Frankly Cross Eyed: Budapest Day 1

For the Easter break, Smee and I decided to have a Hungarian time in Budapest or Buda-pesht as the locals say. We jetted in late last night and in the midst of the confusion between the two terminals, we couldn't locate the train that would take us to the city centre. It's only in hindsight that the outdoor, not very well sign-posted train station was where we should have been. By now, it appeared that we missed the last train and so we hopped on the bus which would bring us to a Budapest-ian metro station.

We reached Kobanya Kispest metro which was good as this station would connect us directly to the metro nearest to our hotel. It all looked a bit 'Eastern European' at night and we couldn't figure out how to buy tickets so we descended down the same stairs some people were coming from. We must've had super-confused faces on because a kid (ok he was probably 20 years old) asked if we needed some help. Hungarian folk are friendly folk! He told us that this was the last metro for the night and that the best way to get to our hotel would be taxi. In his cute, broken English he instructed where to get the cab and as we parted ways he waved and 'hoped that we have a sunny day tomorrow!' Awww.... how nice.

The cabbie seemed dodgy (but he wasn't, he just had dodgy driving) but we made to the hotel unscathed. I saw the sign Adina and thought, 'Hang on, have they ripped off the Medina in Oz?'. Then we found out that it was the same hotel group. Well, actually it was a serviced apartment and it felt very homely indeed. Serviced apartments are my preferred choice of accommodation. You can cook if you want to! You can wash clothes if you want to!

Our Helpful Hungarian's wishes for us came true and we did indeed wake up to a sunny day today. My, my it was good to have 20+ degree weather and not the horrible Easter weather in London. Our first pit stop was Nagy Varsarcsarnok aka The Great Market Hall.

This is where the locals go to stock up on paprika, sausages and market-y stuff. I read somewhere that Gustave Eiffel had some input into the building design but I suspect that's a lie.

Inside the hall.

The ground floor of the market was largely fresh produce and delicatessen goods. A small butcher section was in basement, while the first floor had handicrafts and a small food court.

Eating a langos on the top level. I haven't had one since Berlin! Sour cream, cheese and onions go quite well on a langos. Yummy.

After eating, we made our way down one of the main pedestrian streets, Vaci Utca. It was nearby that we boarded a Metro Line 1 train which runs under the Andrassy Avenue (Budapest's answer to the Champs Elysees) and gets you to the Szechenyi Baths. We got off a stop earlier to have a look at the majestic Heroes Square. That particular Metro Line was very turn of the century with it's tiled walls and smaller trains. The tune - yes an actual tune - signifying the stop made it feel even more 1800s. At first I thought something was wrong with the train but then I saw that no one else was perturbed so I happily sat and hummed the tune each time the train paused.

Oh, what a nice day it was :D. Smee posing with the statues. Nothing beats the awesome weather.

We considered going to the spa baths but with no bathing suits, that was a no-go. The surrounding park was very pretty and I can see how fun it would get when seasonal activities are set up. The park is also the location of the Vajdahunyad Castle, which was initially built for a funfair or something like that, but the locals wanted to keep it.