Kobi & Brian: Europe 2013-2014: Budapest

I know we've said this before, but this is our favourite place so far. Budapest (pronounced Budapesht, according to a bona fide Hungarian) is amazing. It's beautiful, lively, built to look old and grand (when it's not actually that old!), and is full of young people. We knew within 5 minutes of getting off the train that we would love it, as the parks were all full of people having picnics, playing frisbee, tightrope walking, walking dogs and drinking beer. Plus it's been about 26 degrees, which is the nicest weather we have had all trip - that definitely helps boost the city's profile in our minds!

We did a walking tour on our first day as we actually knew nothing at all about Hungary. Turns out they're a pretty interesting bunch, who as far as they can trace, are actually from the area now known as Mongolia. Hungarians don't believe they really fit in with the European landscape for that reason - they relate their ancestry more closely to Asia than Europe. Their history since moving across the globe to what is now Hungary is pretty brutal; basically they just continually started and lost wars. Hungary was one of the key instigators of WWI - they wanted to expand their territories so asked Germany for assistance as they were the major power in the region. They lost, and tried again in WWII. They lost again, and the Soviets occupied Hungary for a long time after that. There have been a few civil wars too, which our guide joked that they also lost even though they were only fighting themselves.

Things we've loved about Budapest:

All the outdoor bars and restaurants that are completely full even on a Tuesday night. The prices at these bars were awesome - $2 Cosmo? Please!

Visiting Szimplakerti ruin bar, the bar rated number 3 in the world by Lonely Planet. Ruin bars are really popular in Budapest. After WWII there were a lot of buildings with serious bomb damage that the Soviets didn't want to waste money repairing. In some areas the residents got together and created bars in the ruins. The bars are huge as they're basically former residential or office buildings, and they are so cool to walk through.

Spending the day at Szechenyi Bath House, one of the oldest and largest thermal pool complexes in Europe. The waters are considered healing, as they are drawn from the oldest well in Budapest, where the water is 76 degrees. It's cooled for swimming, but still kept between 20 and 40 degrees in various pools. It's a huge building and also has spas, saunas, solariums etc. We had a great day relaxing by the pools when the sun was out. Had less fun being mentally scared by all the European dudes in speedos.

Sitting on the steps to the St Stephens Basilica and people watching

Walking over the Chain Bridge and up the hill on the Buda side to see the Royal Palace and get the best views of Pest across the river. We also had great views of the Parliament building (now the third biggest in the world)

All the sausage dogs and chihuahuas over here.

The free plastic cheese at our hostel. And having a washing machine (hallelujah!)

We did have trouble with the language though. Hungarian is not like any other language. You know how people say if you can speak Spanish you can pretty much understand Portuguese, and French and Italian are similar etc? Nothing is similar to Hungarian. And it's completely backwards. For example:

Hello is 'seeia'

Goodbye is 'hallo'

And when they write their name they write Halbert Kobi Lee.

What the hell!?

Was great to see our families on Skype today, wishing both our mums and my sister a Happy Mothers Day for tomorrow.

Love, Kobi and Brian

xxx