Winter Days in Budapest

We visited Budapest in March, and believe me, it was bitterly cold. It was sunny BUT freezing, with daytime temperatures hovering right at -6°F, so come prepared for that. Budapest is really two cities in one. Buda is the historic centre that encompasses the castle and the medieval buildings. This includes the palaces and the fisherman’s bastions, which offer the greatest view in Budapest from Buda down across the Danube into Pest, where you can see the stunning parliament building.

The Pest side of the city has some beautiful parts and a good nightlife but is much like any other big, with billboards and McDonald’s on every corner. Some of our best memories involve just walking the city, crossing the bridges (take Chain Bridge for some great photographs), and finding small graveyards, hidden restaurants, etc. One of the most unusual but best experiences was trying the thermal baths. There are many different ones, and we tried the more famous Gellert Baths (see experiences).

Our hotel was up in the historic area, with a great view of St. Matthias Church. There are pastry shops and great restaurants in the Buda district, but you need to head into Pest for any real nightlife. Riding the metro was one of my favorite things to do. For such a somber country, the little jingles that get played at each stop are quite surprising and extremely entertaining.

The local opera and ballets are not to be missed. Even if you don’t have time to attend a show, at least try and do the tour, as the opera house in stunning. Another interesting stop was the House of Terror museum, which, granted, has a tacky name but is actually housed in the old Secret Police (AVH) headquarters and teaches you about the crimes and atrocities committed first by the Fascists and then the Soviet regime.

Another highlight worth seeing is the St. Stephans Basilica. This church houses the mummified hand of St Stephan. CREEPY. To enter the church is just one .

Quick Tips:

• Try talking to the locals. They have a very somber look to them, yet once they start chatting, you will find them very warm and helpful.
• The Buda card offers discounts on many museums and events, and you can use it for all transport. It will cost you for the 48-hour card and for the 72-hour card. If you are not planning on doing many museums, it may work out to be cheaper to buy the 3/5/7-day transport pass.
• Check out the local markets for gifts. They tend to be cheaper than the shops and have lots of choices. The biggest is the central market hall on the Pest side near the Liberty Bridge.
• Beware of restaurants ripping you off. Check out this website for up-to-date warnings issued by the American embassies on dangers and scams: warnings.
• Don’t miss the Ruszwurn pastry shop up near Fisherman’s bastion for the best cream cakes.

Best Way To Get Around:

We used the metro, trams, and bus the most. The city is small enough to get most places by foot, but the public transport is easy to use and seemed to be reliable and frequent. So if it’s in the negative temperatures, like when we were there, I would recommend heading underground, even for short distances. You can buy the Buda card, which includes all transport and museums discounts, or just the transport passes. You don’t show the passes to ticket collectors, but don’t think you can get away with not paying, as the ticket inspectors will pop up just when you are not expecting them and can be merciless to tourists.

We booked the Hotel Burg through one of the discount websites hotelclub.net see here and got a much reduced rate from the hotels own webpage: Burg Hotel. The prices we saw were advertised for 89 euros, and we got a great room for 50 euros (that's about $60).

Burg Hotel is situated in the castle district of Buda and a perfect location for seeing the history, as it's right within the castle walls. Our room had a splendid view of St Matthias Church, which it's advertised that all the rooms do. This was gorgeous by day or night when it was lit up. Across the street is the fisherman's bastion, so you really can't get a better location for sightseeing.

The only downside with the location were the church bells at 6am. They would ring over and over again!

Our room was big and clean. Unfortunately, there was construction going on whilst we were there, which made for a very noisy room. Luckily, we were never in the room to really get bothered by this, but believe me, it was loud. Maybe that's why the rooms were cheaper.

A bus runs into Pest (to the metro stop) every 15 minutes, so getting around wasn't a problem, but the majority of public transport ended at midnight, so if you are night owls, then this could be a problem unless you are willing to risk the taxis (they can be expensive).

Breakfast was included in our price, and the breakfast room had the same stunning view out over the church. The food was plentiful, with the more traditional cold cuts of meat, cheese, yoghurts, and cereals, as well as all the hot "English-style" foods such as saugages, eggs, and bacon. DELICIOUS!

The Aranyszarvas Restaurant (Golden Stag) is right at the bottom of Castle Hill, just outside the walls. Its décor is very classy, reminiscent of a hunting lodge, though the prices are very reasonable. The main courses varied in price from 1800-2800 HUF (which is $8-13). The menu specializes in wild game, as you would expect, seeing all the animal heads on the wall. There were all the usual Hungarian meats, such as duck, pheasant, veal, and then a few more unusual dishes, such as Siberian boar or deer pancakes!! Service was great, and there were plenty of local liquors and Hungarian wines to choose from. If you don’t eat meat, your choices are limited, but there were a few veggie-only dishes, which was pleasantly surprising. It was the middle of March, so the restaurant was packed, and people were being turned away. Summer-time will be easier to get in, as there’s a huge wrap-around terrace outside.

