I've often written about in these trip diaries how I have a crippling issue of starting to long for things way too quickly. The second any trip hits its back half I start getting sad and nostalgic. Nothing frames this better than me writing this feeling slightly depressed that my time in Budapest is coming to an end. Now, more than half the trip remains. To some degree, today was the first day start to finish that I've missed work for. Two fascinating new places, new countries (!), await me. I shouldn't feel this way. But maybe that just speaks to how much I've come to really like this city.
Where it will stand when I update my Top-60 cities list in a couple weeks is to be seen. Hell, let's not get ahead of myself, as either Talinn or Helsinki could top it - if either do however, that would be impressive, as Budapest has so much going for it. And I say this as someone who got messed up by the fact that today si some sort of public holiday. Google Maps had warned me of this for a while, so it isn't Budapests' fault at all. Most things stayed open, and potentially some things were open later yesterday than they otherwise would've been, but what it meant for me was that both the cities main food markets, which I earmarked for lunch today, were closed.
Anyway, the day didn't start that way, but amid some early morning rain, I went next door and did the one thing I almost never do - have breakfast. My AirBNB host had recommended to me a few spots nearby, including Aran Bakery. There's always a line there, and even today there was a bit of a line, but for their cinnamon roll, it was well worth it.
After was my multiple times aborted attempts to get lunch. I had earmarked today as a day to go to either one of the two food halls within Budapest. Everything indicated they were open on Mondays, while closed on Sundays. All good. Except today happens to be that weird public holiday, so both were closed. And I mean locked door, dark inside, closed, without any signage or anything indicating there to be a reason for this (beyond it again being a public holiday). There were multiple other clearly foreigners who like me arrived and left confused. Calling an audible, I ended up having lunch at a local bistro that had decent reviews, a stones throw from the Food Hall on the Buda side of the river. It ended up being a perfectly nice meal, in pleasant outdoor weather, with a goulash soup as a starter, and a deer fillet strogonoff as the main. It was probably a bit too heavy for a lunch, but it was also about 2:30pm so I was quite hungry.
From there I went on a 30-minute stroll from the restaurant, further north on the Buda side, crossing over the gold painted Margit bridge, and over towards the glistening, giant Parliament building. The only thing that requires a tour during my time in Budapest (granted, maybe some other stuff would'v e if I came in true tourist season). The tour was set for 4pm, with me arriving early getting to get some good shots of the building from the outside. It is hard to somewhat put the Parliament Building into words. It is modeled off of the British Parliament building, but in a lighter stone and with far less around it making it even more prominent to Budapest's river front. On the outside, it is beautiful. On the inside, it was equally so.
The tour is 45 minutes long, led by an audio guide that the tour leader controls offering it across seemingly 20 or so languages. It goes into a lot of detail about the history of the building, the architect, the national competition to become said architect, the legacy of each of the rulers that have statues in their great hall, and so much more. In a sense, it is fairly quick - about five stops, 45 minutes, but you don't feel that way with all the information you are given. Tons of photo opportunities in their Grand Entrance stairwell, their long corridors and of their parliament hall - helps that when the building was built Hungary had a bicameral setup but overtime reduced to just one house of parliament, so the second hall is always empty.
The only sad part is their Great Dome, which is indeed great, holds the royal crown and scepter (and a few others goodies) that date themselves back to the 1000s. Because of that they are over cautious, fairly so, about exposing them. No one can take photos in teh great hall, and the 200-light chandelier looming overhead gets about 10 of its lights put on. All in all though, the Parliament tour is a must do.
Similarly so is the St. Stephen's Basilica, about a 10 minute walk away. St. Stephen is actually the first ruler of Hungary, beatified soon after his death, and his namesake Basilica is incredible, really. It is quite nice from the outside, but the inside is just gorgeous - gold panels, statue work, painting, a giant organ, and in a key difference to basically every famous European church, more of an oblong oval / circle set-up than the normal cross with a long hall. This gives the space way more air, more vantage points, more of all it. When I was there, they had an organist and singer, not sure if tehy were practicing or what not, but it added a great energy to the place as well.
