Budapest
A beautiful city with some stunning architecture, sprawling does not do this city justice, it is in fact two cities, Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube, facing each other over the river.
Its biggest issue is the tourists, tonnes of them, english lads, boisterous Americans, Israelis visiting the jewish quarter.
It is a city not quite sure of its character, a city of contrasts. Inspiring buildings and cheap cruise chips, a history of conflict and a thriving tourist trade, Bachelor parties fighting to get into a Ruin bar with no context for why these unique bars exist, and how they are more than just bohemian bars.
Day 1:
Day 1 was barely a day in Budapest, the flight left at 9:30pm and other than the distraction of a half dozen lads stood in the aisle drinking beers and whiskeys, it was quiet enough I slept for a bit. This should perhaps have been a warning about my energy levels.
Getting through the airport was a breeze, and the cab to the hotel cost €24.
The hotel itself is in a long party street, and relatively central, which is also helpful. It was very centrally located in the jewish quarter.
Day 2:
Despite arriving late, I was up early and eating breakfast in the chaotic dining room by 9:30am. Poorly laid out, broken coffee machines and a general sense of madness was a less than ideal way to start the day.
I headed out down one of the Amin roads through the city to find the Budapest National Museum. The heat was already high even this early and I stopped at Starbucks for the coffee that I had missed at breakfast.
The National Museum is set in an impressive building on the main road. A fair amount of ground work was going on whilst I was there.
In order to bring my camera into the museum, I had to pay 500 HUF to have a photo-pass, (approximately £1) Not too bad a deal. The basement ha a few old relics and as you work your way through the floors the exhibits become more modern. There is a strong focus on weaponry and portraits, its a good collection, but perhaps a little dry. The museum was also very quiet, only a few tourists were there, though there was an American couple living up to their stereotype of being a few decibels louder than everyone else.
The temporary exhibit focuses on pre-history, up to Roman times so fits in well with the museum overall, but perhaps misses a chance to provide something different.
It was then time for lunch and the ‘Muzeum’ restaurant nearby I had earmarked for Hungarian goulash was closed for a private party so I found a nice cafe in a courtyard with live music playing and ha da beef stroganoff (well, it was actually a steak with fresh pasta and a stroganoff sauce as the waiter told me it was a much better choice and a better cut of meat.)
I had three additional museums I wanted to visit after lunch, more or less on a line on the same main road.
I walked down the hot, humid road in my Nudie jeans and black top to the first, the Museum of Applied Art, which was, it turned out, closed for the year long refurbishment it needed. So, I moved on the the next museum on my list.
The Holocaust Memorial Museum, dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of Jews, Gays and Gypsies who were systematically murdered by the Nazis. It was the only museum I have encountered so far that had a metal detector to walk through and a bag search. It speaks volumes about how little we have truly moved on from hatred. It also does not take credit cards or euros so I had to leave to get some local cash.
I then headed down to my final museum on my list, hoping it would allow me in, whilst keeping a sharp eye out for ATMs. The impressive building, the focus of the park, was not the Natural History Museum I was looking for, that was a smaller round building off to one side. The parking spaces in front marked by rocks, labeled in brass to help you remember if you parked in front of granite or sandstone.
The ticket to entrance was originally a mere 22 HUF, or £0.06 due to the trainee not really understanding the systems. Once resolved it was more realistic 2,200 HUF. I took a look around the museum, but only ha access to the Green Sector, having not got the correct ticket (and having no desire to try and resolve the issue with the ticket office) It is a museum heavily targeted at children, interactive blocks, things to touch and move. For an adult (Particularly one hitting museums with a near military regularity), other than a few nice displays of tropical fish, it is a little basic.
I managed to find. Cash point on my way back to the centre of town before the Holocaust Museum, but first headed to a nearby Ruin Bar for a beer. Ruin Bars are a curious Budapest eccentricity. Bars originally build in the crumbing ruins post war to provide a place to hang out and drink, they have become an expected, eclectic part of Budapest’s drinking culture. Many, I am sure, are as artificial as the forced zany decorations on a TGI Fridays wall. The one I stopped at had four bars. One for Wine by the entrance, one for Beer, one for food and one for coffee. All this was based around a central courtyard.
It was here that I intended to update by journey that I discovered a downside to my new tablet. The heat and humidity made smooth writing on the tablet impossible as my hand was sticking, slightly, to the surface. Paper would have absorbed the moisture and quickly allowed for writing.
I then went back to the Holocaust Museum, built into the understructure of a synagog. It tells the stories, pitifully and in some cases personally of the Jews and Gypsies of Hungary. Lip service is given on the initial wall to the homosexuals killed, but when in the museum none of their stories are told.
Fully a tenth of those killed at Auchwitz were from Hungary. I have seen the ovens there. The gate, wrought iron with the words “arbite macht frei”. I have seen a lamp made of human skin. This museum does not have those horrifying items, it is a museum of loss, not a mausoleum or monument to mankind cruelty. However, in the first room there is a selection of lost items of those carried away on the trains. A book. Glasses. A Childs doll.
Near the end, a pair of striped pyjamas.
I sat for a while in the nave of the synagog. I am only a small part jewish on my grandfathers side, but at times like this, I realise I and my family would have been jewish enough to be on a train had we been in the wrong country.
I then walked do to the water, writing this I realise how often proximity to water is something I do when I deal with a strong emotion. It is calming and in my blood. If I am only a little jewish, I am a lot a sailor.
On the way there, I passed a film crew, dozens of trunks, hair and makeup food, a series of gazebos with tables to work at. I couldn't’ find out what was being filmed, but it was in the courtyard of an imposing building.
I then got to the waters edge and next to the Bang & Olaffson stop, there was an outdoor bar overlooking the river. I had about two hours until it was Golden Hour and so I drank good wine and talked to a good friend, and watched the waves.
