The Grand Budapest Hostel

Budapest Parliament building

Last Thursday afternoon myself and five other girls boarded a bus to Budapest! We were a little delayed by some traffic, so by the time we got in, the metro had stopped running for the night. It took us quite awhile, but we somehow managed to purchase a 72-hour public transportation pass and make it to our hostel. It was after 1:00am by the time we were all checked in, so we all just passed out.

The next morning we woke up and decided to go on a free walking tour of the city. There was a tram stop right outside the front door of our hostel, and we were able to take that to the starting point of the tour. Our tour was about two and a half hours, and very informative. We learned that there are technically two sides of the city, Buda and Pest, which are divided by the river. We started down on the Pest side, and walked over to the Matthias Church up on the Buda side. After the tour we went out to lunch at a traditional Hungarian restaurant one of the staff members from the hostel recommended. Hungarian food is delicious, partially because it is so fattening! By the time we were finished eating it was almost 4:00 in afternoon and still raining, so we decided to do the Turkish Baths that evening. 

Széchenyi Baths; photo credit Nikki Johl

We went back to the hostel to rest for a few minutes and grab our swimsuits (which I have put to good use since coming to Europe!). We had heard to check out the Széchenyi Baths, because they were the biggest. The thermal baths were amazing; they were just giant hot tubs! We stayed in the outside baths because they were larger than the indoor ones, and that way we got to be surrounded by beautiful architecture and the night sky.Later that night we decided to check out one of the famous “ruin pubs” in Budapest. We went to Szimpla Kert, which has been voted as the third best bar in the world. It was such a cool place! There were two floors, with lots of seating outside.

Hungarian paprika at Central Market Hall

The next morning we rode the tram down along the river for shopping and lunch in the Central Market Hall. The market was very similar to Cleveland’s West Side Market, with food vendors on the lower level and souvenir stands up top. We wandered around the market for a few hours, each buying small trinkets, ranging from leather goods to traditional Hungarian paprika. We ended our time at the market by once again eating traditional Hungarian food. After lunch we climbed up a hill to the Citadel Fortress to the see the Liberty Statue. We were rewarded with a wonderful panoramic view of the city. After our short hike, our group split up, agreeing to meet back at the hostel for dinner (the hostel provides its guests with free dinner 3 nights a week!). Myself and two other girls went on a long and fruitless search for strong Turkish coffee, before arriving back at Matthias Church and Fisherman’s Bastion. I had wanted to go inside the church because we didn’t do that the previous day, but it was closed for mass, so instead we just walked around and took pictures. We then went back across the river to look at the beautiful, and huge, Parliament building. As I was talking to my friends on the tram ride back to the hostel, I mentioned Denison, and the man next standing next to me turned and asked if I went there. It just so happened that he had graduated from Denison about 20 years earlier!

That night the hostel cooked free dinner for us, some sort of pasta and cheese dish. We ended up going back to explore Szimpla some more. On Sunday morning we went out to brunch, and then wandered over to a quirky little art store. We then headed out to walk around on Margaret Island. The island was located right next to our hostel and had very nice public parks and a great water fountain. We walked back to the hostel, grabbed our bags, and then we were on our way back to Prague. Overall it was a great weekend! I found the layout of Budapest to be very similar to Prague, and everything was a comparable price, and I enjoyed everything that we did!