Budapest

They say that travel is a form of education. Certainly, our three days in Budapest were an education.

Our learning started when we went to catch our flight from Weeze airport, near Dusseldorf. Weeze was an RAF base (RAF Laarbruch) that used to house squadrons of various fighters over the cold war years. It is now an airport for low cost airlines. When we drove up it was interesting to see all the old base buildings still there, but not being used. Even the fighter shelters in the dispersal areas were still there, all grown over with weeds and grass.

Our plane was an Airbus 320 flown by Wizz airlines out of Hungary. The plane was bright pink and purple. It looked like a Barbie plane! Because Weeze is a low cost airport and Wizz is a low cost airline, things ran a little different at the check in gate. We had only one carry on bag each (to keep things simple) and it was limited to 6kg. The departure gate was a pack of people all milling around waiting to be the first on the bus to the plane, because there was no assigned seating. You can imagine that I was keen to be first on board and score an emergency exit seat with some extra legroom. The gate opened and it was a mad rush to get on the bus. We were among the last people on the bus, but THE FIRST OFF! Nigel and Moira, our travel partners, sprinted on ahead and GOT THE EMERGENCY EXIT SEATS! In fact the stewardess, a tough Hungarian woman, gave us four seats of the six and kept everyone else away from the other two vacant seats. It was brilliant! Best seats on the plane! Well done M & N!

The flight was uneventful and the connecting train ride into Nyugati station in Budapest was about 20 minutes. The flat that Moira had arranged was 5 minutes walk from the station. Yanos, our host, met us at the door into the apartment building. His sidekick Josef, was waiting in the apartment. The apartment was the kind of thing you would expect in a big ex-communist city. It was a peculiar design in an old building (1880) that had seen a bit of renovation. It was very clean however, and had all we needed. The interesting part was the handover from Yanos and Josef. We sat down at the kitchen table and they went through the detail of how to lock the doors and how to keep the place clean and to take care of it, but they didn't stop there, they actually made us lock and unlock the door so they could see we could do it. They wrote down the reading on the electric meter and gas meter and told us they were worried that we might use too much gas and electricity. It was quite bizarre. When we were leaving, three days later, they checked every glass and plate to see if we had chipped any. They even smelled the pots to see if we had burnt any. It seems that suspicion runs deep in the Hungarian psyche.

The hole is where the Soviet crest used to be.

Budapest itself was an interesting contrast of the falling down decrepit buildings left over from the communist era, and the buffed up renovated classic building that western companies have bought and improved. There was graffiti everywhere. Beautiful buildings stood next door to ones that looked horrible. The people were not friendly or helpful. We were almost victims of a scam where unscrupulous tram inspectors ask to see tourists' tickets knowing full well that many tourists will have had difficulty figuring out the ticket system. I had moments earlier taken a picture of the inside of the tram and the inspectors told me to delete the picture! Fortunately we had figured the tickets (and I deleted the pic). We saw the same group of inspectors with another tourist victim minutes later, trying to get the 6000 forint (30 euro) fine out of her.

Facades coming off the building.

We did enjoy the food in Budapest very much. Our worst meal was in a touristy place up in the castle in Buda. Our best meals were in little homey places in Pest. The price of food and booze was great. 10,000 forint ($50) was lots of money for a couple drinks, appies, a meal and duff for four. The food made the visit.

The other thing that was fabulous was the thermal spas. We visited the Szenchenyi Bath (a short walk from our apartment) and had a fabulous time. It had 3 outdoor and about 15 indoor pools. They were all different temperatures and sizes, with varying mineral content as well. Some are as hot as 40 degrees Celsius, while the coldest one was 14! There were several saunas and steam rooms (all required bathing suits on) with different scents mixed in the steam. It was really invigorating. We spent more than three hours there soaking up the benefits.

We also visited the House of Terror. It is a building (right around the corner from our apartment) that used to house prisoners of the communist and fascist regimes. Many people were tortured and spent many years in the cellars of the building as political prisoners. They have done a good job of organizing the exhibits and the visit had a leaves you wondering just how low man can go. 

We spent our final day in Buda (across the Danube from Pest) visiting Buda castle and visiting the huge market in Pest. The Castle was a great walk and has 800 years of history. However it is full of tourists and school kids and even a coffee needs a mortgage. The market was similar, full of tourists, just like us, buying vast quantities of paprika to take home, just like us. They are both 'must see' things despite the touristy feel.

All in all, our visit to Hungary was pleasant enough. It is not the best place we've visited this trip, but it did make us appreciate having the good fortune to be born into the western world.

P.S, We also got the exit row seats on the way home. Those Hungarian stewardesses were taking good care of us!