Budapest With Friends On a Tight Budget!
This past Friday and Saturday I was with my friends from my German class in Budapest, Hungary. I can certainly tell you that it was more fun then I had imagined. We three have become each others foundation in the living far away from our homes but we all have different countries that we call home, so it makes traveling together certainly interesting.
Transportation:
We spent around 50€ for two days in Budapest, that is including the wonderful Hostel we stayed in for one night and also public transport. We went from Vienna to Budapest since it is only a 3 hour drive away. There are many buslines in Europe which makes traveling around easier, the busline we used was Orange Ways and found that to be the cheapest one for round ticket it costed 22€ and I do believe if you have larger bags it costs 1€ per bag. Since we had a very short stay we only had backpacks.
The Hostel:
We stayed in a very quaint and homey hostal Paprika Hostel it was inexpensive, perfect for backpackers and more of a social younger crowd. If you don't like to socialize or want a normal hotel feeling this is certainly not the place for you. Of coarse no matter where you stay you will find the pros and cons. This hostel is not big and certainly is trying their hardest to make you feel like you are home with a bunch of friends. I know there are tons of hostels everywhere but if you are on a tight budget and wish not to feel so alone and get to meet some really nice people I would highly reccomend you this hostel. We not only got to talk to people from all over the world but it was a wonderful atmosphere everynight they had an activity going on. You could choose to go or not completely up to you but it would be a good way to get around and see some local hotspots. As a young female tourist I will say Budapest is not Vienna and is not as safe at night, so it gives you something to do at night and giving you some peace of mind that you are in a group. The owner of the hostel is very sweet and from 8:30-11:00 will make you personally breakfast as long as it is on their small list to pick from. It is very clean, and suprisingly everyone washed their own dishes like it is asked when you dirty a dish. So no nasty looking kitchens with a pile of dirty dishes no one is wanting to touch.
Now for the small down falls to the hostel. I am very much a laid back person and takes things as they come and try not to become over concerned about anything. But one of my friends seemed to be slightly not into the whole hostel thing, she mentioned a few times how it is possiable to find an equally cheap hotel. So for the things I saw and also saw through her eyes that were downfalls.
-3 Bathrooms all with showers and toilets, no seperate rooms for just a shower or toilets which make it difficult when you just want to brush your teeth or the quick things you need to do in the morning. Specially when there was more than 25 people living all together so mornings made it pretty tough to brush my teeth. Because I don't know about my readers but everyone wants to take a shower in the morning. I don't get it, I would have thought between dinner and bedtime the bathrooms would be packed for showers since everyone is out and touring. Word of advice wake up at 8 and everyone is still sleeping.
-If your language is not a popular spoken one it makes it difficult speaking the common language of English and if you are shy will make you not such a sociable person.
-If you are a person that goes to bed early or want to get to sleep early since you plan on getting up before 9 most everyone is still up watching a movie or talking at normal volume until 12-12:30.
Experience:
Budapest was a wonderful city to visit and on a budget under 75€ for two days. We got to see a lot of the city and for us we all agreed the Buda side (the old side of the city) was certainly better than Pest. Pest had its beauty as well, the Parliment, Cathedrals, Central Market Hall, Museums, Parks, and even thermal baths! Thermal baths are a big thing in Budapest since they are well known for them, and it is all natural did I mention it is CHEAP?! Around 20€ all day long!
I had certainly a wonderful time walking around Budapest and letting the city being discovered. I am strong believer in going on a vacation and not trying to jam a million sites in but rather knowing where a few places are and letting the city be explored rather than mapped and planned too much. I don't like to really feel like I have to go crazy with running around like a chicken to make sure that I can have a photo of some statue that I probably won't look at much when I am back home. Budapest had places to see everywhere and when you get down to it, 3-4 days wouldn't be enough to do and see everything anyways. Afterwards I wished we could stop in a place for a pedicure and just ask them for only rubbing my sore feet before getting back on the bus. We did a lot of sight seeing and eating a lot of Hungarian food.
For me I was so excited to finally eat some Hungarian food once again, since my Grandparents are Hungarian and cook wonderful dishes. Since I have lived in Vienna I haven't made much or not really searched for any resturants serving Hungarian cuisine. So knowing what I was missing and haven't eaten for almost a year I was ready to get my fill to scratch the itch. Which leads to the next topic....Resturants.
Resturants:
So we only had limited money and limited time so that meant not too many food stops but enough!
