Budapest: Back Where it All Began

My travel across Europe turned a full circle as we set-off for Budapest on New Year’s Day 2011. It was here in July 2009 that it all began. While then there was the added incentive to watch F1 cars zooming past, this time it was purely a leisure trip to beat the frustrations of a cold winter and put on the bag-packs once again. Arshia was visiting us for a week during her New Year break so that was another reason to resume bag-packing.

Three of us boarded the Orangeways bus on Saturday afternoon at around 3 from Florenc and after a 7 hour ride reached Budapest Neglepet bus stop at around 10. We had to take the metro to Ferenciek Tere station where we were booked at the City Pilvax Hotel (at a measly 35 EUR for a night). The bus stand was almost empty and we had to do run back and forth in order to get the necessary local currency to at least buy a metro ticket. Finally we located an ATM and then as a bonus a human-operated ticket counter from where we could buy the tickets.
Budapest has one of the oldest metros and probably not renovated, upgraded, maintained for years. It looks shabby to say the least. The coaches looked the same as the ones in Moscow and my guess proved right when I spotted a “MOCKBA 1983” plaque on one of them. The metro downstairs was in direct contrast to the breathtaking beauty that existed upstairs.

Heroes Square

Hotel was right at the center of the city. Even though the roads were already deserted on account of it being New Years Day, you could sense some action around the corner. Even though we were three of us, we found no sense in booking a second room since we just needed to sleep for the night. However, on probing if we could do that legally with some extra cost, the receptionist clearly responded in the negative. We stuck to our plan and we thought we’ll find out a way once we return later after dinner.
We started walking and soon we were in a lane busy enough to give the feeling of a Saturday evening and that too on New Year’s Day. Within 5 minutes we spotted no less than 4-5 eating joints which would remain open till mid-night thus ensuring that we’ll have something to eat. After a short walk to check out the place, we settled for a place which was playing live jazz music and on which was written that it was open 24×7.

Heroes Square

The place proved to be the perfect choice as the food and the music were both great even though I had an item which was totally misfit for the time of the day – a cheese omelette. Arshia had sphagetti carbonara which was far better than the one which I occasionally have at the Arkady mall food court in close to my office. Once done with dinner we planned as to how all three of us would sneak in to the hotel. Arshia felt the most embarrassed and probably felt a bit odd doing such a thing. That probably made it all the more exciting. We thought she would quietly walk in and reach the room and we shall make it 5-10 minutess later. To add to the drama, she dressed up in Asmi’s jacket and cap since that was the get-up the receptionist saw Asmi in during check-in.
The next morning we were ready by around 11. We decided to take the hop-on, hop-off bus for the sight-seeing of the city. All European cities have this facility for the tourists. However this was the first time I was using this. Most other cities we used to travel on metro or tram to the designated places. However, it would have been difficult here since the sight-seeing places are spread far apart on both sides of the Danube on Buda and Pest. We boarded the bus from Deak Ferenc station, just a stop away from Ferenc Korut. We decided that our first ‘hop-off’ would we at the Heroes Square at 12:30 where we would spend an hour before hopping on again at 1:30. We duly did as planned and on the way we saw some beautiful buildings with classical east European architecture the most prominent among them being the Opera House. Heroes Square was a huge open area with monuments in 3 directions which included an art gallery. The monument was built in 1896 to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of the arrival of Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin. The temperature was around -5 degrees and when it became a bit too chilly we took shelter in a café and packed some croissants for the remaining leg of the sight-seeing tour.

Castle District

We “hopped on” at 1:30 and the bus soon crossed the river and up the hill in Buda towards the iconic castle district where the Buda castle was located. On the way we stopped at the Gellert hill which provided a stunning view of the Budapest landscape with the Danube flowing through and the bridges standing tall. We “hopped off” next at the Castle District. This was a large area where the Buda castle is located. It involved a lot of walking and constant movement of shutterbugs. And what’s more it even started snowing heavily. Not that it had much effect on us. We walked on until we were ready to hop on again. Our next target was to board the river cruise at 5:30 which was part of this tour. We got down close to the departure point on the banks well in advance so we decided to take a walk and grab a bite in one of cafes. We did so and had some amazing sausages in the nearby café to be all charged up to see Budapest by night on the cruise. Being winter, it was already dark by the time we hit the Danube and that gave us the chance to brilliant night view of Budapest with its lit up bridges, the castle and the parliament.
The chain bridge (or the Erzsebeth Bridge) looked like a necklace and I could not stop clicking snaps in “Night landscape” mode. We disembarked from the cruise at around 6:30. Our next job was to check-in to Hotel Silver Inn for the night. Our booking at Pilvax for only a night and we were booked at this hotel for the Sunday night. However, we kept our luggage at the Pilvax reception so we collected the same on our way. We, as in only the ladies since I was leaving the Sunday night itself to be at my workplace on Monday morning.
We reached the metro station and close to the landmarks mentioned in the map but there was no sign of the hotel. Later a shop-keeper guided us and we found out that we had to ring a bell on one of the doors in a quiet street and the hotel was located on the 4th and 5th floors of the building. Once the doors opened for us we noticed a 5 storied building with a huge open space in the middle much like the old buildings of north Calcutta. From no angle did it look like a hotel. However there was a functional 24×7 reception on the ground floor and the rooms were decent enough thus assuring a comfortable stay for the ladies. My bus was at 10:15 PM from Neglipet so we decided to move on for dinner so that I could return back, drop the ladies back and then proceed for the bus-stop.

Buda Castle

The ‘Octagon’ was just a stop away and we decided t check that out for dinner. It’s quite a lively crossing (I am refraining from using the word ‘square’ since it’s an 8-point crossing and hence referred to as ‘Octagon’). We were spoilt for choices as to what to eat and after a lot of deliberation we settled for a Mexican place serving Fajitas and Quesadillas. We still had ample time for the bus so we became a bit casual. I nearly paid for it as I had to make a dash for the bus right at the stroke of 10:15 at the Neglepet bus stop. The metro frequency reduces after 9 PM and that too on a Sunday night. That caused a bit of a panic though I somehow managed to board the bus and was well in time for office the next day.
The ladies came back the next day by the Orange ways bus after having a great time in the morning starting with breakfast in the hotel and utilizing the hop-on-hop-off ticket (which was valid for 24 hours) to see the beautiful parliament on the river-side.