The final bit of tourism in Budapest also was the final meal and while the meal wasn't great (though not bad) the tourism aspect more than made up for it. My parents have long told me of this night cruise we took down the Danube, and how beautiful it all was, and that it was a must do, so I did. They were right. The cruise was two hours long, with a 7:30 board time, 8:00 sail time and 10:00 return. Like a metronome this all worked perfectly. The food again isn't really amazing - though from all the various night cruises I looked up it seems like it never is great. I'll give them this though, the main of a duck confit leg with spaetzle and a brown sauce was excellent. As was the dessert of a mousse, albeit very small. Their starter of a veal goulash soup was a bit small and tough as well. Anyway though, you don;'t come here for that.
You don't necessarily come here for the performances either, but they had a 4-piece band and singers and dancers that were all quite good. The cruise also smartly does it so other than some backing strings there isn't much going on in the first 70% which is sailing down a more active part of the Danube and while mostt of the meal is getting served. But once we get past the Parliament building Northwards you quickly leave the city center and it is in this darker area where there is little to see outside, that they focus most of the performances.
Anyway, as mentioned you don't come for that. You come for the sights, and they are stunning. First the boat heads South already starting at a fairly south point (across from the Citadel), going past some fancy river-front offices and a couple bridges before turning abck around for a long Northward sail, which times up perfectly with the floodlights coming in as you get near the Buda Castle. From there to the Parliament building it is one stunning view after another. It was truly something amazing. It isn't the most packed riverfront, but if anythign that elevates it a bit as each of the main sites have great prominence in the night - from the Buda Castle complex, to teh St. Matias Church complex, to the early buildings and churces on teh Pest side, to finally, of course, the Parliament Building. From this angle this is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, truly.
I was still thinking about these things as I went through my post-dinner routine of a couple beers at Hopaholic, running into people coming there for a Budapest Beer Week (of course that week just starting as I leave), to a couple cocktails at Warm Up, who sadly were closing an hour early due to the Public Holiday. That probably was a good thing, as it gave me a bit more time before I needed to go back to get any sort of reasonable sleep before tomorrow's travel, and I went back to the Ruin Bar, which was nowhere near as crowded as the day before, but still a good amount of people, of life, and an absolutely fantastic music guy in the side bar.
He made it clear he was "not a DJ", as basically he had a machine that palyed a backing beat and he would add to it live layering in keyboard and guitar. It was amazing, it was mesmerizing. There was a crowd of say 20-50 during the hour I stayed encircling him and just soaking it all in. While standing there taking it in, feeling a lot of joy for being just in the moment, I had a sudden thought of outside of that moment but connected to it. I went to the Ruin Bars four times, twice for pre-dinner drinks, twice for end of the night when nothing else good was open on Sunday, Monday. It was graet in every iteration. I do think this was one of the best places I've been that are (1) very popular and (2) could easily be overrun and trashy. Now, it isn't a "clean" place (the bathroom was a warzone), but it had a great energy and vibe. If someone just writes on paper "bar made out of abandoned buildings in Budapest in the heart of the Party district" you probably would think of something over-commercialized, but instead there remained a neat undergroudnness to it.
As I wrap my time in Budapest, in some ways that describes the entirety of the city. I honestly don't think I've had a better time in a European city since going to Krakow ten whole years ago (my first trip as a working man). Now, part of it is as I laid out on my first entry in this diary, that I just haven't done as much European travel. And to be fair the European travel I've done has generally all been very good, and I defintiely enjoyed Granada and San Sebastian, but I also had incredibly high expectations for those places. For whatever reason, Budapest was more of a test - similar in a way to Santiago. I had faint memories of liking it, but every day just made it grow more and more prominent in my mind. I definitely am sad to leave, though I to some degree can't wait to see what Finland and Estonia have to offer.