The first one we went to was well a Thai-Hungarian resturant. Had mostly asian food and the only thing I considered Hungarian was the Goulash, since I think schnitzel, grilled chicken with dried tomatoes and mozzerela and NOT traditional Hungarian dishes. We thought it would be okay even though the cuisines were a very weird combination but a guy at the hostel had reccomended it to us. The next time we asked the owner of the hostel she reccomended us a very chich resturant that we looked at and thought we are not going to afford this, most everybody there was dressed slightly nicer and there was a 30 minute wait. We looked at the menu to figure out it was not expensive, but around the same prices of a menu at any fastfood joint. The resturant had a lot of traditional dishes and not only was it very modern looking it was close to a park area and alot of other resturants and at night with all the street lights it would have also made a romantic place for dinner. The name of this tasty resturant that on my highly reccomended list is MENZA I would certainly go back if I visited Budapest again. Another high light was it was not too far away from our hostel.
The next day we went to find some souvenirs with fun flair. The Central Market Hall was not only a good place to find cheap souvenirs but good and cheap lunch! Ontop of that they had it all typical Hungarian eats that is! My one friend has never eaten a Langos before and since we live in Vienna I was slightly suprised since in the Wiener Prater you can find Langos and in most Christmas Markets during the month of December. In Vienna we have only it one way, LARGE and smothered with buttery garlic. In the market we visited there was a long list of all kinds of langos from sweet to a wierd sandwhich. Langos is simply a type of flatbread that can sometimes have a doughnut sweetness fried and then a load of toppings.
TIPS:
When in Budapest there are a few things you need to know!
-Watch your pockets and purses!
-Find a map normally in a hostel they can provide free maps that help a lot!
-Keep a small calculator in your pocket or purse so you can figure out quickly how something costs.
-Buy Hungarian Forints!
-You can sometimes pay with Euros but it will be more expensive if you do so, and alot of places won't except Euros.
-Don't exchange money on the streets it IS ILLEGAL!
-Don't change your money in a bank! They will tell you to go to an exchange desk nearby since it is less expensive there to exchange euros in a bank is possiable but the rates are horriable.
-When buying transport tickets buy the 10 rides (one way) it will be 1,550 HUF and it works out cheaper than 350 for one ticket. The 24 hour ticket is extremely expensive and I would advise not to buy that since it is not completly worth it.
-Shopping is very cheap in Hungary so enjoy! For me when I went to the market was where I could find good sausages and Paprika powder for nothing compared to Vienna.
More Photos!
So I hope to all my dear readers that you have Happy Travels and enjoy where ever you might be.
 |
| At the Parliment with the Danube behind us. |
We spent around 50€ for two days in Budapest, that is including the wonderful Hostel we stayed in for one night and also public transport. We went from Vienna to Budapest since it is only a 3 hour drive away. There are many buslines in Europe which makes traveling around easier, the busline we used was Orange Ways and found that to be the cheapest one for round ticket it costed 22€ and I do believe if you have larger bags it costs 1€ per bag. Since we had a very short stay we only had backpacks.
 |
| Parliment |
We stayed in a very quaint and homey hostal Paprika Hostel it was inexpensive, perfect for backpackers and more of a social younger crowd. If you don't like to socialize or want a normal hotel feeling this is certainly not the place for you. Of coarse no matter where you stay you will find the pros and cons. This hostel is not big and certainly is trying their hardest to make you feel like you are home with a bunch of friends. I know there are tons of hostels everywhere but if you are on a tight budget and wish not to feel so alone and get to meet some really nice people I would highly reccomend you this hostel. We not only got to talk to people from all over the world but it was a wonderful atmosphere everynight they had an activity going on. You could choose to go or not completely up to you but it would be a good way to get around and see some local hotspots. As a young female tourist I will say Budapest is not Vienna and is not as safe at night, so it gives you something to do at night and giving you some peace of mind that you are in a group. The owner of the hostel is very sweet and from 8:30-11:00 will make you personally breakfast as long as it is on their small list to pick from. It is very clean, and suprisingly everyone washed their own dishes like it is asked when you dirty a dish. So no nasty looking kitchens with a pile of dirty dishes no one is wanting to touch.
-3 Bathrooms all with showers and toilets, no seperate rooms for just a shower or toilets which make it difficult when you just want to brush your teeth or the quick things you need to do in the morning. Specially when there was more than 25 people living all together so mornings made it pretty tough to brush my teeth. Because I don't know about my readers but everyone wants to take a shower in the morning. I don't get it, I would have thought between dinner and bedtime the bathrooms would be packed for showers since everyone is out and touring. Word of advice wake up at 8 and everyone is still sleeping.
