Rounding out our 10 days in Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary was a 3 day stop in Budapest.  Coming from Bratislava it is a short 2 and 1/2 hour bus ride and it could have been done as a (long) day trip but we wanted more time in Budapest and it was along our way to our next stop which was in Slovenia.

At this point our travelling had been going really smoothly but here is where we hit our first travel snags.  Firstly, I did not mention this in my Slovakia post, our AirBnB host in Bratislava was the worst we’ve ever had to deal with.  We had a number of issues that came up such as missing our stop in Bratislava, a power outage on our first day, a burst hose in the bathroom, and finally our internet dying.

Our host was not pleasant to deal with on any of these issues, she had a very condescending and accusing tone, and we had been arguing with her on AirBnB messenger on the last day about her charging us 60€ for having the telecom company come out to fix the internet.

To add to this when we arrived at the Budapest bus terminal I was a dumb dumb and decided it was a good idea to change money with a random stranger.  I changed 500 Polish Zloty we had left over (about $100 CAD) for surprise surprise some worthless Yugoslavian Dinar.  Changing money with a random person on the street worked well on my Korea trip a couple of years ago so why wouldn’t it work in Hungary??

The really stupid part was I didn’t actually know what Hungarian Forints looked like otherwise I would have caught on that I was getting scammed.  Since I love collecting currencies I’m not too upset at having Yugoslavian Dinar, a currency that doesn’t exist anymore, but I paid way too much for something worth only a couple of dollars at the most.  After the AirBnB problems and now this Candice was understandably none too happy with me.

Let’s Go Find The Romans

Ok enough of the bad parts of travel lets get on to the good stuff.  On researching Budapest I discovered that the city is built on top of the old Roman city Aquincum and they have an entire archeological site within the city limits.  The entrance price is also very reasonable at about $5 USD so if you have the time definitely check this place out.

Unfortunately there isn’t much of the ruins left aside from the base of the buildings.  2000 years takes it toll apparently.

The outdoor part of the site is much larger then I thought it would be for being inside the city limits.  At the back of the park is a covered area full of sarcophagi and I thought I knew my Roman history fairly well but I didn’t know the Romans used Sarcophagi.

The excavated remains of an amphitheater.

You can find some fragments of stone sculptures around as well.  Apparently Roman men just stroll around naked.

There was also a recreation of a Roman house but it doesn’t look like I took any pictures of it.  There is also a proper museum section with all the excavated artifacts and lots of history of the people that lived here.  Although Roman times is the central theme of the archeology site the museum tells you about all of Hungarian history including before and after the Romans.

I believe this is a Roman gladus but I couldn’t find a plaque confirming this.

You could also try on some traditional Hungarian clothing from the 1500s.

Continuing the theme of old things a 2nd destination we visited was the Budapest Castle.  This castle is built more like a small town then what you might thing of as a traditional castle.  We had a similar experience when we visited the Prague Castle a year earlier.

There are streets and shops to explore in the castle and even a Starbucks has set up shop here.

You know your castle is large when a full sized cathedral easily fits inside.

I think 3 hours is about right to see the castle.  It’s pleasant to stroll around the outside walking path and you get good views of Budapest in every direction.

We ended up being at the castle in time to see the changing of the guards

And if you don’t feel like walking up to or down from the castle there’s a cute funicular you can ride.

Since the castle only took a few hours of our time in the morning we were able to use the afternoon to see the 3rd largest Synagogue in the World.

I touched on this in my Prague post from the summer of 2018 but Jewish people have never been treated very well in Europe and this was also true in Hungary.   In the 1800s there were a lot of laws forbidding Jews from being equals in society but in the mid 1800s the King of Hungary lifted all these laws and gave Jewish people the same freedoms as everyone else in the country.

As a way of saying thank you to the Hungarian people for finally accepting them they built a grande elaborate synagogue in a Catholic style.  Our tour guide at the synagogue said the Jewish faith doesn’t care how their house of worships are designed and so it’s not a problem that it follows a lot of Catholic church styles.  It’s called the Great Synagogue and it’s the largest outside of Israel able to hold 3000 worshipers.

 

Inside the Catholic design is very apparent.

Outside the synagogue are a couple of interesting art pieces.

After the Great Synagogue Candice and I headed to one of the famous ruin bars for a drink.

Because of the Soviet occupation and communism many of the buildings in Budapest were left to fall apart.  Today a few bars have set up in the ruined buildings and used it as a cool theme to draw in crowds and they call themselves ruin bars.  We picked one of the most popular ones and it was pretty hopping inside at 4 pm.

I opted for a red ale and Candice got a cider.  If you like pubs check out these ruin bars as they’re super cool.

Food, Markets, and Hot Springs

Another highlight of Budapest is the Great Market Hall of Budapest.  It is a large indoor market selling fresh produce, meats, cheese and more in the lower half and souvenir items and cheap food on the top level.

There was plenty of Hungarian sausage

and fresh and dried veggies.

and these bouquets of fresh chilies were super colourful.

Up top I was able to try some Hungarian goulash soup

and Candice got a monster vegetarian plate.  I don’t remember what it was exactly but I had to help her devour it.

Be aware to not come between 12 and 2 pm because all the locals show up for their lunch break to grab a cheap meal and it was way too crowded.  We somehow managed to push our way through the crowds to get our food and find a corner of a table to eat but it was crazy.

A 2nd must do activity in Budapest are the mineral hot baths.   Hot springs are all over Hungary and there are dozens in Budapest to choose from.  People have been bathing in the hot springs since Roman times (maybe earlier) and even today Hungarians still love their bath houses.

The oldest bath houses go back to the 1500s (none from the Roman times have survived) and the biggest ones are huge elaborate buildings worth going just to see the inside decor.  We decided to choose Gellert bath house at the recommendation of a friend and it was gorgeous inside.

We didn’t bring our cameras into the pool area but here are a few pictures I snagged off the internet.  There were several pools inside and outside ranging from cool pools at 26C to hot pools at 36C and 40C.

It was a chilly day and the hottest outdoor pool was only 30C so we spent our time inside at the 36C and 40C pools showcased below.

The Gellert bathhouse was one of the more expensive ones around $20 CAD but some of the other ones were less than $10 CAD to enter.  Do your research and choose the one (or ones) that look interesting to you.

Before I end this post I want to put in a few pictures I couldn’t fit in.

The Hungarian parliament building.  An absolute unit of a building.

Cool street art with real World elements

This door with an awesome mustache

and a very weird baby sculpture.

As you’ll have noticed we didn’t get a chance to go outside of Budapest.  I’m sure there’s a ton more to explore in this cool country but our 3 month Visa free stay in the Euro travel zone was expiring soon and we had to choose our time carefully.  With our last few days we wanted to head into Slovenia and spend some down time in the Julian Alps so unfortunately Hungary didn’t get the time it definitely deserves.

One thing I have been learning is even 6 months of travel is no where near enough to see everything in Europe.   We picked less than 1/4 of the countries in Europe to visit and I still feel like we’re breezing through way too fast but I won’t openly complain.  This has been a really cool experience and we’re both so happy we made this decision.

As I eluded too already, Slovenia was our next stop and spoiler alert, we have some AMAZING photos to share.