Budapest, Hungary is an uncomfortable and sketchy 9-hour overnight train ride from Belgrade. I left the train station in Serbia late one Thursday night with three of my friends from Remote Year to visit Budapest for the weekend. We didn't splurge on the 4-person cabin, so it was a roll of the dice who our other two cabin mates would be. We got lucky with a nice Irish couple who spent the evening playing cards and sharing their wine with us. The cabin was tiny and barely fit the six of us, let alone our bags. I hadn’t thought to bring my sleep sack (which I hadn’t needed since nights spent sleeping in South American hostels), so spent the night curled up under my scarf on the middle bunk, trying not to freeze or touch anything, especially the blanket provided on the train. Every few hours our sleep was interrupted by the border police coming through, banging on the cabin doors (which, thankfully locked from the inside) to check our passports and tickets.
We finally rolled into the Budapest train station, bleary eyed and hungry, around 6 am on Friday. At the train station, we left our bags in lockers for the day since we couldn’t check into our Airbnb yet and set out to find a café that was open early. Friday afternoon we settled into our Airbnb and finished up the day’s work before heading out to dinner. We ate al fresco at a restaurant in the square surrounding St. Stephen’s Basilica and then spent the evening checking out the “Ruin Bars” that abound in Budapest. These bars are abandoned buildings that have been converted into local watering holes, each with its own unique vibe. I hadn’t heard of this phenomenon before arriving in the city, but similar to Prague and Belgrade, Budapest is a city that wears its history on its sleeve.
On Saturday, we explored the city, or cities, rather; the Danube River divides Budapest into Buda on the west bank and Pest on the east bank. We stayed in Pest, where the ruin bars and many of the restaurants and cafes are. We began our morning with coffee at a cute café and then walked across the Chain Bridge from Pest into Buda and up the aptly named Castle Hill. There, we wandered around the Buda Castle complex, home to the Royal Palace, Matthias Church, and Fisherman’s Bastion, which offers great views of Pest across the river below.
Since it was summertime in Europe, the weather was extremely hot and after our morning walk we were ready for some air conditioning. After lunch, we stopped to visit the Museum of Applied Arts, which ended up being one of my favorite stops in Budapest. The building was built in the art nouveau style between 1893 and 1896 and is beautiful both inside and out. We had some fun playing on the bikes on display at the temporary “Bikeology” exhibit and then explored the permanent collections upstairs. Another temporary exhibit, “In the Mood for Colours”, arranged all of the objects according to their dominant color and was really cool to see. We capped off our day of exploring with a fireworks show in front of the Parliament building to celebrate St. Stephen's Day, which happens every year to mark the day of Hungary's foundation under the reign of St. Stephen, the nation's first king.
Even on the road, Sundays are best spent resting and relaxing. Before we had to endure the horrors of the night train again, we treated ourselves to a day at the Gellért Baths. Bathhouses are a major attraction in Budapest because the city sits atop a number of natural thermal baths. We chose the Gellért Baths because they’re a little less crowded than the popular Széchenyi Baths and with their art noveau style are supposed to have the most beautiful indoor swimming pools in the city. The baths are a weird experience – sitting in hot water with a bunch of strangers and not actually swimming around isn't my idea of fun – and probably something that I won’t do again, but I’m glad to have experienced it. We also got a nice massage while we were there and finished the evening with dinner at The Four Seasons Hotel before heading to the train.
This time, we weren’t so lucky with our cabin mates: one surly looking backpacker of undetermined nationality who barely said a word and an awkward Danish girl who kept staring at me while I tried to sleep. Budapest was totally worth it, and I enjoyed the city more than Belgrade, but next time I think I’ll fly!
