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Budapest, pronounced “Budapesht”

Budapest was a striking contrast to everything that was Sarajevo. Brilliantly clean, wide boulevards, spotless metro, pristine neighbourhoods, availability of vegetarian food. I have to admit it was a bit of a relief. I really enjoyed Sarajevo, but I realized in Budapest that I had felt unease there… uncomfortable seeing all of the evidences of a war.

I ended up spending 4 days in Budapest with my hosts, Melinda and Zaolt, who were, as usual, fantastic! I have yet to have a negative couch surfing experience. I spent several hours sending out requests for the rest of this last month in Europe, and managed to secure hosts for all but 8 days. Here at my hosts, at the Bombay Indian restaurant..

Just an observation: The city is peppered with Burger Kings, McDonalds, and KFCs. I reflected that these American fast food chains are a kind of virus that can hold a city captive… they reproduce and are a kind of commercial illness.

There was lots of socialist architecture and design around Budapest. Here is a socialist style metro station:

I managed to find a 100% vegan restaurant with lots of traditional Hungarian dishes. I also noticed how instead of having the usual pepper and salt to season food at the restaurant, they had Paprika and salt! Goes to show how important paprika is in Hungarian cuisine. Yum. Anyway, while I did get to sample some traditional food through my hosts who ordered it, I could not resist trying the vegan pizza (how often do you get to try that!), which was divine with its thick spelt crust, olives and garlic:

I also went to a thermal spa. The outdoor space looked more like a swimming pool, but evidently has medicinal properties. It was lots of fun, and I did feel better afterwards, but I am not sure if that was just because of the even hotter bath outside not shown in this picture:

The Hungarian parliament building is one of the most beautiful buildings I have seen on my trip so far. I really love the detail architectural embellishments… this is not the best pic since the other side of the parliament is best seen from across the bridge, but it is an angle nonetheless.

This lovely fountain is located at one of the thermal spas and the story about it is that it is the source of all of the 4 thermal baths in Budapest. My hosts told me this is unlikely, but it is a nice story!

I managed to visit the Museum of Fine Arts that had an exhibition on photography with fantastic photographers highlighted through different themes; it was a real treat.

And a few extra shots.

This is a view of the Chain bridge, which on the day I was there had a special fair with lots of beautiful homemade goods. I did take the opportunity to collect a few gifts for people here:

Hello! I found your site while researching WWOOFing in France. I then had the pleasure of finding your trip to Budapest and Vienna. I had to comment because I was also traveling alone through Budapest and Vienna at the same time (I even stopped at that craft fair on the Chain Bridge)! It seems like you enjoyed both places as much as I did! Thanks for sharing your adventures!

Glad you enjoyed my blog! I don’t get to hear that very often. Ahhh, to be back in Europe again - so many nice memories.