okaybee

This blog post should have been up months ago…

There’s no denying it. I went to Budapest in October last year. What’s taken me so long? Honestly, video editing is still tough for me. It’s a time consuming process. Finding music to go alongside the video is heartbreaking. I always feel a sense of accomplishment when I finish a video, even if there are still a million things I’d change, but sometimes it takes me a while to get started.

However, I may have finally found the encouragement that I need to make my video straight after a trip. My memory card has gone missing. Poof! Gone. Can’t be found. I’ve torn the place apart looking for it. It contains footage from three trips in total, one of which I luckily have on my Mac. As much as I find videos tough to edit, I’m still upset that I won’t even get the chance to edit two of these! So lesson learned, when you come home, edit the video straight away.

That’s why I’m finally putting up this post. Even though there’s no video to accompany it, I still want to tell you all about my amazing trip to Budapest. If I ever do find my teeny tiny memory card, I’ll be sure to update this post with a video asap. Put out some good vibes for me that I find it!

My last post ‘How to Plan a Secret Trip‘ gives you all the background to how this trip came about and the planning that went into it. But this post is all about the food, sights, amazing bars, and activities.

We arrived in Budapest on a Friday morning. It was pouring rain for most of the day, but luckily cleared up that evening. We were staying in apartments that we found on booking.com, called Real Apartments Wesselényi II. They were perfect for our group of 12, amazing location and super cheap. We hunted for a place to eat and ended up in Konvy Bar, which has an interesting approach to menus! The chef creates the menu around recent books that they have read. This one was ‘Out of Africa’ by Karen Blixen. Such a fun concept and a great start to the trip.

After a really nice dinner in TG Italiano, we met up with our pub crawl group. We booked this in advance online at Pub Crawl Budapest. It just seemed like a good way to start the trip and to also see some of the amazing ruin bars in Budapest. I’d definitely recommend this if you’re in Budapest, it’s such a fun night and we ended up going back to some of the same places again because they were so much fun on the first night!

The following morning, we had great intentions of getting up early for the 8am walking tour. Needless to say, that didn’t happen! We had a nice, leisurely breakfast in Avenue Cafe and then walked over to St.Stephen’s Basilica. This basilica is breathtaking. The inside of the dome is completely stunning. Not to go on about my memory card, but I had some incredible footage of the inside of this. Sigh. Anyway, if you’re ever in Budapest, go into this basilica and just marvel at how beautiful it is.

Afterwards we decided to do the bus tour and I’m so glad we did. It’s one of the best ways to see all the incredible sights of Budapest and also learn something about their history. I’m ashamed to say I knew next to nothing about Budapest before going there. The bus tour had lots of facts and interesting stories about the city and it’s history. It really is a fascinating place.

If you do take the bus tour, I’d recommend getting off at the Hero’s Square. It’s beautiful in person and amazing to see. I’d also walk around the park near there. We stumbled upon a stunning castle while we were wandering around. It was like something out of Harry Potter! Also, I would go up to the Citadel for an incredible view, and being honest, amazing Instagram opportunity, of the city. There’s nothing nicer than looking over the city on a beautiful day.

Have I mentioned how beautiful Budapest is also? Seriously I couldn’t stop taking photos of the buildings, sights, the river. Everything was gorgeous. And the weather definitely helped. At times the sky actually looked navy it was so nice out! October was a really nice time to go. Autumn/Fall was in the air, the trees were turning incredible colours, and it was nice and fresh outside. I’d definitely recommend it for a break at that time. An added bonus is that it didn’t feel overrun with tourists at that time either.

That night we ate at Iguana, a really nice Mexican restaurant. I just remembered that I have hilarious footage of us embarrassing our friend Kate for her birthday at dinner there on my memory card… Can you tell I’m still in mourning?! Afterwards, we went to Szimpla Kert, the most famous ruin bar in Budapest. We only realised when we got there that it was literally around the corner from our apartments! This was pretty handy as we were super tired on the last night after all our sightseeing that day. It’s impossible to explain the ruin bars in Budapest, you really just need to experience them for yourself!

Sunday morning rolled around all too quickly. After breakfast, we used our bus tour tickets to head back up towards the baths. Let me tell you, the baths are not to be missed. Seriously. It was the best thing we could have done after two nights of drinking and before going to the airport. We headed to Szechenyi Baths, and it was so much fun. It takes a minute to work up the courage to run outside and get into the baths, but trust me, it’s worth it! The water is gorgeous and warm, the jets soothe any aches and you come out of the baths feeling like a new person. If I lived in Budapest I would be there every weekend soothing my hungover ass.

Would I go back to Budapest? 100%. Just not this year because of my pact to myself for 2017. It’s so cheap, has tonnes of excellent bars and restaurants, loads of history and culture, and is generally just a great place to visit. Do yourself a favour and book a trip to Budapest for yourself this year.

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