Budapest is the capital and largest city in Hungary. It is the combined city names “Buda” and “Pest”. To become a single and largest city they were combined and using its names, it is now called “Budapest”. Their currency is called “Forint”. They have bigger amounts on their bill. (e.g. 100 dollars, is about 2,000 of crowns here in Czech; it depends upon the rate of exchange, but in Hungarian Forint it is about 20,000 forint.) For first time, you will be confused and really make a little mess in the head, when paying, especially those who are bad in Math. (Like me!)
Hungarian Forint
I didn’t study much about the history of the city so I’m sorry if I will be giving you just few information this time. One thing I knew was they have these four most popular bridges in Hungary called “Chain Bridge, Margaret Bridge, Elizabeth Bridge, and the Liberty Bridge”.
As I mentioned more than a week back, we went to Budapest, Hungary for three days to look around and observed. We left last June 9, and arrived to Hungary about 2pm their local time. It was approximately 7 hours of travel from our city Jihlava, so when we arrived to Budapest we were kind of exhausted. When we arrived to bus station and drop-off, we asked the driver of the bus where we can find a taxi (We are new in that city so we haven’t have any idea, how exactly and where exactly to wait for taxi). The bus driver said, it was just on the other side around the small PUB. When we went to check, there was no one.
We went across the street and looked around if we can find taxi, and yeah we did found one, but unfortunately since he doesn’t speak English, and we do not speak their local language; we didn’t understand what he said. So we went back to bus stop, and waited there a little bit longer because there was this sign “Taxi”. So we hoped that if we stand there, and taxi will see us, they will probably stop and finally bring us to the hotel; but it never happened. It was sunny day, and temperature was about 30°C. I was freaking out, exhausted, and without sleep, so I started to be mad, and complained to my husband. (Sorry)
So my husband couldn’t take it anymore longer, because we were waiting for like 40 minutes after we drop-off from the bus, so he went inside the small PUB and asked for help. He asked woman (probably manager or owner of the PUB) where we can get the taxi. She then asked my husband to give here the address of the hotel, and she will call for a taxi for us. To appreciate her kindness, my husband order some drinks, and gave her a little money for using the phone, but since she doesn’t speak good English, and probably used it just at that moment, she accidentally said, “Funk you” which sounded like “Fuck you”, instead of “Thank you”.
My husband smiled, and the woman blushed, and turned her face into red. It was kind of funny, she was probably so embarrassed, but my husband didn’t care about it. He just wanted a taxi, so we can rest and finally look around the city.
When the taxi finally arrived; he gave us brief information about the city. While driving he kept saying where we can go and what are those building called. He has been so talkative, but my husband likes it. When we arrived to our hotel “Novotel” it was Novotel Danube district 2. (You can also find good prices of hotel Click here.) I was glad, because from that street the Parliament of Hungary was just right in front of us. (other side of the city street).
Parliament of Hungary at Daylight.
We checked-in to our hotel, we headed directly to shower because we were planning to head out as soon as we can. We thought we are able to go, but when we finished showering, my husband lies on the bed, and immediately fell asleep. I continued preparing myself, and after that I also lied on the bed, just to rest a little, but I never noticed that I also fell asleep, and oh yeah, we woke up around 9 in the evening. First I told my husband that we probably will not be heading out anymore because it’s so late, but he insist to just look around a bit, so we did.
We headed out and saw this so much light all over the Parliament building, which is incredible. It was raining, and there are people taking photos everywhere. So even if it was raining I immediately grabbed my camera and took as much as I could.
Parliament at night
From then, we walked along the river side headed to the Bridge called “Chain Bridge”, it is one of the famous bridges in Hungary, that crosses the Danube river. It was two road lanes, and with cycling path, and path for walking. It is 375 meters, (1,230ft), painted into silver and by that time it was loaded with lights that make it more beautiful at night.
Chain Bridge at night
My loving husband at Chain Bridge
We crossed to that bridge and we headed to the square, and yes by walking. We walked around hoping that we will find some restaurant or even McDonald’s to eat, but as we walked around the square we observed that most restaurants are closing at 10pm, and some are even earlier during weekends, which is totally weird because I think most restaurants in the city center are closing almost after midnight, because it’s weekend and there will be no schools, to attend or even work, but it’s just like that there. Few bars are open, especially this bar called “Wine Bar”. It was so crowded, and outside? Oh my, people are just busy holding their glasses while standing and chit-chatting.
We passed through them, and we saw this huge building, and later on I found that this is what they called “St. Stephen’s Basilica”. According to what I read, this Saint Stephen Basilica was named after their first ever king in Hungary named “Stephen”, and this building is one of the two tallest building in Hungary at 96 meters. Since it was that tall, it was hard to capture the whole image of it. So the photo below is the best that I can do.
St, Stephen’s Basilica Budapest, Hungary
Other side of St. Stephen’s Basilica Budapest, Hungary
We continue walking and at the center we saw a plaza, where people are watching the football match with Hungarian football team. We sat, and rest a little and continued to find somewhere to eat. We finally saw McDonald’s, there was still lights and people eating inside but unfortunately when we stepped inside, they said they were closed. What luck!
We were so starving, so we just headed back and found this mini-store, so we bought some stuff where we can at least use to fill up a little our empty stomach. We bought some others and we brought to hotel. By that time, I found that the hotel has Menu, and I immediately asked my husband if he can call the reception so we can eat. Luckily, they were still cooking that late. We ordered Tuna Sandwich, and yeah it was awesome! They have just few selection of food in the Menu, but sure it was looking really good.
So that is how the first day went. I’ll be posting more.
Anickaworld 
Looks like a fun time. Nice pictures. I like looking at places at night. That’s a bummer about it being hard to find food. Fortunately there are some restaurants here open late but all the stores and a lot of the restaurants do close early.
Yeah, that was really bad, got starve from walking and roaming around at night but not much open restaurants. (Poor tummy)
Well, that is also what I liked the most in our visit to Budapest; these lights at night, stunning! 🙂
Yeah that would be uncomfortable. Yes they are pretty. If you ever go to Washington DC in America that was kind of a cool city to see at night also as the monuments are all lit up.