If there was one good thing about us having to stay in Budapest for one more week, it was the fact that we could leave our Hotel Ibis for something more central and classy. So we were rather happy to check out of our hotel this Saturday morning.
OK, so the flip-side of the coin was that it was Saturday, and we had to go to the office again. We were, after all, here to work, rather than enjoy ourselves, right? ;-) Anyway, after "another day at the office", our Hungarian associates were kind enough to take us out for a meal to, as Kamillo, one of our hosts put it: "a restaurant for programmers, not managers". Sounds like my kind of place ;-) So The place (located on the Buda side, where we had not yet ventured) was indeed excellent. Good, hearty Hungarian dishes for rather reasonable prices. And plenty of beer to go with it ;-)
After the meal, we headed to the hotel - which I confirm was a rather classy affair - Continental Hotel Zara. It's located in an impressive, almost scarily Gothic historic building, which to house one of the most prestigious spas in Budapest. The rooms were rather classy compared to what we had in the Ibis hotel. There was even a spa at the rooftop. So pretty darn classy, then! Needless to say, it was way out of the budget range for our travel policy (but I think seeing as we had to stay for one week more, a gesture like this was the least they could do).
Anyway, enough about the hotel - I had beer to drink! The plan was to meet an old mate from Guildford, England for a few drinks at his favourite haunt, at Gozsdu Udvar. Gozsdu Udvar is a kind of covered pedestrian street, filled with bars and restaurants. It kind of summarizes why Budapest is such a great place to go out and have fun. Steve, who moved to Hungary a few years ago, certainly seems to have acclimatized well to his life in Budapest! (he even gets a discount at the bar we went to!). Needless to say, we had quite a few beers catching up on the good old times in Guildford ;-)
I woke up on Sunday, kind of surprised to find I didn't even had a bad headache ;-). After a rather classy breakfast at our classy hotel, I met up with D.B. and Philippe to head out for a bit of a walk. A bit of a walk indeed, as we decided to walk all the way across to Buda to pick up the car, which we'd left by the restaurant the day before (drinking and driving is a bad idea in Hungary - they have a zero promille limit for that!).
We (or at least I was!) were once again struck by what a pretty city Budapest is. The Pest side has managed to retain pretty much all its historic buildings, and these days (unlike 20 years ago, when I first came here), they are in a pretty good state of repair. Still, Budapest still has still retained enough of it's exotic post-communist charm (not sure that's the right word for it) to be a pretty refreshing and different place to visit compared to Western European cities, which can sometimes be boringly similar.
Where Budapest is at its most beautiful is, of course, by the Danube river. On a sunny day like today, Budapest really looked stunning as seen from the Margit bridge. The Pest side is, of course, dominated by the stunning Parliament building. And on the Buda side, the beautiful Castle Hill, which groups a lot of the Buda side's historic attractions (including, of course, the castle). We walked across to the Buda side, and walked up towards Castle hill.
Our walk first took us up to the fisherman's bastion. The fisherman's bastion is a rather fancy terrace constructed next to the Matthias church. The viewing platform with its 7 towers (representing the seven Magyar tribes that originally came to Hungary) is so named after the guild of fisherman that was responsible for defending this stretch of the city walls during medieval times. The views from up there towards the Danube river are rather stunning.
After checking out the impressive Gothic Matthias church (we didn't go inside, as there was an entrance fee...), we carried on along castle hill to the castle. Again, we didn't really have time to visit, so just admired the impressive exterior, and the continued beautiful views over the Danube.
We continued our scenic walk by passing through the Citadel, which is located on top of Gellert Hill. It's a rather interesting military structure dating back to the 19th century - looks like something that could've been built by Vauban. From there, we finished our Buda-Danube side walk at the famous Art Nouveau Gellert Hotel - a luxury hotel known for its spa (which I visited when I came here about 20 years ago). The hotel looks a wee bit run down actually, even if it's still a sight to behold.
From there, a 20 minute or so walk down a rather nondescript boulevard brought us back to the car. After a spot of shopping in a shopping mall (the hotel laundry service wasn't available during the weekend, and at least I was out of clean underwear!), we headed back to the hotel for lunch. We picked a nice burger restaurant called Tuning Bar & Burgers. As the name suggests, they specialize in burgers - and some excellent ones at that! Yummie.
The rest of the day we spent chilling out - I took the opportunity to do a bit of swimming in the roof top pool. A bit of sport was just what I needed !
For dinner, we headed to a nearby garden restaurant - where we once again had rather excellent food. I must say, that the Budapest culinary offering has rather improved over the years. And it's still great value for money!
OK, so the flip-side of the coin was that it was Saturday, and we had to go to the office again. We were, after all, here to work, rather than enjoy ourselves, right? ;-) Anyway, after "another day at the office", our Hungarian associates were kind enough to take us out for a meal to, as Kamillo, one of our hosts put it: "a restaurant for programmers, not managers". Sounds like my kind of place ;-) So The place (located on the Buda side, where we had not yet ventured) was indeed excellent. Good, hearty Hungarian dishes for rather reasonable prices. And plenty of beer to go with it ;-)
After the meal, we headed to the hotel - which I confirm was a rather classy affair - Continental Hotel Zara. It's located in an impressive, almost scarily Gothic historic building, which to house one of the most prestigious spas in Budapest. The rooms were rather classy compared to what we had in the Ibis hotel. There was even a spa at the rooftop. So pretty darn classy, then! Needless to say, it was way out of the budget range for our travel policy (but I think seeing as we had to stay for one week more, a gesture like this was the least they could do).Anyway, enough about the hotel - I had beer to drink! The plan was to meet an old mate from Guildford, England for a few drinks at his favourite haunt, at Gozsdu Udvar. Gozsdu Udvar is a kind of covered pedestrian street, filled with bars and restaurants. It kind of summarizes why Budapest is such a great place to go out and have fun. Steve, who moved to Hungary a few years ago, certainly seems to have acclimatized well to his life in Budapest! (he even gets a discount at the bar we went to!). Needless to say, we had quite a few beers catching up on the good old times in Guildford ;-)
The rest of the day we spent chilling out - I took the opportunity to do a bit of swimming in the roof top pool. A bit of sport was just what I needed !
For dinner, we headed to a nearby garden restaurant - where we once again had rather excellent food. I must say, that the Budapest culinary offering has rather improved over the years. And it's still great value for money!
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