Budapest (roughly pronounced boo-duh-pesht) is the largest and capital city of Hungary with a population of about 2 million people. I don’t usually like big cities. Budapest is no exception. It reminds me a lot of New York (tall buildings, somewhat stinky, too hot in summer, cabbies trying to rip you off).
The 11 hour train ride to Budapest wasn’t a great introduction to the city. Shortly after reaching the Hungarian border, our nice air-conditioned Slovenian train couldn’t continue (possibly due to a train collision ahead). We got off, boarded a bus to the next station, and then got on a much less nice Hungarian train without air conditioning. Over the next 4 hours, we sweated our way toward Budapest in the 90+ degree train.
Once we reached the city, the apartment that Valerie found was actually quite nice (with air conditioning) and well located (near Oktogon). The next morning, we went out for lunch in Liszt Ferenc square. Thanks to the heads up from the owner of our apartment, we found that most places offer a lunch special (only advertised in Hungarian) that is substantially cheaper than anything on the menu (about $5 for a great two course meal). The food in Hungary is much tastier than Slovenian and Croatian food.
On our first tourist day in Budapest, we toured Pest, the eastern half of the city. We quickly saw the sights (Parliament, various squares, the Opera House, etc), picking up cold drinks along the way to survive the heat.
To start our second tourist day, we visited the Széchenyi Baths. The baths consist primarily of the indoor thermal baths and the outdoor swimming pools. Since Hungary is a country without a coast (not even a concrete one), the citizens flock to these giant pool complexes to spend a day relaxing at the “beach”. While it was certainly a very relaxing experience, the pools lack some of the important qualities of an actual beach such as a cool breeze, sand, or hammocks.
After the baths, we very quickly toured Buda, the west side of the city. However, Buda wasn’t as interesting as Pest, so we quickly gave up and headed back to the air-conditioned room.
I don’t plan to return to Budapest in the summer. It’s just too hot.