2022 World Tour – Budapest, Hungary
Hello from Budapest, my 31st stop on the trip and my 60th country. That’s a nice round number!
Below is the standard summary:
– Cool Ranch Doritos: No
– Thai ATM Card Works: Yes
– Thai Debit Card Works: Yes
– Thai Internet Purchase Works: Yes
– USA Credit Card Works: Didn’t try
– Worldwide Telephone/Data/SMS eSIM Works: Yes
– Spanish SIM Card Works: Didn’t try
– Magic Jack Works: Didn’t try
– VPN Works: Didn’t try
– COVID Compliance Chronicles: No Requirements
– Internet Works: Yes
– Drone Flights: Didn’t check
– Cost of Living: $$$
– Currency: Forint Ft 1.00 = USD $0.0025, or 388:1. Wow.
– Language Issues: Minor
Your Short History Lesson:
The only things I knew as a kid about Hungary were from Eva Gabor on ‘Green Acres’, but it turns out it’s more complicated than that! Given its location in central Europe, it was inhabited through the ages by Celts, Romans, Germanic tribes, Huns and then formed into the Hungarian state in the 9th century. It was invaded by the Ottomans, then the Hapsburg Empire and then joined forces with Austria to become a major power in central Europe for two centuries. Austria-Hungary collapsed after World War I, then joined the Axis powers in World War II, participating in Holocaust actions. At the end of the war the Soviets quickly rolled in and took over. A failed revolution in 1956 led to independence in 1989. Currently, hard-right autocratic Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote a new constitution and has driven the curtailing of press freedom, erosion of judicial independence, undermining of multiparty democracy, immigration blockades, racism and violations of EU-protected civil rights. Many American Conservatives embrace him and invited him to speak at the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas. Hungary joined NATO in 1999, the EU in 2004 and is a Schengen member. It is currently under Article 7 sanctions by the EU.
Leaving Belgrade, I jumped on the same tram number to get to the bus station, but it took a turn and started going away from the city! WTF? I jumped off and managed to make my way and get on the bus in time. It’s my lucky day because the bus is actually a Flixbus, my favourite! Huge and comfortable. We had a straight 4 lane highway to the border with Hungary, and this is where it got a little weird. Everybody out of the bus at immigration. We stood in line and watched a really dark video about what the border forces do to illegal immigrants, showing CCTV footage of captures. This is the autocratic PM’s agenda now, keep out the unwashed. I could see out the window that they were doing deep inspections of nearly every car, van and bus coming in. I saw one agent open a cardboard box of juice bottles, open one up, sniff it, put the cap back on, and put it back into the box. Welcome to Hungary. Be sure to show your papers when asked. We arrived at a nice modern bus station but not a single human was working there. I got a 3-day city transport pass from a machine, jumped on the subway and arrived at the hostel.
My hostel experience in Belgrade was good so I decided to take a chance on another one here. Big mistake! The huge wooden entrance door on the street looks like it survived a war. I was buzzed into a Soviet-era hallway that definitely didn’t survive a war. Up the rickety elevator to reception, which was nicely remodeled inside. It took about 20 minutes to check me in after a “shift-change” and the second kid didn’t know what he was doing. It costs 2000 forints for the security deposit on the RFID card for the room but I didn’t have any yet so I gave the kid a US $10 and he said he’d give it back at the end. Turns out you don’t get a towel or a locker here! You buy towels for 2000 and locks for 1200. I gave him another $10 and told him to keep the change. He walked me to my room, up 4 floors in the death elevator and into a room with 4 bunkbeds, luckily they saw my request and put me in a lower bunk. It was then I realized there’s NO AIRCON! I’m dripping with sweat in a closed room and it’s the worst heatwave to hit Europe since ever. Expedia.com doesn’t highlight it when there is a “lack” of air conditioning, only showing a snowflake icon when it does exist, so you have to be vigilant every time you look at a listing. I left some feedback about that on their web site, saying there should always be an aircon icon, one way or the other.
I figured it was time for a drink so I joined a pub crawl through 3 ruin bars and then a thunka-thunka music club. I got talking with one of the guides, a nice kid from Melbourne. The final club had about a thousand people inside this bombed-out basement, and of course they’re all smoking. A drunk Irish kid walks up to me and says “Hey geezer, how old are ya?” Well, I have the superpower of becoming extraordinarily funny when I’m buzzed, just ask anyone! So I looked at him and said “Old enough to fuck your mother.” He slowly blinked twice and said “Ye can’t say that about me mum!” I told him he’d think it’s funny in the morning. I walked home about 2:30 am into the oven. I took a cold shower and got a couple of hours total sleep, dreaming of air conditioning.