We had been warned before coming to Budapest to be wary of the local restaurants ripping you off and adding mysterious prices to the bill. Therefore, we were extra cautious wherever we went, making sure everything on the bill added up correctly and looking carefully at the menu before ordering.

Here’s a restaurant where we fell for their scams. We stopped for a quick lunch on the Vaci Utca pedestrian streets. The pub was owned by Pilsner Urquell and called SORBARKA.

There was a menu outside that looked reasonable, so we went in, and the staff all looked fun and funky. Three good-looking Italian or Spanish girls were in charge. They told us it would be more fun to eat upstairs and that we should go whilst they brought us a drink. What would we like? Having not studied the menu yet, we just asked for the local beer and off we went. The experience wasn’t bad, but food was just average, if the place was cheap and cheerful. They had some local foods, but mainly it was a burger-and-fries type of place.

On finishing and asking for the bill, we were confused to see an extra $10. The food was only about $5 each!!! We went downstairs to ask what the mistake was and were told, "Oh that’s the beer."
"But we asked for the local beer."
"It is the local beer."
"Well, how can it be that expensive?"
"It is. You just didn’t see it on the menu."

It wasn’t on our menu, but apparently on the outside one. They were getting nasty at this point, with short answers and pretending to not understand. They had a couple of guys sitting nearby, big, beefy European types, who were standing and getting closer, as we were raising our voices at this point. It wasn’t worth the fight for $10, so we left, but we looked at the outdoor menu first, where no beer prices were listed at all.

One glass of beer ended up costing us more than both our meals, so beware of scams like this. We thought we were too street-smart to be caught. Fair enough, it wasn’t a lot, but it’s the principle and left a sour taste in our mouths afterwards.

We took the train from Prague to Budapest to split up our vacation into two cities, and what an experience it was. Of course, you could do the journey the other way around if you happen to be in Budapest first. The train takes 8 hours (and this is the express train), so it’s a perfect choice if you enjoy train travel. Otherwise, you might be better suited taking a flight!! We booked into second-class, which was a regular seat. This was $83 each, and the first-class, which has sleepers, was $115. On booking, we had the choice of three trains per day, one early morning, one mid-afternoon, and one that travels through the night. If you are pushed for time, I highly suggest the night train, but for us, the early morning one was perfect and a great opportunity to see the surrounding countryside. If leaving from Prague, be sure to check your ticket thoroughly, as there are multiple train stations.

The train was a modern train with what to me is the old-fashioned layout of one long corridor with carriages or compartments off to the side. Our carriage contained just six seats, and for part of the journey, these were empty, but at various stops, they were filled with local colorful characters that made the journey more interesting. Most of our fellow travelers were older and insisted on talking the whole time to us in their own language even though we said many times we didn’t understand. They would nod like they understood and then continue to chatter away.

There were a few warnings we had heard concerning train travel. One is that the sleeper carriages have been known to be gassed and broken into whilst the passengers slept. I had read this on a few different website and read about the danger in my bible (the Lonely Planet), so I believed it to be valid, but as we traveled through the day, there was no chance to see if there was any truth behind this. The other warnings were about the border guards who enter the train as you cross countries. It said to be aware and not let them take your tickets or passports, as they could be impersonators or corrupt guards. Again, we believed this does happen, but there was nothing on our trip to suggest this was a problem. The ticket guards were impersonal yet professional, and the border guards who entered the train seemed the same.

The train from Prague to Budapest passed through the countryside of Czech Republic, Slovakia, and into Hungary. Much of the scenery was covered with snow, making it very pretty to see.

Eight hours after boarding, we were in Budapest at the Nyugati train station, which is centrally located right by a big modern shopping centre called the WEST END.

Budapest has the most medical thermal baths in the world, so there will be plenty of choices if you want to try this experience. We chose the Gellert thermal baths, which is situated inside the Gellert hotel on the Buda side of the city, right by the Danube (xi kelenhegyi ut 2-4). The baths are open Monday to Friday 6am-7pm and Saturday and Sunday from 6am-2pm.

