Back in Budapest

August 16-21, 2023

Szia (“hello” in Hungarian), friends and family!

Kip and I were planning our departure from the Middle East with alacrity after a rather unpleasant time in Egypt. We’d had a great time in Israel, Palestine, and Jordan and were thankful to have met so many amazing people. A couple months after the fact, I’m still in awe at how naturally and easily we found such a wholesome, down-to-earth, fun-loving group. After Egypt and taking a weeks-long beating from the Middle Eastern summer sun, though, we felt that it was time to make an exit. Kip was going back to his hometown in Indiana for a couple weeks before traveling to Southeast Asia and Western Australia. I felt that I wanted to do a little more traveling since Europe and the Middle East are on the opposite side of the world from Hawai’i and I wanted to get as much value as possible from the long flights to and from. I was also enjoying traveling and thought it would be a good chance to do some solo travel and meet some more people.

I decided to book a flight to Budapest, where I studied for a semester in 2018. I found a flight that had an 18-hour layover in Athens, so I spent a stint in Athens. I got in late on the night of August 16 and grabbed a burger before going to bed. The hostel I was in had a cool courtyard area, but the bedroom was crowded and stuffy. There were a couple fans but the room was uncomfortably warm without AC.

I’d been to Athens for a weekend in 2018 to visit my friend Will from Bowdoin and I felt like I’d seen most of the city then so I wasn’t pressed to see all the big sights. I spent some time in the morning at a coffee shop booking accommodations in Budapest and having a leisurely breakfast. Then I went to the Acropolis and Parthenon but I forgot that it was a paid attraction and I didn’t want to pay 20 Euros to enter since I’d already done it and didn’t have too much time. Instead, I walked around the outside and still got a decent view and some shade, which was sparse on top of the hill where the Acropolis was located. Then I killed some time reading and relaxing in a park before taking public transit to the airport.

I got into Budapest around 8 since my flight was delayed and checked into the hostel. The hostel was quite similar to the apartment I lived in when I studied in Budapest years ago. The entrance was through a couple giant, heavy doors protected by an electronic passcode. After entering the building, there were tall marble stairs up to the fourth floor of the building where the apartment was. The inside of the complex had a nice courtyard like the one in my building back in 2018. Inside the apartment/hostel, there was a small kitchen, a common area, and several rooms with beds. I was in a large room with eight bunk beds total, and it was similar to Greece in terms of termperature, sadly, so I didn’t sleep well.

Once I set my stuff down, I grabbed pizza from a place right outside the hostel and brought it back. I started talking with three Aussies who had met each other traveling and a couple British girls. We stopped at the pizza place for the Aussies to eat and had a few drinks there. After that, we went to Szimpla, which is probably one of the top two most popular ruin bars in Budapest. The bar is really more of a compound with dozens of different rooms, each with their own character. We met several other travelers and stayed until it closed at 3am.

I didn’t do much the next day. I got breakfast at a fancy brunch spot that had significantly more expensive prices than I remember from my time here in 2018. Afterwards, I went to Rudas, my favorite thermal baths and spent 4.5 hours going through the whole building and revisiting all the different areas. The original area with old architecture has thermal pools of six different temperatures and a steam room and sauna, both of which are intensely hot, and it’s much darker, quieter, and local. The more newly constructed area is still nice but there are more tourists and the pools, steam rooms, and saunas are more moderate in temperature. The best feature of the new area is the rooftop pool which has a view of the hill and overlooks the river. I left the baths feeling like a new man, cured of my hangover from the night before. I was sleepy and lethargic in the best way. I got a kebab for dinner, chatted with some people in the hostel, and went to bed early.

I had a leisurely start next morning and read in bed for an hour before picking up breakfast and lunch foods from the grocery store. After that I made food and chilled at the hostel until the early afternoon when I walked around the Buda Castle and Fisherman’s Bastion area. The castle and surrounding area were really crowded because it was the big national holiday weekend in Budapest and there was a folk festival at the castle. It was still beautiful, but many of the areas were closed off so all the people were crowded into small areas. I didn’t get the serenity I’d experienced watching sunsets and looking out at the river at night in 2018. Next, I went to Margaret Island and walked around. The island was a bit more commercial than I remembered with a hostel in the middle of the island. Still, it was nice and it felt separate from the city, which is something I always appreciate about city parks.

In the evening, I met this German guy Tim from the hostel at the stadium for the World Athletic Championship, which is a big track and field competition. The tickets for that night were sold out at the price we wanted but we bought cheap tickets for the next morning and were able to get far enough into the venue to watch events on a large TV in the lawn outside the stadium. We even tried to sneak into the main stadium but our efforts were thwarted quickly when we realized the gap in the fence led to a closed off area with security guards, almost as if it was a trap.

After watching for an hour or so, we went back to the hostel and I got a kebab and some drinks. I was hanging out in the common area with Tim and some other guys: Alex (French), Peter (Irish), and Jesse (from USA/Canada but spends a lot of time in the Bahamas sailing). We drank some at the hostel and then went to the Danube River to meet up with other people from the hostel. We hung with them for a bit and watched a fantastic laser and drone show over the river.

We went to get more beers at this bar that had live music and looked cheap but ended up being really expensive; it was over $8 for a Guinness, which is very steep for Budapest standards (even at Szimpla the beers are about $5 now and they used to be $2-3 in 2018). We went to Szimpla after one drink and danced and chatted until 3am.

The next morning, Tim and I went to the World Athletic Championship around 11 and watched some high-quality events. There’s a lot going on at track and field competitions with multiple events happening simultaneously. The ones we saw were women’s javelin throw, men’s high jump, and 100m sprints and 110m hurdles for women and men. The stadium was newly constructed, possibly for this event specifically, and it was grand.

After the morning events ended, we went back to the hostel. I booked some travel and accommodations for Krakow and had some lunch and said goodbye to Tim. Then I went to Margaret Island and walked the full length of the island and discovered a fancy wellness resort at the north end. I chose a spot in the grass nearby and started to read before being overcome by fatigue and involuntarily napping in the grass, which was incredibly soothing and rejuvenating.

I woke up around 7 and started making moves so I could get to a spot to watch the national holiday fireworks at 9. Margaret Bridge was packed with people all vying for good spots to watch the fireworks. I ended up getting to a crowded spot on the Pest side of the river south of Parliament. The fireworks were awesome and accompanied by grandiose music and stunning lights. The only downside was that all the viewing areas were ridiculously crowded. I had my arms by my side like a penguin for the whole show and was constantly getting pushed past as people were trying to go forwards and backwards. I made the mistake of not getting food before the fireworks and every place was packed or closing afterwards so I had to go back to the pizza place near the hostel and wait 45 minutes for a calzone.

August 21 was my last day in Budapest and the only activity I had planned was thermal baths again. After a big breakfast and lunch, I went to Gellert Bath, just south of Rudas and relaxed for a few hours in the cold pools, hot pools, and steam rooms. The temperatures weren’t as extreme as Rudas, but I appreciated that since the Rudas steam rooms and saunas were a bit too intense for me. After the baths I picked up my luggage from the hostel, went to Rapaz, the classic chicken sandwich spot I loved when I studied here in 2018, and then went to the bus station to catch my bus to Krakow, Poland. It was great being back in Budapest. The city has definitely changed and become more popular and expensive since I studied here, but it's still an amazing city and my favorite in Europe. Thanks for reading!