I tried to get my moneys-worth out of the included breakfast in the morning, plotting my revenge. I booked an aircon room about 750m away and went to check out, abandoning two nights payment, but I’ll call that my stupidity tax. I had lunch across the street at a TGI Fridays, I was in desperate need of familiar places and comfort food. I drank 3 massive glasses of icy Coke Zero while I watched Formula 1 practice on a big TV. I walked down the street to pick up my key at the office and booked a boat cruise on the Danube and the Big Red Bus, then walked two blocks to the actual room. It’s in a centuries-old massive stone apartment building and I get to walk up 3 flights, but upon opening the door it was a joy to behold! Newly remodeled with a kitchen, table and bathroom on the ground floor and the bed in a loft up a small set of stairs. The air was already cool and sweet and I almost cried as it was 41C / 106F outside. I cooled down then got some groceries at a nearby store and dropped off laundry at a great place a couple of blocks away. Went to sleep early after all of the trauma.
The next morning I picked up my laundry and jumped on the Big Red Bus and toured the city which gave me some great ideas of the places I wanted to see on the rest of my visit. I should explain that Budapest is actually the union long-ago of two separate cities divided by the Danube, Buda and Pest. Yes literally there’s a Buda and a Pest and they went together for Budapest. Might have been Pestbuda in another universe. I began to realize what everybody says about Budapest, wow. The buildings, the old town which is most of the town, the towers and historic battle gates, parks, palaces and castles, the bridges across the river. Everywhere you turn is something amazing. Be sure to check out the pictures. Because of this I booked an extra 4 days to be able to see everything. I couldn’t do any more days because the office was sold out for the Formula 1 race on the upcoming weekend! I started to make plans to attend the race but my F1 friend Pete talked me down from the ledge on that, as he went to the race a while ago and said it’s not great for spectators. I’ll just watch it from the comfort of a sports bar somewhere in my next stop. I walked down to Dock 6 on the Danube for the boat cruise, and I was worried about the really long line but we all got on in the end. I sat on a metal can right on the stern and got some great pictures before and after sunset, especially the buildings and bridges lit up after sunset.
I decided to do my regular pilgrimage to the local Tesla showroom so I plotted it out and took the #3 bus to the M3 subway, a little tricky because parts of the line were shut down for construction. They had two Performance Model Ys, both built in Berlin but one black and one white, as Tesla is slowly expanding the colors in the paint shop. From there I took the metro to the Grand Market, a huge farmer’s market with meats, fruits & spices on the ground floor and handicrafts and souvenirs above. Bought half a kilo of cherries.
Seeking more comfort food, I walked across the street to a Burger King. I finished my soda, went up to ask to pay for another but the girl says it’s free refill. Sweet! I walked back to my table only to find some fucking guy sitting there eating my food! I yelled “Get the fuck out” and waved my arm around. He sat in the chair and slowly ate the rest of the fries in his hand, gave me the “Scusi” shrugged shoulders look and walked away. I dumped the food and ate my cherries.
The next morning was raining with distant thunder so I gave up on the idea of going through the city to the river and the castle. I walked about a mile to a big shopping center across from the new stadium, with a cinema and watched about 10 minutes of the ‘Thor’ movie until I fell asleep. I walked to the bus station and bought my ticket to Bratislava, with a change of vehicle along the way somewhere. I hope that works out!
Thankfully the sun was out the next day so I took transit to the castle, walking around the fortified walls, then down and up the funicular train that takes all of about 30 seconds. Gorgeous architecture with a great views across the river. Looking for things on Google Maps, I see there’s something called Labyrinth nearby. Not having a claustrophobia problem I checked it out. It’s an underground cave system that was turned into storage, military and prisoner space through the centuries. They say Vlad The Impaler was imprisoned here for 10 years by the father of his wife. The humidity was so high that just breathing out triggered dense vapours, and it was fun to swirl them with my hand. Coming back into the sunshine I went to Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant. I wanted lasagna or gnocchi, but they’re out of both today so I had salmon spaghetti which was crazy good. Did train video editing for the afternoon. Had a chicken burger at a nearby restaurant while some dbag was revving his Lamborghini nearby – I was hoping it would catch on fire but no such luck.
The next day I got on the tram and headed to the south end of the city, got off at the river and walked north on the main road. I just strolled the city, stopping into shops and parks and interesting things – this is the luxury of relaxation I get when I stay somewhere for more than 3 days. I stopped at an Indian restaurant but they had onions in the sauces, so that’s a no-go with my allergy. I found another one, no onions! Had paneer pakora, butter chicken and garlic naan, yummy, makes me miss my Everest restaurant back home. Walking back to the apartment I passed a Thai massage place with even better prices than Belgrade. I had a 1 hour foot massage from a lady called Wat. I told her I was having pain in my ankle and in a line across the top and bottom of my left foot, probably from all of the walking and maybe a few stumbles on cobblestones. She immediately went to town and I reeled back in pain, wow. She dialed it down a bit after that and the next day it felt much better.
Is it worth a visit? Oh yeah, without a doubt. If you’re in the area, it is unmissable. It’s a big city but a nearly unlimited list of things to do and see. Great architecture, history, restaurants, activities and the public transport will take you anywhere. This is one of the few places I would consider moving to. Barcelona still wins for the waters of the Med and my familiarity with Spanish. Hungarian is notoriously difficult to learn and I’d want to do my best to fit in. I also have an issue with the current political climate so that would be tough to live under.
Next Stop: Bratislava, Slovakia
