Often called as the ‘Paris of the East’, – Budapest, an elegant capital city of Hungary is constituted of the cities Buda & Pest on each side of the river, Danube.
Arriving at the Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport after my 11-hour flight was beyond relief (I had the supreme fortune of bumping into my favorite actor Saritha at Dubai Airport). I had been actively looking forward to this trip and couldn’t wait to get down to the business of touring! After settling into my hotel room and having a quick shower, I was tempted to set out immediately to explore but the throbbing headache plaguing me required a few hours of sleep to pacify, I reluctantly had to indulge. I woke up later that evening feeling incredible and hailed a cab to the Buda Castle not knowing where to start.
It is an expansive piece of architecture, perfectly what you’d expect of a castle – large stone walls, flights and flights of stairs, grim-looking trees, and uniformed guards as night crawled within no time seizing my excitement.
My disappointment promptly faded when I overheard a bunch of English tourists speaking about “a ruin bar” nearby, I had no idea what it was but I knew I had to go to that place, nothing else mattered at that point.
Turns out it was quite a distance away so we asked to join them on the minibus they’d hired and they seemed genuinely delighted for the extra company. On getting to the Ruin Bar -yep, that was indeed the name- I was a little surprised to find that it wasn’t the ruins of an ancient castle or something similar, it was much more amazing than what I’d expected.
At first, it appeared to be some sort of Chinese restaurant, it had a lot of captivating antique decorations and vines(real vines) and other plants cascading throughout the upper part of the walls; the place had an altogether peculiar feel and lighting that gave it an aura of dusk. I was shocked to discover that this wasn’t the only one of its kind in the city. One of my new buddies volunteered to select the best wines for us and believe me, it tasted like royalty. I can’t decide if the wine was that good or if it was the atmosphere that heightened the whole experiment. It’s not something I’d forget in a hurry.
We found out that our hotel-HILTON was close so we took to touring together by walk. By the time we left the Ruin Bar it was dark, one of my new friends suggested that we visit Szechenyi Chain Bridge the night to follow.
Nest day, we got into the minibus and headed there. It was a magnificent structure that radiated of gold in the nightlight, it was breath-taking.
Next morning, we walked the full length of the bridge then made a stop at the Thermal Pools before retiring for the lunch. The Thermo pools were large historical baths with hot water from natural springs, I was heartbroken when we eventually had to leave.
The next day we continued on our tour. What I find most impressive about Budapest is the seamless blend of ancient looking architecture and modern ones, the city has a cool medieval feel to it and has a large river that snakes into almost every part! I enjoyed my few days there, the return flight was much better, I had a seat by the window and the kid sitting next to me was too engrossed in his video game to bother me