Hungary...Budapest....The unexpected surprise

Budapest…The city that surprised me the most. First time I went to Budapest was around three years ago, back in 2015. Since then I travelled there around nine other times.   My main job in Malta currently is that of a product owner, where the team I work with is based in Budapest, Hungary. This allowed me to travel often back and forth. When I had some time off there, I tried to visit most districts in Budapest and also had some time to visit some other places outside of Budapest like Budakeszi and Solymár in Hungary.

In this blog I will be sharing my experience about Budapest in general like; transport, people and food and when to visit Budapest. At first I was sceptical about going to Hungary, for some weird reason I always thought about it differently. It did not take long after I arrived for me to discover the gem that this country is.

Budapest in General

Snowy Budapest

I visited Budapest in all sort of seasons and can say that it is quite balanced when it comes to climate and seasons. In winter temperatures get pretty low to minus 10 degrees Celsius. However, in summer temperature reaches up to 40 degrees Celsius. The currency used in Budapest is the Hungarian Forint (HUF), one can notice that compared to other countries in the EU Hungary is not expensive at all when it comes to hotels, food, restaurants and more.  If you are using HUF for the first time after converting money you might feel like a millionaire…but don’t be fooled.  1 Euro is the equivalent to roughly 305HUF. That means if you convert around 100Euro you will end up with something around 30,000HUF. Budapest is full of life and one can find plenty of things to do around the city. One should know that Budapest is sort of split in two by the Danube river, where you have the Buda side and the Pest side. The Pest (the ST in Pest is pronounced as the ‘SH in shine’) side is the lively, busy area where one can find everything from bars, restaurants, nightlife and shops. Most offices and businesses are also on the Pest side. The Buda side where the castle resides, is the calmer side. Here one can find greener areas and fresher air. I will go into Buda and Pest more in detail in my two upcoming blogs.   Budapest is always buzzing with life, and I was delighted to find out that even during the week locals do go out for food and drinks and they do tend to stay late. Most evenings at Pest side until 10:30/11:00PM is still full of life.

And what about Taxis?

As soon as you exit the airport in each terminal there is a taxi stand, most of the time the person in the boot spoke good English. Here you can simply hand in your go to destination address and the taxi is already there waiting for you. Some taxi drivers can speak some English and some don’t. I found that getting a taxi from here is cheaper then booking some other taxi. Usually from the airport to the central of Pest costs between 5500FT and 6500FT depending on the traffic. This sums up to roughly 15/20Euro. I do suggest keeping their taxi company card handy as if you get any taxi, you can be easily ripped off. Some taxis do have a tendency of ripping tourists off also make sure you have exact change as if not you can wave goodbye to your change.  The best taxi companies are either ‘Taxi or City Taxi’.

Other public transport

Apart from taxis, Budapest do have a great and reliable transportation system. There is a metro which covers most of Budapest. There are also trolleys and buses. You can buy tickets from either metro stations or some ticket machines. The metro lines are probably one of the oldest in Europe's but some lines are now being refurbished and modernized.  Public transport in Budapest is considered to be one of the cheapest, compared to other Western European Cities. There are different packages of tickets which can be bought like; single ticket, block of 10 single tickets and more.  If you are going on a holiday I do suggest that you avoid rush hours in Budapest like you would in any other busy city, as most transports are usually jam packed and traffic is moving slower.

Can Hungarians speak English?

 I was actually surprised at how most Hungarian people can communicate in English, specially the younger generation.  Also the majority of employees in restaurants and bars around Budapest all speak great English.  Most restaurants also have an English menu which makes it much easier for non-Hungarian speaking tourists.   Another thing I noticed is that English is much more spoken easily on the Pest side.

Christmas in Budapest

Christmas Market in front of Saint Stephen's Basilica

Since I visited Budapest multiple of times I also had the opportunity to experience the magical Christmas spirit.  I am a big fan of Christmas and all the nice decorations. I have been to some countries where Christmas was a let-down, but Budapest once again did not disappoint.   Budapest is all light up during Christmas. There are also some nice Christmas Markets setup. The biggest market I visited was the one in Saint Stephen’s Basilica. There are a lot of handmade items and Christmas decorations which one can buy.  You can also find a lot of mulled wine and chimney cake stands (A popular street snack one must absolutely try). During the Christmas season the biggest artificial ice ring in Europe is open. The ring is open in November till January and is set up in Heroe’s Square and exactly infront of the Vajdahunyad Castle J

Largest Ice Ring In Europe

PinBall Museum

For any of those interested in pinball machines, Budapest is definitely the place to visit. Hungary has the largest Pinball museum in Europe. The museum has a dungeon like feeling, which as you step down to it, is amazingly all light up. It contains a collection of around 130 different machines. Most of them which are pinball machines and some are other arcade games. There are so many different pinball machines and some are also extremely old (Around the 1930s) but refurbished and are still in a good working condition. Each and every pinball machine is not the same, on the contrary they all have different themes. I am sure that all visitors, not only enthusiasts, will get itchy fingers to play on these beautiful retro machines.  Good news!  You can play as much as you want!  It is like one huge game arcade from the past. It is a lot of fun and a good way to spend an evening. There is a small entry fee which one has to pay in cash, admission fee is that of 3000HUF which is around 9.50Eur. With this admission fee you can play all the machines for as long as you like.  For more information and also how to get there, one can visit: http://www.flippermuzeum.hu/en/contact-prices.html.

Pinball museum

Have you heard of the term Escape Rooms?

Escape Rooms are nowadays a popular mind game, where you are voluntarily locked in a room full of mysterious clues and hints that are supposed to help you find your way out within an hour or so.The first escape room originated from Budapest and from then it got quite popular. (We even have a few in Malta) Budapest has a number of different escape rooms. I have been to a few, all of them are cleverly made up. Can you escape? If you are up for a challenge I do suggest visiting on of the many escape rooms found in. Two of the mostly known escape rooms are Locked room and E-exist Escape Room.

I hope I did encourage you to visit Budapest, if you are still not convinced stay tuned  as for my next blogs  I will be going more in detail about Budapest where I will be talking about Buda and about Pest and outline the places that are must visit and restaurants. Stay tuned for more… 

The magnificent and amazing parliament of Budapest