Efficient travels to Budapest (pronounced “Buda-pesch”)

Night train "Couchette"

While I was pretty excited to rest after the Amsterdam trip, I decided to hop on a train to Budapest for St. Patty’s weekend after one weekend of resting in Munich. It was my first time going on a night train and actually the first time ever traveling/touring a city alone. If you’re a heavy sleeper (like myself) and can fall asleep on any flat surface, I totally recommend taking night trains to travel through Europe. 1) Less hassle: I prefer traveling by trains over planes – usually drops you off in the heart of a city and no heavy security checks. 2) Night trains are so efficient – I was able to go to work for a full day on Friday, go home and pack, go out to dinner, watch a few episodes of how I met your mother, and still make it to my train and arrive to Budapest first thing on Saturday morning. 3) Sometimes night trains can even save you money – the train was basically my hotel for Friday night and Sunday night. I got to spend all day Saturday/Sunday exploring Budapest and saved a night of accommodation costs.

View of Buda from Pest side

Background: Budapest, the capital of Hungary, is a beautiful city, at least on the surface. It actually reminds me a lot of Paris with its grandiose buildings and its multiple bridges. The city is separated into Buda (where the hills and caves are and the nicer, more residential part of the city) and Pest (a more touristy side of the city, and where I think a lot of the businesses are) by the Danube river - I feel like every major European city has a large river running through it (which makes sense as I imagine commerce usually happened around these areas).

I started the trip w/ a free walking tour of Budapest. If you’re a college student, I definitely recommend taking free walking tours of city – it’s a great way to see a city and get the low down about the inexpensive places to party/get alcohol and which days/how you get into sites for free.

Afterwards, I had lunch with a fellow Microsoftie at a Hungarian restaurant and got the local and economic viewpoint on the country. While the touristy areas seem pretty clean and all seems well in Budapest, the country’s economy is actually in terrible condition and unrest is on the rise. The extreme right wing party has the majority in the gov’t (I think?) and in general, the country is becoming fairly nationalistic with some anti-Semitic sentiment. A lot of major companies have left Hungary, resulting in rising unemployment and poverty rates – apparently, once popular restaurants and areas are fairly empty now a days. However, I do think tourism to Hungary is still alive and well. It helps that the city has an efficient transit system, is inexpensive, and is seen as one of the few places to travel to in Eastern Europe.

Went to mass @ St. Stephen's Basilica

Inside of St. Stephen's Basilica

Overall, I didn’t do too much during the trip; the more I travel in Europe, the more European cities all blend together – really, most regions have distinct characteristics, so if you’ve gone to three or four of the major cities in any one continent or region, I feel like in terms of sites and architecture of buildings, it’s all the same. What’s more interesting to experience, I think, are the culture and local food. 

Budapest Parliament building



Some things I noticed:
1) I found people to be quite friendly in Budapest: strangers helped me without being asked when I looked clearly lost, staring confusedly at a map; an old lady offered me a slice of her orange in the park; I helped a different old lady cross the street – good times!

2) Maybe it was people catering to tourists or maybe people were very well educated or a combination of both? Either way, it was pretty easy to find English-speaking people and quite easy to get around Budapest – the trains and buses are rickety but it gets you around. The city is also fairly small and walkable.
3) Music must be incredibly important to the Hungarian culture. Many restaurants and a few nicer cafes seemed to have live music and there were plenty of piano bars for entertaining. Even the street musicians were fantastic!

Gorgeous Bookstore Cafe w/ $2 cappuccinos and live piano music - NBD

4) Hungarian food is not fantastic – actually, I find most Central and Eastern European food to be quite heavy and salty. Stews are fairly common in Hungarian food and hefty servings of meat and potatoes – maybe it comes from living in a colder climate and poorer nation where stews keep you warm and fill you up?


Lamb stew w/ mac and cheese - very paprika-ey

5) Not sure what the hype is about bathhouses? The outdoor swimming pools are great (it’s heated and you can just enjoy the sun and buy a half liter of Stella for two euros), but the indoor pools are just filled with people sitting in warm water. Kinda gross.

Szecheny Bath House



Outdoor swimming pool - inside the bathhouse

All in all, a great trip and a great city – I’d recommend Budapest if you’re looking for something different in terms of culture, but I hear Prague is your better option (I have differing views on Prague since it was cold and rainy during my Prague trip).


If you’re still reading til this point, here’s a quick update on Munich life:


In a cave below a beerhall in Munich

Singing/Dancing on tables

Work has been keeping me pretty busy with conferences, team dinners, and planning for next year’s revenue targets. I went to a few beerhalls (I feel like that’s all I do here) and the real starkbierfest was great – a lot of dancing and singing on tables (German and American songs). The weather has been amazing; something I love about Europe is the culture of sitting in the sun no matter where you are. Restaurants all have outside seating (even if it’s on a random-no good view-sidewalk) and people randomly park themselves outside buildings. Alrighty, that’s the update on my life.

Next blog, Greece and Istanbul! Have a fantastic Easter!