As the sun reached the right point, I walked along the riverfront, in some cases past the booze cruise ferry and their crowds waiting to get onboard and have all inclusive beer and cocktails. My destination was the famous chain bridge. Unfortunately, as the spot is so picturesque it is ruined by the moored cruise boas, all trying to offer the best view. I went slightly past the bridge to get a sunset shot. I did, haver ducking under a fence, get a great photo of the Elisabet Bridge inset at Golden Hour, looking backwards into Budapest.
I found a little out of the way bistro called H.E.L.G.A for dinner. I had a Tubula Rasa, three colours, three flavour, to start with a Chef’s specialty chicken for main. I also indulged in a fair bit of very good wine.
I started walking back to the hotel, through an amusement park of sorts, with the Budapest Eye, and a huge number of people say around drinking from cans and bottles.
I tried to visit the famous Ruin Bar near the hotel but it was so bfs the queue blocked the street from traffic. I instead I went to a small outdoor bar that would have been more at home in Thailand, where after I finished my beer I went straight to bed.
Day 3:
This was perhaps my most difficult morning, the actions of the past week had caught up with me; a half marathon, followed by being out till 3:30am, work and exploring a new city made waking up like coming up from morphine. It was a pillowy struggle through clouds.
It was 11:30 by the time I left the hotel a depressing fact made all the worse by how spread out Budapest is. I headed towards the Chain Bridge, stopping briefly for coffee at the London Coffee Company, which does an excellent brew. Chaotically organised and not fast, it is a hipster haven. The Ted Danson-esque manager with his union jack bow-tie and red suspenders. Smashed avocado is legitimately not he menu, but the coffee is truly excellent.
I was so late starting, it was lunchtime by the time I reached the river. I tried a pasta place in the square, but the service was so poor I had time to check the reviews and see it was generally just a bad place to eat. I moved over to an Italian near the river for good instead. I had a fairly resectable Calzone (with grilled cheese on the outside) and a beer or two before walking across the bridge to experience Buda for the first time.
The best way up is the Funicular, reasonably priced but with a queue and whilst waiting you will have a selection of “tour Guides” bring to convince you to take the mini-bus, or golf cart or Segway's that they are representing and are ‘better value’ than the funicular.
Buda castle is impressive, the views are slightly spoilt by having the foliage of the trees reaching up higher than you would expect, but where they are more spaced out, it is a lovely sight over the river.
Before really exploring the outside, I went to the Art Museum, hosted in the castle. Set over three floors, the museum looks at Hungarian art over the last few hundred years. Only a few rooms are air conditioned so, in the 30 degree heat it was stifling. This museum was something of a trigger point for me, I realised how ‘same-y’ a lot of pre-modern art is, especially historical or religious. Over of the seven cities I have been to, i have been to a lot of art museums and it is only the modern art that really resonates with me. There is a point, one I cannot identify when art becomes less about reproduction and more about creation. There were, of course, always innovators, but we spend too much time looking at the imitators, who follow their word and we legitimise it by calling it a school.
The top floor ha da small exhibit of modern art, falling angels made of gauze, a bronze skeleton king of the republic. Cartoonish demon dogs, built posthumously from the artists notes.
After the museum, I had a swift beer at the outside cafe and then followed the walls to get some photos of the river and Pest.
It was a long walk down the main road, I took a different route, which was quite residential. When I reached the bottom< I walked along the main through fair and across the main road to reach the foot of the biggest hill in Budapest. It was a 20 minute climb up the slopes and steps to reach the Citadel and the Victory Statue. I had see it from the Pest side, but up close it was very Soviet inspired. Clean, consistent strong, bronze statues, in heroic poses, and yet with a religious ent the soviets would never have allowed.
There was also a tiny ice cream van selling various things including beer. So I had a cold dark beer and a plastic bottle and let my sweat from the climb dry off.
The walk up had been a nature trail, small paved or stone roads giving occasional glimpses of the city. The way back I took was the commercial route, passing a deadlocked hippy playing music and a boy an a girl heavily tattooed and about to do a parkour climb of the citadel if they could get a few minutes with no-one watching, and a small bar with outdoor seating right next to the tour bus stops.
Reaching the road, I had a choice, stop for spar head or to the strip to see more. As the spa had a few sketchy reviews and it was getting late, I found a great bar with suburb wine and settled there etc finally write my notes. It took two hours and four glasses of wine.
I crossed over the chain bridge hoping the spoon boat opening hours were accurate for the kitchen as well, as most places had closed for dinner by this point.
Turns out they were, so I ate goals soup and eat stew on deck looking out at Buda Castle. The walk home was long and unexciting.
Day 4:
My final day in Budapest, I headed back to the London Coffee Society for a croissant and a coffee.
Suitably fuelled, I went to the Ruin bar that had been so busy every evening. It was very quiet and in fact through open, none of the bars were serving. Its a cool place, but feels a little forced. Ruin bars are a thing, but it feels like this one has gone to the trouble to tick all the boxes on what make them quirky.
I then took a long walk, initially along a main road to the Hero’s Plaza, a win expanse with a main column, and two ‘wings’ flanking it An impressive sight, though crowded with tourists accidentally photo-bombing each other. A particular frustration for someone with a wide angle lens like me.
Stopping for lunch at a bistro on the water, and every so slightly in range of the water fountain when the wind was blowing strongly, I still had a nice view of the lake.
I walked around the thermal spa, considered going in but the long queues showed how busy it would be, not a very relaxing experience. Instead, I walked over to the castle and explore its grounds. There was some filming finishing up in the space. Roadies were loading up lights and generating a string of vans to move the equipment.
I killed the last half an hour having a beer looking at the castle before taking a cab to the airport for my flight home.