Budapest

I visited the Hungarian capital, Budapest, primarily for inexpensive dental treatment, but extended my stay for a week to explore this fascinating city on the Danube.

The dental clinic deal included transportation from the airport and accommodation in a decent enough three-star hotel next to the Puskas football stadium for a couple of nights. They named the venue after Ferenc Puskas, a fabulous footballer for Real Madrid and Hungary in the fifties and sixties, and is still an heroic figure amongst Hungarians. They revere him, particularly for the leading role he played in demolishing England at Wembley 6-3 in 1953.

However, after a couple of nights, I moved out to somewhere a little less expensive. I found a perfectly acceptable guesthouse about a mile away, which suited me admirably. From my new base, I continued to explore the city on foot.

I walked a couple of kilometres to the City Park (Varosliget) and enjoyed a pleasant stroll through the wooded parkland before finding Vajdahuyad castle, completed in 1896, but looking as if it dated from the Middle Ages. This fantastical building embraces a variety of architectural styles and now houses an acclaimed agricultural museum.

Surrounded by an attractive lake (a popular skating rink during the winter) and with extensive grounds housing a craft market and stalls selling barbequed snacks and drinks, the castle and surroundings seemed a popular destination on this cool Autumnal day. I was happy to avail myself of grilled sausages and coffee as I took a brief break from walking.

I walked beyond Vajdahuyad in a south-westerly direction to stumble upon the impressive Heroes Square, a vast space featuring some impressive statuary of ancient heroic figures. Continuing in the same direction, past some beautiful grand nineteenth-century mansions, I then came across the House of Terror. This substantial building was now a museum, but in a former life was the chilling headquarters of the Nazi and then later the Soviet secret police, who both ruled with brutal and egregious efficiency in a campaign of terror to subjugate the local population, from 1944 until 1989.

The Hungarians, allied with the Austrians as rulers of the vast Austro-Hungarian Empire in the late nineteenth century and with Budapest as joint capital with Vienna, were drawn into the First World War alongside the Germans. The terms of the Trianon Treaty after the war resulted in Hungary losing two-thirds of both its territories and population.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Hungary again aligned with Germany, hoping to regain at least some of this lost territory. In 1944, they attempted to change allegiances, but the Nazis swiftly invaded and ruthlessly imposed a merciless regime. The cellars of the House Of Terror played a substantial role in this savage subjugation.

**The Magnificent Hungarian Parliament Building**

During the time of Nazi occupation, between 20% and 40% of the city’s large Jewish population “disappeared”.

A year later, the Allies defeated the Nazis, and it was the turn of the Soviets to inflict their merciless rule over the hapless Hungarians when they poured over the border, banished the Nazis and began their own fearsome brand of authoritarian subjugation.

There was a changing of the guard at the house of terror as pitiless communists rather than jack-booted nazis took control of the programme of torture and inhumane treatment of a wide range of prisoners, perceived as being enemies of the regime. It was not until 1989, with the fall of the Soviet Union, that Hungary became free of the Russian yoke.

After a sobering and enlightening visit to the House of Terror, I walked on before deciding to make use of the metro to check it out. I learned this was the second oldest metro system in Europe, the first being London’s underground system.

I disembarked at the station named “Opera” and the impressively grand State Opera House, built in the Renaissance revival style, immediately confronted me. After admiring this wonderful edifice, I continued along my very tenuously planned route.

After a while, it pleasantly surprised me to come across the fabulous neo-classical St Stephen’s Roman Catholic Basilica. I stopped for a while, taking a rest on a bench as I took in its stunning majesty.

I was becoming a little weary as late afternoon approached and thought a livener in the form of a couple of beers would be in order. I checked my map and realised I was close to the Jewish Quarter, where I could have a look at the Dohany Street Synagogue and then find one of the unique ruin bars for a beer or two.

I quickly found the Moorish style synagogue, the largest in the world outside Israel, which is on the periphery of what was Budapest’s Jewish ghetto. Unusually, for a synagogue, there is a cemetery. There is also a highly evocative metal sculpture of a weeping willow, as a tribute to the many thousands the Nazis exterminated, which I found particularly moving. I did not want to look inside the vast building, but I found the visit to the site very poignant.