Entering the baths can be confusing. It's hard to know what to ask for and very little English is spoken. They get very busy, making their patience with foreigners thin. Just ask around if this is a problem, as there will eventually be someone that understands or has the time to help. Basically, you will want to enter the pool and Thermal bath for the overall experience. Many of the treatments are for specific ailments anyway, and for this, you need a doctor's prescription to do them.

Bring a swinsuit and towel with you if possible. However, they can be rented here for about 400 HUF. The price to enter the swimming pool and bath is 1800 HUF (about 7.50 euros). Once you have paid and are through the entry, it's not any easier to understand where to go, but do what I did and just ask, ask, ask!! Pretty much, you will be directed to locked cubicles where you can change and leave all your clothes til you return.

The swimming pool and Jacuzzi area is where you will enter first, though the water in the pool was really cold for me, so I started in the Jacuzzi, which felt great. It took a while for me to figure out that this whole area was just the pool, and I wasn't in fact anywhere near the baths yet. Eventually, I figured that out when I saw various people heading to the far end of the pool and disapearing from sight, women one way, men another.

So I followed, and there, through a corridor, were the Baths. Warm, lovely thermal baths with art-deco high ceilings, and off from them were steam baths, dry saunas, showers, and a freezing-cold water pit! All were included in your entry. I tried all of these. It's segregated to women only, and the majority were naked or covered just in a loincloth, of sorts. My husband had gone to the men's side and said it was about the same there. You could tell the nationality of the people there by what they wore. The locals were the naked ones, older and strutting around without a care in the world. The Germans were younger and wore the loin cloth over their bottom half, the English and Swedish had bikinis on, with sometimes just the bottom half, and the Americans had full suits!! I liked the saunas, which had various rooms with various degrees of heat (the last one almost burned my lungs off).

The steam room felt great but had a disgusting sulphur smell, as the minerals dripped from the roof. This place is not for the prudish. The locals are well used to being naked and have no qualms about rubbing, itching, and sitting in the most unladylike ways around you!! It's certainly an experience not to be missed, and you really feel part of the Hungarian culture. It is a popular tourist spot, but the majority of people there were locals at the time we went. In mid-March (as it was when we went), this was a fantastic chance to warm up and rest your weary joints from all the sightseeing.

We knew the opera house was not to be missed with its amazing decor. They do tours of the building throughout the day, but we saw that, as well as having operas in the evening (which I really don't enjoy), they also had ballets. That night they were hosting Mayerling, so, instead of doing a tour, we lined up at the box office and booked a box seat for later that night for just $10. There are lots of prices to choose from depending on where you want to be seated, but this was about mid-range.

The exterior of the building is beautiful, but once inside, it takes your breath away. The entryway has a high ceiling decorated with stunning fFrescoes. It’s a horseshoe shape, with two grand staircases. There was a lounge area where you could purchase drinks and appetizers. This was open during the intermissions and a great place to treat yourself to some local Tokai wine and "foofy" foods like caviar and smoked salmon on crackers. It just helps set the scene, and you can imagine yourself as part of the Hungarian royalty.

We had a box seat, which wasn't a bad view at all. The ballet was awesome, though it was sometimes hard to watch the characters on the stage, as the surroundings were so decadent and luxurious, all red velvet with gold-leaf trimming. We had been told not to wear jeans, but I did see a few people in them. In fact, I saw every type of clothing, from the top-range ball gowns to jeans and a T-shirt. If possible, I would suggest dressing up just to fit into the experience. You will definitely stand out if you don't make some effort. You can't take photos during the performance, but hang out after its finished and get some photos of the box seats, decor, and staircases.

Just across from the Kalvin Ter metro stop on the Pest side of the city is the Central Market. This building is huge and a great place to get all your gifts in one stop.

The central market hall has been up and running since the end of the 19th century and is the largest of all the markets in Budapest. The bottom floor, where you will enter, is bright and so nice and warm on a winter morning. It was packed with locals buying their groceries. Every kind of meat, fruit, or vegetable was on display, which makes for some great photographs as well as shopping. There were stalls hanging meat, long sausages, and ham legs, and others just piled high with paprika. Some stalls just had local alcohol, such as the Tokai dessert wine, Unicum, or Bechrokova liquor.

Upstairs is the equivalent of a fast-food court, with many stalls selling homemade goulash and such. Farther on from the food are the handicrafts: jewelry, bags, embroidery, wooden toys, and so on.

I love markets. I love the smells and the atmosphere of knowing I am shopping alongside the locals. I must say that I did run into plenty of tourists, though, so word is getting out about this shopping experience. Prices were better than the shops, especially for food products. Its best to get there early, as then the locals will be in full force, though the hall is open from 6am to 6pm, except on the weekends, when it closes at 2pm.