Brendan Doms

Budapest is a titan of city. Its scale is staggering. And seeing it right after Prague made it feel that much larger. The cities are laid out quite similarly: a curving river splits each in half, with the modern-day-busy-city-life on one side and a large hill and castle making up the other. But Budapest and its features are the Prague version multiplied several times over.

The name itself shows the city's history: it's a concatenation of the two cities that combined to form it almost a sesquicentury ago. Those two were (maybe obviously) Buda and Pest.

The history of Hungarian people and language are quite unique for this part of the world. The word they use for themselves and their language is Magyar. And it turns out the language's closest relative is Finish, making it the only language in the region without a Slavic origin. If you look on a map you'll see that Hungary and Finland aren't even close to being neighbors. What this really comes down to is that Hungary, its people, and its language are very different than the surrounding countries.

When we arrived we had a similarly bad experience as in Prague with figuring out the metro. I won't repeat the details, but it was exacerbated by the train station being an old, decrepit building in a not-great part of town.

Once we did get on the metro it was fast and convenient. Just like Prague, both cities actually had great public transportation systems, it was just the learning curve that was rough. Budapest made it really easy to get around their city on the metro, which is notable for being the second oldest subway ever (only London's predates it).

After getting closer to the city's center I felt like Budapest started to shine. It was a city alive with culture and lots of people milling about. Big, impressive buildings abounded, historic sites seemed to peak around every corner, and young people were jovially imbibing the traditional drink Pálinka, which is a kind of mashed-fruit brandy.

We lunched at a nice Jewish restaurant called Fülemüle (Hungarian for "nightingale") and it was a top contender for best meal of the trip. Latkes, orange chili chicken, and a roasted goose leg that was to die for made up the bulk of what we ate there. It was so good it made me want to search for similar places back home.

We began to explore the city, starting first with the Great Market Hall, an open sun-roofed building with vendors selling everything you could imagine, including the famous Hungarian paprika and goulash. For me, goulash was never something I wanted to eat, but in Eastern Europe it is popular way beyond what I ever encountered in the US, to the point where it is common to find both at a tiny stall in a market like this, or at a fancy white-tablecloth restaurant. When I ordered it in both Prague and Budapest I was thoroughly impressed at how much better it was than I expected.

The Great Market Hall has throngs of people that can be hard to navigate, but it's a fun shopping and eating destination with reasonable prices.

Then we started a long trek across the Danube to the Citadella, a fort built on top of a massive hill. From there we had some breathtaking views across the water to the rest of the city. I would wager it's one of the highest points in Budapest.

Buda Castle, as seen from the Citadella.

We continued on to Buda Castle. It thrills me that all of the cities we were visiting had at least one castle to explore, as they were a childhood fascination of mine. Every new castle seemed to be sufficiently different that I felt like I was learning something new every time we encountered one.

Hungarian Parliament, as seen from Buda Castle. As you can tell from the crane on the left and the scaffolding on the right, the building was undergoing major renovations at the time and as such was closed to the public.

After a long, tiring journey of many miles that day we ordered from Don Leone, a restaurant right next to our hotel. The dinner consisted of veal paprikash (obviously I had to see what a local chef could do with the paprika), chicken and mushroom taglietta, and bacon and prosciutto wrapped mozzarella. It was another meal well worth remembering.

The next day we explored some of the historic sites farther from the city center. We got to ride on the ancient, cramped subway until we found Heroes' Square, which is ringed by museums and embassies. From there we walked through one of the large city parks, stumbling on Vajdahunyad Castle, which much to my delight was the first castle I've ever been to with an actual moat and portcullis.

Vajdahunyad Castle. With a moat and a portcullis! And yes, those are kill-slits in the towers. Makes me wish that the US had castles just waiting to be found in the middle of city parks.

We then sought out the nearby Széchenyi Thermal Bath. Hungary - and Budapest in particular - is known for having natural hot springs, most of which have been converted into upscale public bathhouses. You can get massages, switch between different temperature pools, and even enter misty saunas with different scents. I would've thought that last one a pure gimmick, but after just a few moments in the mint-scented room I could feel my sinuses clearing in a way that any unscented sauna never achieved. I also had a strange moment where I realized that the last time I was in a sauna was at Blue Lagoon in Iceland. It seems to be something I perpetually do on vacation, but never in my day to day life.

Seeing the Széchenyi Thermal Bath for the first time I wasn't sure it was even a bath house given the architecture. It looked more like some official state building. But it's really just a nice place to soak and relax in exchange for a few dollars.

I loved Budapest. It epitomized for me what being a tourist in a foreign country is about: experiencing new sights and sounds (and smells!) while discovering the local history, traditions, and flavors.