Budapest is weird and we loved it. Our last stop on our trip was about a 3 hour train ride south from Vienna. Nestled on the banks of the Danube River, this was an Hungarian gem.
Maybe our favorite part of the trip was the ruin bars. These old, dilapidated buildings were set to be destroyed (either by nature or bull dozer) until they decided to leave them as is and turn them into bars. One of the first and most popular ruin bars is Szempla Kert. We grabbed a Pilsner Urquell (of course) and started wondering this mysteriously odd building. It almost seemed like this place was just thrown together but there was a lot of thought into how to make it look that way. It was really neat and we could’ve stayed there all day just to read what people wrote on the walls.
We stayed on the east side of the river in what was formally known as Pest. Just across the Chain Bridge (which was closed….), was Buda and the Buda Castle District. During our hike to the Buda Castle we walked what seemed like 30 minutes only to find out we can’t cross over the bridge because its closed. So we had to walk all the way back the way we came to the next closest bridge. It was an extra hour and a half of just walking, before we get to the castle which included way more walking. Anyway, the castle was similar to the one in Prague, where its more of a city than a building and it had some great views of the Parliament building down below across the Danube.
Cuisine-wise I found myself consuming (and wearing, at times) their goulash. So. Good! Budapest also had chimney cakes so that was of course our go-to dessert.
