After Bratislava, we took ourselves to Budapest, Hungary, where we were to board our Viking River Cruise down the Danube. Mike had never been to Budapest. While I visited 30+ years ago, it seemed like I had never been there either because nothing looked anything like I remembered. We decided to give ourselves a few days before the cruise to explore all the city adequately had to offer. We weren’t disappointed, as Budapest is a beautiful, modern city that I would encourage you to visit.
Getting and Staying in Budapest
It was a modest, 2.5-hour train ride from Bratislava to Budapest. From the train station, we crossed the Danube to the Buda side of the city to get to our hotel. We decided to splurge and just stay in the same hotel that the cruise line had booked us into, the Hilton in Buda. I usually don’t comment much on our hotel, but this one was spectacular. Since we have status at Hilton, we were given a big upgraded room with the most beautiful view of the Parliament building. Parliament is the huge building that always represents Budapest. Lots of people come to the Fisherman’s Bastion in this area for the view of Parliament across the river.
The hotel was built during the communist era, which you can see when you look at the outside that faces the river. But it is built on top of a 13th-century Dominican cloister and monastery, some walls of which are incorporated in the hotel. You can also visit the monastery dormitory rooms directly under the hotel. We were able to take the bus anywhere we wanted to go. It was easy and cheap.
A Very Short History
The Celts first occupied the area, followed by the Romans. In 896 AD, seven Magyar tribes joined forces and defeated the Romans. From that point on, two towns developed, one on each side of the Danube, Buda and Pest. Between the 11th and 16th centuries, Hungary had a succession of Catholic kings.
In 1526, Pest was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. The fall of Buda fifteen years later kept the Turks in power until 1686 when the Habsburg dynasty prevailed and Buda became part of its dominion. Interestingly, today you see no evidence of Turkish rule. There was enlightenment and progress during the Habsburg rule and in 1849, the first permanent bridge was constructed connecting Buda and Pest. It is known as the Chain Bridge.
The Modern Era
Buda and Pest were unified into a single city in 1873 and rose to become the second main city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After World War I, the country lost control over Slovakia, Ruthenia, Transylvania, and Croatia. In total, Hungary lost over two-thirds of its territory and Budapest became a capital that was too large for its small state. During World War II, the city was bombed by the Allied Forces and greatly damaged. Between 1944 and 1945, the Soviets occupied Hungary and subsequently legalized and installed the Communist Party to control the government. Although the 1956 revolt failed to change control of the country, Communism did finally fall in 1989.
A note about the guilds. Throughout Eastern European history, workers were divided into guilds based on their occupation. In addition to other activities, guilds were often responsible for maintaining and guarding a portion of the town’s fortification. The Fisherman’s Bastion was the area of the medieval walls that was maintained by the Fisherman’s Guild of Buda. We saw and heard about the guilds throughout this region of Europe.
A Little About Buda
The Buda side of the Danube is where the royalty and the rich people lived. Given the limited space on top of a hill, housing prices for this in-demand area were steep. The Pest side is much larger and flat, so there is plenty of urban sprawl. The Buda neighborhood in which we stayed has many 19th and 20th-century homes undergoing renovation and lots of little restaurants. There is also the Matthias Church, the Fisherman’s Bastion, and Buda Castle, the historical palace complex of the Hungarian kings in Budapest.
First completed in 1265, the Baroque palace that occupies most of the site today was built between 1749 and 1769. Today it houses the Hungarian National Gallery, the Budapest Historical Museum, and the National Széchényi Library. We didn’t take the time to visit these, but it is very beautifully lit at night.
Visiting Parliament
While looking at the magnificent Parliament building from the outside in the daytime and at night is great, we wanted to visit inside, too. The building was designed by Hungarian architect Imre Steindl in neo-Gothic style and opened in 1902. It has been the largest building in Hungary since its completion. The building is built with two symmetrical wings that meet in the middle of the central building. The Holy Crown of Hungary, which is also depicted in Hungary’s coat of arms, has been displayed in the central hall since 2000.
The outside of the building is quite ornate but the inside is even more so with some of the most detailed paintwork that I have seen. They also had interesting historical figures mounted on the walls that represent the history and guilds of the country.
Parliament from across the river 
View at night 
Getting there on the metro using the steepest vertigo inducing escalator ever 
Outside of the building 
Entrance side of Parliament 
Statue on the grounds 
Famous grand staircase 
Hallway 
Inside the Parliament 
Parliament Chamber 
A place to leave your cigar when you enter the chamber 
Intricate paint work 
Figures representing the guilds 
Ceiling frescos 
Court building opposite Parliament undergoing renovation
Holocaust Monument
In Budapest, they have the most moving holocaust monument I have seen outside of Israel. There are sculptures of shoes set along the sea wall of the Danube because that was how thousands of people were killed. They were taken to the riverside, told to take off their shoes, and then shot. I can’t express what the reality of the monument feels like but everyone should see it in person.
We also toured a bit of the Jewish quarter and saw one of the original walls of the ghetto, which has been preserved. We weren’t able to go into the synagogue but it looked a lot like a church from the outside. It was common for synagogue design to match surrounding styles so as not to stand out and draw attention.
All About the Food
For our first dinner in Hungary, we were in search of traditional Hungarian food. We knew about goulash but we didn’t know they make it as soup and a stew. Mike didn’t feel there was much difference in the taste, but there was a difference in the amount of meat and sauce texture. Another traditional dish is stuffed cabbage or stewed cabbage, which they serve with almost everything. My Hungarian-born grandparents used to make stuffed cabbage but it was completely different from today’s version. All of the cabbage dishes we tried weren’t the sweet and sour version that I am used to, they were all far too sour for either of us. So Mike stuck to goulash, which I wasn’t impressed with either.
Because we had lounge access at the hotel, there were some evenings where we just had appetizers and drinks in the lounge instead of going out for dinner. It was also blazing hot while we were there, so that might have had something to do with it.
Food Tour
One day we took a food tour that started at the market main market in Pest. Did you know that there are several different types of paprika and the ones you buy in Hungary are the best, certainly the freshest? There is mild, spicy, and smoked paprika and there were stalls that just sold paprika. If you are fond of paprika, they recommend replacing it every six months or so because it won’t maintain its flavor otherwise. We also visited a restaurant where I had a chicken crepe with goulash sauce, probably the only dish I actually liked.
Hungarian baked goods are heavy in poppy seeds, which we also saw in Bratislava. But by far the best thing we tasted was the sour cherry strudel. It was really exceptional. I love sour cherries and I love strudel so it was perfect. Of course, you can’t live on strudel, so we only had the one we got at the market.
The Hungarians are also famous for their Tokay sweet wine, which is highly rated worldwide. We heard in the town of Sauternes, France that the French tasted the Tokay wine and copied the process for their own sweet wines.
Visiting a Ruin Bar
At the end of the tour, our guide took us to a unique and very popular type of bar called a ruin bar. We went to the most famous one, Szimpla Kert, the self-proclaimed mecca of ruin bars.
Ruin Bars wanted to make use of the crumbling and dilapidated buildings (ruins) in the VII District. Many buildings in this area had been abandoned and left to rot since World War II. The idea was simple; find a derelict and decaying building before it’s demolished, fill it with some odd furniture and mismatched items, and serve some cheap drinks. We read this ‘simple idea’ kick-started a trend across Europe, but we have yet to encounter one elsewhere.
In our opinion, Budapest competes with Prague for the best capital of Eastern Europe. But we haven’t been to Warsaw yet. Perhaps it is more impressive.
What interests you most about Budapest?
