Budapest.
“My House in Budapest” –the opening line of George Ezra’s song “Budapest” will forever play in my head when I think of this city. I fell in love with Prague, but Budapest spoke to my soul in a way that few cities have. I’m not sure how most people decide whether or not they like a place, but for me I just know. It’s a gut feeling. There’s something that just speaks to my soul—that’s the only way I know how to put it. It’s stars aligning, fate, remnants of a past life—I’m not sure what; just feeling that I belong in a place. My heart and soul and mind are at peace and I feel like I’m home.
I think I kind of knew that Budapest would be a soul-city, because it was the city I was most excited to visit. It held true to all my expectations and more. It’s old and lively and beautiful and we didn’t spend nearly enough time to satisfy my unrestrained attraction to it.
We arrived after visiting the castle and model concentration camp I told you about in the last long post, and checked into our somewhat sketchy hostel. It was a few blocks from the river; on the Pest side of Budapest. (If you’re not familiar with Budapest’s history—it was originally two cities, Buda and Pest, with Buda on the west side of the river, filled with hills and greenery, while Pest lay on the flat, prairie-like eastern side of the Danube.
Those of us who weren’t tired enough yet, slipped out to view what we could of the city before our second river-boat tour of the trip.
We caught golden hour in Budapest. As a photographer it’s obvious that I love golden hour. If you’re not a photographer, golden hour is that sliver of time in the evening (or the morning, if you’re up early enough) where the light is literally liquid gold; everything the sunlight touches is bathed in shades of golden light. Its right before the sun dips behind the hills or the horizon or the ocean or the skyscrapers and is some of the most beautiful and opportunistic light for photographers. (If you still don’t know what I’m talking about, look at my photos then go do an Instagram search).
So I got my first real taste of the city bathed in gold. We walked to the river, across the Chain Bridge, and back. We stopped in a bakery as they were closing and bought some desserts to hold us over until dinner.
That evening’s river cruse was something of a last-minute choice by our Commander-in-Chief, so we just went with the flow, and it ended up being really great. It was a tour filled with “traditional” Hungarian dancing and music, and we got a 4 course meal, along with the entertainment. It turned out to be one of my favorite things from the trip.
Before our first agenda item in the morning, the mom team and I (along with their kids) went out to get coffee and a pastry for breakfast. I am not sure if I can say it was the best coffee I had on the trip, but it was pretty close. It was for sure the best pastry—some cinnamon roll with berries in it—that I had on the trip and probably top 10 in my lifetime. It was seriously that good.
After our breakfast we got a bus tour of the city with some really great tour guides. They drove us all around the city and told us tons of random facts about the city and its history and showed us to several overlooks of the city. I think the students were getting a bit bored, but I enjoyed it.
The tour lasted most of the morning, and we decided to eat in one of the Easter markets for lunch. We did some shopping for souvenirs there as well, and then had to meet up for our 3rd river cruse of the trip. This one was my least favorite, it was just a boat ride up and down the Danube, really. Not a huge recommend, but it was still kind of neat to see the city in the daylight.
The afternoon was free time technically, but a bunch of us decided to go to Szechenyi Baths and pools. Budapest is known for its spas and let me tell you—it was amazing. The one we went to had a HUGE outdoor pool that was filled with people—and I think that half of the fun about the whole experience was people watching. There were probably close to 200 people in the pool all talking with their friends, lounging on the side or standing under the water spilling from the fountain. The air was cold enough that the water felt warm, and made you want to stay in as opposed to getting out, but it wasn’t hot.
Then there were the indoor pools. There must have been 50. We spent a couple hours’ time going from all the different pools, trying them out, relaxing, people watching, doing some hot-cold pool rotations. I spent a good amount of time in both the Sauna and the Steam rooms and by the end of the afternoon came out feeling relaxed, pampered and glowing. 10/10 recommend if you’re in Budapest!!! (Sorry I have no photos from that, steam rooms aren’t exactly camera-friendly . . . ).
And that’s all the time we had in Budapest. We left for Vienna the next morning and I seriously left a little bit of my heart there.
Aperture & Eloquence 