Budapest - Day 1

On thursday I went to Budapest with two friends. This trip was rather spontaneous since none of us had a clue what to do that weekend, the only thing knowing that we just wanted to escape the usual daily routine. We jumped at the chance of going to Budapest since we all have never been there (I also never really saw a lot in the eastern parts of Europe except for Krakow when we went there with school) and a definite plus was the fact that the train was rather cheap. The city is really beautiful. They have a lot of old buildings and there are many young people so it feels very vibrant. It is, however, not as clean as we are used to here in germany, but I guess you just have to watch out to never step into dog poo. It reminded me a bit of Paris with the same style in architecture and there really is a lot to see! Those three days were very exhausting, but I just love discovering new places!


We took the night train and arrived there friday morning at 8 am. Since we rented a small appartment, on the Buda side of the Danube (actually Budapest is divided into Buda and Pest, both appart cities who were combined into one city in 1873), we first went there and were welcomed by the owners mother, a lovely person who didn't speak english or a lot of german but just explained everything with her hands.
The appartment was just perfect! It had two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bath, not to small, not to big. You could see that the owner had put a lot of effort into making the appartment modern but still keeping old materials such as the tiles in the hall, which I really want to have in my hall later too!

Tiny dining table we only used on the first evening and when we wrote some postcards to our beloved ones.

I love those tiles!

Bathroom. It even has floor heating :)

A tiny balcony, this is where we sat just after we got in. Perfect for a coffee break.

This is the living room where the owner just added 2 extra beds. Look at this gorgeous parquet flooring!

Kitchen, quite small but it had everything in it. It even had a dish washer which I don't even have in my appartment.

After we inspected the appartment we went to the Gellértmountain, climbed to the top (not that high, still lost my breath, maybe I should do more exercises...) where we had the most amazing view over the city. Sadly enough we didn't have great weather but it didn't rain and every once in a while the sun showed up.
 

Bridge of freedom

View from top of the Gellért mountain

Afterwards we went to the castle district where we saw one of the most amazing rooftops! The Matthias Church has different colored roof shingles and turquoise colored rain pipes. Also, this is the church where Sissi and her Franz were crowned rulers of Hungary.
The whole district is very touristy but it is definitively worth checking out.

Buda Castle

Roof of the Matthias Church, isn't it breathtaking?

Fisherman's Bastion

At the end of the day we were so beat up that we just bought some food and went back to our appartment. I had only slept 1 hour the night before (I don't like trains and this one was especially appaling thus I sat there and read a book for most part of the night) and even though the others did sleep we were pretty beat and went to bed quite early.

Hope you found this interesting, I have to more days to show you guys, please leave a comment, that would be great!

Thanks for reading,
Jules

PS: Interested in this appartment? Go to www.airbnb.com and you will find a great website where people offer their appartments or just an extra bed for a really good price! Also, there are some really creative stays for the more outgoing people under you, like a tree house for example.