I first planned to travel to Budapest in 1999. I was doing a quick European tour with some friends from my French class (I was living in Paris) which included Brussels, Amsterdam, Prague Vienna, and Budapest. At the time, Australians still needed tourist visits for a number of European countries including Czech Republic and Hungary. Having left my travel plans to the last minute, I only had time to get the Czech visa. So I wasn’t able to visit Budapest and it was 10 years before I finally made the journey.

My first impression of Budapest was what a beautiful city it is. Impressive Habsburg era buildings everywhere, beautiful squares, clean streets, and the gorgeous Hungarian Parliament.

I was staying in Pest, at the foot of the Chain Bridge. Everything was in walking distance and you can see most of the sites within a couple of days. We spent 5 days there, which meant we could see everything at a leisurely pace.

One of the reasons for my trip was to see if I wouldn’t mind living in either Budapest, Vienna or Prague. At first I thought I would love to live in Budapest but as the days went on, I decided against it. Sometimes I felt like when the locals look at you they see nothing but dollar signs and they would do anything to get money out of you. Not that I was ever ripped off, not at all, they just seemed desperate for money. Not that we don’t all do things for money, it might just be that others are more subtle about their desperation! I don’t know, I didn’t feel totally comfortable, that’s all. Maybe that would change if I spent more time there.

On to the good things! Budapest is cheap! That’s a nice change from Paris. Eating out has little impact on your wallet which is great because the food is amazing. I don’t think I had a bad meal. Breakfast usually consisted of some unusual Hungarian pastry, lunch was almost always chicken paprika with dumplings, and then afternoon coffee and cake :) Bliss!

There is a great indoor market at the end of Vati Utca, the main shopping street. We bought our supplies from there which included fresh fruit, sweet and hot paprika, and what I thought was cheese but turned out to be margarine. I tried a few of the different breads but most of them are very heavy bread which I like to call peasant bread. I think I’ll stick to baguettes.

The castle district in Buda is the most touristy part of Budapest. It’s a great place to wander around for a few hours or more and has fantastic views of Pest and especially of the parliament.

Pest is more business like and is a great place to admire the local architecture, visit the incredible St Stephen’s Basilica, Opera House, and Hungarian Parliament, or go shopping on Vati Utca. I loved this part of town.

I had really wanted to go to one of the thermal baths but didn’t get around to it. I’ll definitely have to do that next trip. I’d also like to go back and see the statue park which has all the communist era statues. That would be interesting for sure.

Overall, I loved Budapest. I don’t think I want to live there but am definitely looking forward to going back soon.