We arrived at Budapest around mid morning by Wizzair. Their planes are very pretty (mainly because the dominant colour of the planes are purple lol.) and the seats are more comfortable than Ryanair's.
We took a bus from the airport to the nearest train station, and I cannot believe that the first thing that caused much excitement amongst us when we got down the bus at the metro station was this...
Burger King in Oslo is freaking expensive (but then again EVERYTHING else is also expensive =/) so when we saw that a set of cheeseburger and small fries cost 330FT (about S$2.80) we were HIGH! We were SO excited that we kept looking around for the nearest BK, but we had to check into our hostel and put down our bags first. The trains in Budapest were quite run down and very rocky and noisy (because of the tracks), making it very hard to be heard inside the train.
And this was what greeted us when we came up from the station.
We almost could not find our hostel because it is situated inside a building with other offices and there were no signs indicating the hostel except for a smaller than A4 sized piece of paper! We managed to find it though, and we took the super small elevator up to the 2nd floor. (In most of the places in Europe, ground floor is level 0 so 2nd level is actually the 3rd floor! It was a teeny weeny bit confusing at the beggining. =p)
Our first stop after checking into the hostel was to locate the nearest BK for lunch. =) We then went to their central maket, and it was BIG! (by singapore standards.)
The market had 2 levels, the first floor consists of many similar fresh meat, vegetable and fruit stalls whilst the second floor had souvenir stalls selling the same merchandise and some food stalls.
After the marketplace, we went to the post office to buy stamps for our postcards, and Horse (the oldest member in our group I must add haha!) fell asleep whilst waiting for us. =X
We then walked pass this church and I decided to be a kaypo and peeped inside. The interior of the church was hell of a difference from the plain and white exterior!
We had dinner at a restaurant and everyone of us each ordered the 'local food for tourist menu' comprising of Goulash soup and pork cutlet in Hungarian sauce. The soup was okay, but the pork cutlet was SO SMALL the sauce totally hides the meat! It was the most expensive meal we ate in this trip and yet it was not worth it. Lesson learnt anyway, not to settle for tourists menu from restaurants along tourists streets.
After dinner, we went to the Danube River (which is well known for it runs through 4 countries - Austria, Hungary, Serbia, and Romania) to take some photos. We could not last long out there because it was damn chilly!
The next day, we joined a free walking tour lead by a Hungarian. It is not really free since we have to give 'tips' at the end of the tour. We also joined free walking tours when we were in Spain and the guide usually brings us to places of attractions which are free, explains the histories and origins of the attractions and provides us tips on where to have good food at a good price. =)
We visited St Stephen's church... I think it is one of the largest cathedral in Europe. (I wasnt paying much attention to the guide. =p)
Oh and before I forget to mention, do you know that Budapest is actually split into Buda and Pest? The 2 cities are split into 2 by the Danube River, and connected to each other by at least 5 bridges! Haha, I did not know it until I went on this trip. =) Interesting eh.
We started the tour at the Pest side, and we crossed a bridge to Buda to visit the Royal Castle. The scenery from the bridge was gorgeous!!! We can also see the Royal castle from the bridge.
The castle was not grand, in fact it was ordinary compared to the cathedrals and other buildings in Budapest. The only thing I appreciated about the castle was the view we got from it. =) We could overlook the whole coastline of Buda from the castle, and it was really pretty.
We had lunch at a cafeteria inside the 'castle village' (the castle had its own village!) which the guide took us to, and he introduced us the meatloaf with sourcream sauce and cheese, deep fried rolls which had meat in it and liver sausages with mashed potatoes. This hungarian meal was so much better than the one we had the night before, but it was salty and the portions were so big we could not finish them.
Then it is POSTA time! All the countries we went to used the same post sign: a horn-like symbol.
We passed through this tunnel even though there was a sign outside discouraging people not to walk through it. Check out the sign, it is one of a kind la! The walk through the tunnel was really horrible because of the exhaust smell, and all of us could not wait to get out to the other side! It felt like the longest walk ever! Only after experiencing the walk through did I 'smell' the reason for the sign. Serves us right for walking through it! =p
We then ended the day's visiting by climbing up to Budapest's 'Statue of Liberty' which was at the top of a hill. It was taller than Bukit Timah Hill, and the climb up was exhausting. We could view the whole of Buda from the top of the hill, and that was the only good thing since our aim was to get closer to the statue but because it was so tall and we were too near, we could not take any nice close up photo of it. =/
We went back to the central market to get a Hungarian snack called Langous. It is deep fried like 'youtiao' and even tastes like it except langous is circular and they put grated cheese and sour cream on it. It was so-so for me because it was very oily. The Hungarians seem to like sour cream alot. =p We then had dinner at BK again and that about sums up our trip to Hungary. We spent another night at Colours Hostel and we made 2 new friends from Brazil who are currently studying Animal Production in Denmark and like us, are taking the opportunity to travel eastern europe. They taught us the Brazilian (western) greeting which was to kiss the cheeks left right and then left again, and we made plans to visit each other sometime before we leave Oslo. =)
The next morning, we left after breakfast (breakfast was provided by the hostel and this hostel by far provided the best breakfast out of the other hostels) for the bus station and got on a bus to Vienna. The ride was about 3 and a half hours long. That is all for Budapest, and I guess I can say that I enjoy Budapest so much so that I felt a little reluctance to leave. =)
Next up, Vienna!
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