-If your language is not a popular spoken one it makes it difficult speaking the common language of English and if you are shy will make you not such a sociable person.
-If you are a person that goes to bed early or want to get to sleep early since you plan on getting up before 9 most everyone is still up watching a movie or talking at normal volume until 12-12:30.
Experience:
Budapest was a wonderful city to visit and on a budget under 75€ for two days. We got to see a lot of the city and for us we all agreed the Buda side (the old side of the city) was certainly better than Pest. Pest had its beauty as well, the Parliment, Cathedrals, Central Market Hall, Museums, Parks, and even thermal baths! Thermal baths are a big thing in Budapest since they are well known for them, and it is all natural did I mention it is CHEAP?! Around 20€ all day long!
I had certainly a wonderful time walking around Budapest and letting the city being discovered. I am strong believer in going on a vacation and not trying to jam a million sites in but rather knowing where a few places are and letting the city be explored rather than mapped and planned too much. I don't like to really feel like I have to go crazy with running around like a chicken to make sure that I can have a photo of some statue that I probably won't look at much when I am back home. Budapest had places to see everywhere and when you get down to it, 3-4 days wouldn't be enough to do and see everything anyways. Afterwards I wished we could stop in a place for a pedicure and just ask them for only rubbing my sore feet before getting back on the bus. We did a lot of sight seeing and eating a lot of Hungarian food.
 |
| Central Hall Market |
For me I was so excited to finally eat some Hungarian food once again, since my Grandparents are Hungarian and cook wonderful dishes. Since I have lived in Vienna I haven't made much or not really searched for any resturants serving Hungarian cuisine. So knowing what I was missing and haven't eaten for almost a year I was ready to get my fill to scratch the itch. Which leads to the next topic....Resturants.
 |
| One of the many meat stands in the market. |
So we only had limited money and limited time so that meant not too many food stops but enough!
The first one we went to was well a Thai-Hungarian resturant. Had mostly asian food and the only thing I considered Hungarian was the Goulash, since I think schnitzel, grilled chicken with dried tomatoes and mozzerela and NOT traditional Hungarian dishes. We thought it would be okay even though the cuisines were a very weird combination but a guy at the hostel had reccomended it to us. The next time we asked the owner of the hostel she reccomended us a very chich resturant that we looked at and thought we are not going to afford this, most everybody there was dressed slightly nicer and there was a 30 minute wait. We looked at the menu to figure out it was not expensive, but around the same prices of a menu at any fastfood joint. The resturant had a lot of traditional dishes and not only was it very modern looking it was close to a park area and alot of other resturants and at night with all the street lights it would have also made a romantic place for dinner. The name of this tasty resturant that on my highly reccomended list is MENZA I would certainly go back if I visited Budapest again. Another high light was it was not too far away from our hostel.
 |
| Eating Langos and Chatting with some people |
The next day we went to find some souvenirs with fun flair. The Central Market Hall was not only a good place to find cheap souvenirs but good and cheap lunch! Ontop of that they had it all typical Hungarian eats that is! My one friend has never eaten a Langos before and since we live in Vienna I was slightly suprised since in the Wiener Prater you can find Langos and in most Christmas Markets during the month of December. In Vienna we have only it one way, LARGE and smothered with buttery garlic. In the market we visited there was a long list of all kinds of langos from sweet to a wierd sandwhich. Langos is simply a type of flatbread that can sometimes have a doughnut sweetness fried and then a load of toppings.
When in Budapest there are a few things you need to know!
-Watch your pockets and purses!
-Find a map normally in a hostel they can provide free maps that help a lot!
-Keep a small calculator in your pocket or purse so you can figure out quickly how something costs.
-Buy Hungarian Forints!
-You can sometimes pay with Euros but it will be more expensive if you do so, and alot of places won't except Euros.
-Don't exchange money on the streets it IS ILLEGAL!
-Don't change your money in a bank! They will tell you to go to an exchange desk nearby since it is less expensive there to exchange euros in a bank is possiable but the rates are horriable.
-When buying transport tickets buy the 10 rides (one way) it will be 1,550 HUF and it works out cheaper than 350 for one ticket. The 24 hour ticket is extremely expensive and I would advise not to buy that since it is not completly worth it.
-Shopping is very cheap in Hungary so enjoy! For me when I went to the market was where I could find good sausages and Paprika powder for nothing compared to Vienna.
More Photos!
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| My Favorite part of our trip! |
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| The Chained Bridge. |
So I hope to all my dear readers that you have Happy Travels and enjoy where ever you might be.
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