjoyable. Unfortunately, it did lead to a lot of drinking which is potentially what made us ill for our next stop in Krakow!
The only downside of our time was the hostel. Whilst we knew what we were signing up for, booking this particular party hostel probably was a mistake. The Hive would have been perfect for around 3 nights but for a 6-night trip, a quieter hostel probably would have been preferable.
Europe Travel Diary
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