Thursday 23 April 2015

Budapest

If you're wondering why I haven't been posting anything recently, it's because I've been travelling quite a lot and have been struggling with school work, so I am sorry for my absence but I'll hopefully be posting a lot more content in the next few weeks!  Over the Easter holidays I was lucky enough to go to Budapest and Prague (post will be coming very soon), and I had such a fun time, and thought I'd share what I did and ate with you all.



Transport
I took the train (Rail jet) from Munich to Hungary, and although it's quite a long journey (8 hours) I found it quite enjoyable.  I would recommend going first class though, since you get a lot more space and it isn't that expensive.


Accommodation 
I can't remember the name of the hotel we stayed in, but it was in Pest.  I think if you're going to visit the city, it's better to stay in Pest, because all though Buda is lovely, it's quite residential and there's much more going on in Pest.

Activities 
I really enjoy going to art exhibitions and museums, and in Budapest I got to see quite a few so that was really nice.  We also went to see some landmarks, etc.



Museum of Applied Arts
Museum of Applied Arts 
We stumbled upon this museum by chance.  We were walking around and saw this beautiful building, so we decided to check it out, and it turned out to be this museum.  I saw an exhibition on Ödön Lechner, a hungarian architect, and it was really interesting.  Lechner did a lot of work in Budapest, and it was interesting to see how he mixed his political ideas into his work.  I don't usually pay much attention to architecture apart from thinking buildings are pretty, so this was a nice change.

Holocaust Memorial

The Synagogue
The Synagogue in Budapest is the biggest in Europe and it is quite phenomenal.  It was actually my first time being in a synagogue, and I was quite blown away.  You can go for a tour around the Jewish quarter, but we decided to go with the flow and explore on our own, but I've heard from friends that it's really good.  Behind the synagogue, there's a garden with different memorials and graves for all the people taken during the holocaust.

Synagogue

Jewish Quarter
This was by far my favourite neighborhood in Budapest!  It actually reminded me of Berlin and Shoreditch quite a lot.  This is where you'll find really cool vintage shops and restaurants.

The Palace 
The Palace is in Buda, and it's at the top of a hill, so you can "hike" or take a lift.  I would recommend walking up because it's good for a little bit of exercise, and trust me I needed to do some of that considering the amount I was eating!  We hiked up twice, because it turns out that the National Museum of Art is closed  until 2018 and the exhibitions were moved to the palace.  Even if you're not interested in going to an art exhibition,  I do think you should go to the palace to have a bird's eye view of the city.

View from the Palace + pre-apocalyptic weather

Hungarian National Gallery 
This was at the palace and I saw an exhibition, Rippl-Rónai ét Maillol.  It featured the works of these two painters, who were very good friends, and I loved it.  It had quite a personal feel to it, and it was also surprisingly long.  If you enjoy impressionism, you could be into it.

Market Hall
This is a huge hall, full of stalls selling fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, etc.  And it's lovely!

View over the stalls, Market Hall

Robert Capa Institute
Robert Capa is a really famous hungarian photographer (did a lot of work for LIFE magazine during the war), so we visited the institute, and though none of his pictures were presented, there were all these winning pictures from a national competition displayed, which was really fun and interesting.  If you like photography I think it's worth seeing because they have pictures from all around the world and from different categories, e.g. nature, sport, etc.



Food
In Budapest, I ate a lot and I mean a lot.  Not only was the food delicious and really well priced, my hungarian friend Caterina made me a whole list of foods that I had to try.  So I went all out!

Púder
This was a really cool restaurant we went to the first night, and I really liked it!  I had a goulash soup, which I must say, could have been better, and a burger (how original of me) which was super yumm.  I also drank a lemonade which was delicious!  If you go to Budpest, you must have the lemonade, it's a specialty and it's delicious.  It had quite an arty interior and the atmosphere was really great.  They also had quite a nice menu.

Holocaust Memorial on the Riverbank

Cafe Central 
This cafe was recommended by my friend who was in Budapest last year, and it was really nice!  It was a classic old cafe, which a lot of poets and artists hung around in during the late 19th and early 20th century.  It had loads of hungarian cakes and lovely coffee.  I tried the dobos tarte and had a lovely chocolate coffee.


Hummus Bar 
The city had loads of cool restaurant joints for students, or people who just don't want to fuss or pay that much!  The food in these restaurant was totally up my street, so I was super keen on going to them!  One was hummus bar, which is really popular, and although it was good, I was not too impressed with the hummus...



Pad Thai 
Was another "student" restaurant and I LOVED IT!!! I really wish there was one in Munich... You had the choice of ordering a customized pad thai or soup.  I had the pad thai and a pad tea (hands down, best drink ever).  It was so good but not very photogenic unfortunately...  And if you don't know what pad thai is, it's a thai speciality (who would have thought), and it's basically noodles, vegetables, meat (optional), and they're seasoned together making a big bowl of warm goodness.

Ramenka 
I finally got to try ramen!!! And I enjoyed it, it's really yummy.  One thing is, I would not recommend it as first date food, because there's a lot of slurping going on...unless you think soup dripping down your chin every second minute is attractive.  The actual restaurant wasn't very fancy, and was very hot, so if you're not into that I wouldn't go, but if you're of the daring kind, go for it.

Burger at Mensa
Mensa
Saving the best till last, this was my favourite restaurant in Budapest!  It had the coolest interior ever, 70's style decor, super chilled out and apparently it's really popular.  The food was delicious!  I had a garlic cream soup with langós (another hungarian speciality you have to try) which was beyond incredible and a burger, which was really good but not the best.  My sister had a pasta dish though which was really nice too.



So that is it for my Budapest post!  I know it's long, but I was there for 5 days :) Tell me if you've been to the city or if you live there!  I can't wait to go back.









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