The Best of Budapest

When I think back about Budapest, there are a few things that come to mind.

The fact it was the last stop on our grand European tour before we returned to the UK to make our way home; or that it was laid out in a way almost identical to Prague, so much so that you could almost just use a map of Prague to get around; or that met one of the nicest Canadians who we spent five days with while we were there.

So basically, there are a couple of pictures that sum up the best of our time in Budapest:

1. Caving Under Budapest

Not for the claustrophobic

The space is about as big as Mike's feet....

This one goes into the pile of 'things I never thought I'd do'  before I went to Budapest. Before we arrived we had never even heard of Caving. Then we met a couple at our hostel that were from Sydney. They showed us a photo that was pretty much like that one of Mike's feet above, and told us how you had to maneuver your body through tiny holes to get through, and in some points had to crawl vertically on your stomach to get under the caves. It was our last week in Europe, and we were up for the adventure.

So on our last day in Budapest we decided to try it out. After a small map-reading mishap on my behalf, we eventually made it to the caving grounds on the outskirts of Budapest. We were greeted with some grungy looking overalls covered in dust and miner helmets with torches on the front. From there the fun began.

Over a few hours we crawled, walked and slid on our stomachs through spaces that many times we just looked at and went 'we won't fit in there'. But each time we did. At one stage we got through by pulling a superman-like pose: lying on our sides with one arm out in front, we had to wriggle through the small, uphill hole to get through. It was the most tiring thing you could do, and wasn't easy on the knees either. But to be able to say we have squeezed our way through tiny holes underneath Budapest was definitely worth it.

2. Thermal Baths

Wearing swimmers.. in the middle of winter?

One thing that we had heard about before we got there were the thermal baths of Budapest. The city is famous for its baths full of natural water, meant to be full of healing minerals. Apparently there are 118 springs in Budapest, and 15 public thermal baths dotted around the city.

With so much to choose from, we decided on the biggest and grandest looking one of them all:

Széchenyi Baths. That place was the best way to spend a cold winter's afternoon. Inside there were abut 4 or 5 different rooms full of pools with thermal waters of different temperatures. We spent about an hour or so in there, thinking that was a pretty nice relaxation. Then Mike got curious and went outside, where we found this:

It looked like a huge palace with two big pools on either side. One side even had a whirlpool in the middle of it that would work every half hour or so (so much fun). On the other side there were old Hungarian men crowded around Chess tables in the middle of the Baths. I think that's the picture I'll remember when I think of Hungarians. One of my best friends is half-Hungarian, so I was thrilled to tell her what her people get up to.

3. Bars and Bathtubs

Szimpla, possibly one of the best bars in Europe

I've got to hand it to Budapest- that city had some of the best bars I saw throughout Europe. We are not exactly super club people, so we loved the chance to go to unique, laid back bars and have a few beers while sitting in a bathtub...wait, a bath tub?

Along with the caves and the thermal baths, Budapest has a reputation for places known as 'Ruin Bars'. Take a derelict-looking building, add some unique furnishings and some good music, and basically it makes a ruin bar. We heard that they are especially good in Summer time, with a lot of them having huge outdoor areas. But still we found a place called Szimpla that we returned to a couple of times in our stay. I think I can sum it up by saying if this place was in Newcastle, we would be there in a heartbeat.


4. And a pretty cool Canadian

Alex, who we spent our time in Budapest with.

That guy on the left is Alex.

We met him a few days earlier in Krakow, Poland on a night out and when we realised we were both heading to Budapest soon, we decided to do it together. Basically, we spent 5 days with this guy who was the easiest person to get along with. He is a writer from Ontario, who just finished college and was traveling Europe in the hope of finishing a book. Instead he found people and travel and so that was that for Alex.

Everything that I mentioned above, Alex did too. It was Valentine's Day while we were in Budapest, and so the three of us went to a 'fancy' restaurant for lunch that day to celebrate (when I say fancy, I mean delicious meals and they were still under about $15). This guy reminded us what was so great about travel, and I think because we met him at the end of our trip, we appreciated that even more.

He's planning a trip to Australia in the next year. And so when we said goodbye to him a few hours before our 6am flight out of Budapest, all we had to say was 'see you when you make it here'.

So that's Budapest. The land of bars, baths and bathtubs, deep fried Hungarian cooking (I mean, they even deep fry BROCCOLI there) and the final European city we got to visit before our trip was nearing the finish line.It was a hard place to leave behind.