Budapest Day One

We were up and out the door by 7am to catch our train to Budapest. This is 2.5 hour train journey and I can't say much went well getting there.

We made it to the station with plenty of time.

Our train was listed on the departure board, but no platform number. As we had over 30 minutes to spare, we went to the nearest platform, to find a seat. Helen guarded all the bags while I went back and forth to the departures board.

Even with 10 minutes to go, our train did not have a platform number. This was concerning because it will take us a good 5 or minutes to change platform via the subway. Loads of people were watching the board, I assumed all were looking at the same train.

With 5 minutes to spare, I asked at the ticket office about the platform number. The old lady behind the glass glared at me and snapped "you have to wait!". 

Shortly after, the sign showed platform 1, which is where Helen was sitting. Next they announced that due to engineering problem, the first class carriage had been replaced with an economy carriage. We had booked first class, so waved goodbye to the comfort we paid extra for.

When the train arrived, it was 1 minute before departure time, and everyone ran for the carriages. We figured they knew best, and our carriage was right at the back of the train, so we ran too. The doors slammed shut in my face. In desperation I pressed the open button and they did re-open. No sooner did we get us and bags on, and the train departed. A close call.

Every train trip until now had free Wifi that worked very well. This train had free WiFi that didn't work at all. Also as soon as we crossed the border into Hungary, the mobile data on our phones stopped working too.

When we stepped off the train at Budapest, it was cold. My watch told me it was 1 degree, and we've had that for half our trip so far, but this was different. It was really bone chilling cold.

The station had no indoors area, nobody to ask for help, and we had no internet on our phones. It's hard to know what to do without internet!

We found a bench seat where we sat for the next hour trying to get our internet working, and figure out how to purchase public transport tickets, it turns out you need an app on your phone. Helen got her internet working but it was slow and unreliable. She managed to buy her ticket in the app OK. Then my turn, I had problems and ended up getting errors, but had in fact managed to pay for tickets twice!!! By the time we had sorted out our public transport tickets, we were both shivering cold, could barely feel our fingers, and were ready to go. The tram ride to the hotel was only about 5 minutes. Guess what, we could have walked quicker than figuring out tickets, but with internet problems had no clue.

Once at the hotel we were told the room wouldn't be ready until 3pm. We checked in our luggage and went for a walk to find lunch. The main road is super busy with trams, cars and people. 

While walking around we noticed a queue for the New York Cafe, which claims to be "the most beautiful cafe in the world", a bold claim. Spoiler alert - in an upcoming blog we visit. You knew we would, right? 

After walking for about 45 minutes up and down, we found a suitable place for lunch. It was actually a Japanese fusion restaurant, but looked promising and actually delivered with beautiful food and drinks. We took our time, then returned to the hotel nearly to check into our room and thaw out. On the way we found this little guy, very cute!

After a couple of hours, we ventured out. We had intended to find Christmas Markets at Budapest Basilica which has been award winning in Europe for many years. Unfortunately I looked up the wrong ones but we didn't know that at the time. Anyhow, after a short ride in the underground, we appeared above ground to a busy area with shops and a surprise Christmas Markets. 

We followed the map to what was Vörösmarty Square, another large Christmas Market. Like each country we have visited, each has some unique local food offerings, as well as the mulled wine which is popular everywhere. This market was selling huge sausages and hot dogs (bread in buns) plus many other specialties. However these were all very expensive and no matter what we looked at, it was approximate NZ$30 to NZ$40 for what is, let's face it, street food.

We instead just purchased a Hungarian Chimney Cake, which are very popular here and more affordable. We've seen these in the Wellington Markets and wanted to compare to see how they compared. The verdict is that the Wellington vendors are indeed authentic.

We eventually wandered down through streets of shops and restaurants, and eventually found a nice small restaurant that offered Hungarian cuisine, so we had a nice sit down meal, with beers and warmth for not much more cost than the meals at the markets. 

After dinner we continued to wander until we hit a major road that went up onto one of the many bridges that crossed the Danube River. We walked up onto the bridge for our first glimpse of the river. The weather was still very cold, and the breeze over the river made us rather cold again. 

As it turned out, the road we were on is the same road as our hotel, so it was easy to catch a bus home for the night.

My first impressions of Budapest haven't been the best. How will tomorrow be? You'll have to wait and see.