A unique feature of Budapest’s drinking culture, the ruin bars, are also largely found in this area. Essentially, abandoned buildings are artistically and creatively brought back to life as exciting places to meet friends, chat, listen to live music, and have a few convivial drinks. Artwork, graffiti, ancient recycled furniture, mismatched cutlery, crockery and ornaments from various flea markets, old musical instruments, pieces of taxidermy and even decrepit Trabant motorcars are added to the mix. These bars, with many rooms, levels, nooks and crannies, are a feast for all the senses and are highly popular meeting places.

I plonked myself on an old plastic chair next to a stuffed bear and voluptuous naked woman (a dummy, unfortunately) as I savoured my first beer. The young after-work crowd at Szimpla Kert was enjoying the impossibly cool vibe. I stayed for two drinks and then explored the area more fully, sampling another couple of these unique pubs, taking in all the unusual bric-à-brac, objets d’art, paintings and distressed furniture.

By now I needed to eat and soon found myself at a smart Lebanese place called Baalbek, which fitted the bill. Freshly grilled meats and salad in a comfortably appointed dining room, with just the right number of fellow diners to make the experience comfortable without being overly busy, was the order of the day.

The next day, I had arranged to join a small cycling group on a modest tour around Buda on the western side of the river. Buda differs significantly from the bustling Pest area. The latter is vibrant and bursting with shops, bars, restaurants and markets while Buda has a more sedate atmosphere, home to Buda Castle, royal palaces, the president’s accommodation and many state administrative buildings.

We crossed over the famous Chain Bridge after I had noticed the magnificent neo-gothic Central Market Hall. I have a weakness for such emporia and made a mental note to visit later and perhaps pick up some goose liver foie gras for which the city is renowned.

Once on the opposite bank, we saw the stately Gellert Hotel, which is also home to the superb art nouveau thermal baths. Budapest has many of these superb mineral spa baths. Again, I made a note to check it out in more detail at a later stage.

Above the hotel, Gellert Hill rose inexorably, crowned by the Citadella monument at its peak.

We rode on up Castle Hill, passing the funicular, which was busy with tourists taking the easy way up to the top. We cycled around the district, up to the castle, discovering the pretty main plaza of Buda, where pastel shades abounded and found the attractive Gothic Roman Catholic Matthias Church. We timed the ride to coincide with the changing of the guard.

After watching the Ruritanian pantomime-style occasion, we explored the Fisherman’s Bastion, a turreted fortress which afforded magnificent views of the sublime Hungarian Parliament building, its design based on the Palace of Westminster, sitting proudly on the opposite bank. I readily recognised the building from the scores of times I had seen it featured in advertisements for river cruises down the Danube.

After my day of exploring by bicycle, I decided I would hire a bike and go further afield the next day. It was about 20km to the attractive riverside town and artist’s enclave of Szentendre. The town was not on the Danube, but on a smaller tributary. This seemed to me to be an ideal proposition – a chance to get a little exercise in but not too much. It was an easy ride sticking largely to riverside tracks.

I passed the large river island of St Margarets, largely given over to leisure and recreation, with glimpses of running tracks, tennis courts and an outdoor pool complex, within a mile or two of leaving central Pest. I hacked on towards my destination.

After exploring the pretty town centre, and browsing a few artists’ studios and market stalls, I had time to enjoy a pleasant, relaxed lunch on the waterfront. After some further mooching about in the afternoon, I returned to the city, pedalling hard to burn off the calories.

For my evening meal, I discovered the very authentic Hungarikum Bisztro, replete with red and white chequered tablecloths and a purposeful, buzzy vibe. The staff were smiling, friendly and very helpful. As it was a traditional menu, I felt duty-bound to plump for the excellent paprika-laden goulash.

I wanted to experience an authentic Budapest spa on my Hungarian break, so I found myself mid-morning the next day, outside surely the most spectacularly ornate public baths building in the world. The Renaissance Revival building, which is the Széchenyi thermal baths, is stunning. It still features as my home photograph on my phone. The vast complex features nine indoor and outdoor pools, offering different temperatures and levels of mineral concentration purported to treat a range of various ailments. The largest outdoor pool features concrete chess tables where, largely men, wearing black bathing caps sit in chest-deep water contemplating their next moves.

I spent a couple of hours swimming and enjoying some of the smaller, hotter indoor mineral pools before leaving the chess players, bathers and fitness swimmers to it. It was my last day, so I went to the central market to buy some goose liver pate before heading back and preparing to go to the airport.

Budapest had been a brilliant place to visit, and I was so glad to have prolonged my stay to see more of this central European capital city.

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