Let me tell you what's fun about travelling on a budget: you get excited by the smallest things in the world. And despite being surrounded by impressive architecture, fascinating history and a whole different culture, sometimes finding a great bar is the single most important thing about a new city.
Well luckily for Budapest, there were lots of great things, it wasn't all about the bar. Still, it's the place I remember the clearest from our stopover in the Hungarian capital. We arrived in the evening again, after a long train ride from Prague and our hostel, the Maverick was fantastic. It´s located in a grand old mansion house where the rooms on the main floor are each named for a character in the Big Lebowski. That's when you know you're in a fine establishment...
The receptionist at the hostel was wonderful. She was incredibly friendly, told us all about the city and when we asked where the best place to go for a drink was she answered, 'That's easy. Szimpla. Definitely. It is the best bar in Budapest.' I gotta tell you, she was not wrong.
This place is central, but it's hidden down a little side street in the Pest side of town. You walk through a dodgy looking door in what looks like the frontage of an old warehouse building and into possibly the best bar I've ever had the pleasure of spending an evening in.
The atmosphere is great, the kitchy decor inside is perfect, the beer is cheap and there's a great big outdoor area with old cars converted into seating pods.
My description cannot do it justice. You'll just have to go there yourself. It's easy to start chatting with new people in this place as everyone is in an instant good mood the minute they walk in! This was the first night my brother and I really talked to anyone other than each other and it was great to have a conversation with someone who wasn't related to me. Obviously. We ended up in a group with Dutch, American, Hungarian and Spanish and I'd say this was the night that I really started to enjoy my travels.
Obviously, the next day we did all the sightseeing. There is lots to be seen in Budapest, which I would go into great detail about if I were writing an article for the Times, but as this is my own personal blog, I will tell you instead about the chestnut. I dragged Sean out in the rain, across the river Danube into Buda, the older part of town, to see the Castle district, which sits at the top of a great big hill. It's true, you can ride a funicular up to the top. Or, if you are cheap like myself, you can walk up a long and winding and cobblestoned pathway which curves up the hill towards the Palace and Fortress above. I convinced Sean to walk with me, so up we went and on our way, we started kicking around a couple of fallen chestnuts. This is something our dad used to do with us, the point being to kick it back and forth, keep it ahead of you and not to lose it in the bushes.
Well, we kicked one chestnut (bruised and battered as it was) all the way up and around to the very top of the hill! In the rain (note Sean's umbrella in the picture above)! I can't tell you what a fabulous sense of achievement I got from this act. Like I said, it's the little things.
We wandered around the Palace for a while and had fun with a statue:
And from up there the views were pretty spectacular, even in the rain and the fog, including a great vista of the Hungarian Parliament building through the walls around Buda Palace:
We liked Budapest, we both agreed it was the best stop on our travels so far. The only trouble was not having enough time to sample the baths which we had been told were amazing. The Hungarian girl we met at Szimpla told us about one of the most popular baths, The Szechenyi Spa in the East side of town in the middle of the city park, where you can sit in a bath outside and watch the sunset. It'll just have to wait until the next time I'm in Budapest...
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