Buda with the Best

Punny, right? It was the great quest to conquer all the sites of Budapest with my best friend in one weekend.

If you were wondering if it rained or snow every second we were in Budapest, you are correct. But hey, it didn’t stop us one bit from visiting every last place on our list.  Our flight landed and our first order of business was food! (Also, might I add our flight was literally filled of 20 somethings all standing up and mingling. Quite the party plane I tell you.) Dinner was filled with salads and salmon. When asked about dessert we asked to order an entire pan of vegetables. How typical of us. 

After dinner we wandered about a few of the ruin pubs. These places are insane. A million rooms, crazy decorations, winding staircases. Quite the scene. Then after a bit of wandering (in circles) and figuring out which way to finally hold the map we finally found the Chain Bridge! The main event of the night! After (quickly) taking in all the lights, water, and Parliament, we called it a night due to our no longer waterproof coats and soaking wet feet.

Saturday morning we woke up in our hostel to a lovely breakfast to start the day. By the way, we really lucked out on our hostel, huge fan of it. Anywhere that can make a bed out of plywood and it make me want to comment on how nice it looks gets major points in my book. Job well done Avenue Hostel, job well done. 

After a lot of tea and coffee we put on our warmest clothes and big puffy coats and set out for the day. We wanted to head back to the Chain Bridge to see it in the daylight and cross to explore the Buda side a bit. 

Funny how different a city can look from day to night. 

Hey, look! My good lion friends from Trafalgar Square back home have twins!

Even through the rain and cold this place is still beautiful and has quite the charm about it. There is also something so special about getting to travel with your best friend of 14 years or so. So many long talks, laughs, and crying over how much we love this life we get to live.

After wandering a few bridges down we headed to a large indoor market filled with fresh fruit and vegetables, trinkets, and some great Hungarian food. Goodness I love a good market. Although, I don’t recommend the purchase of apples. Apparently they are only served mushy in Budapest. Womp womp. 

I do whole heartily support the Hungarian’s love of paprika. 

Lunch is served. 

After lunch we headed back to the hostel to dry off, sip some tea, listen to Kate Nash, and (accidentally) take a nap. Naturally we needed to relax before going to relax at the Szechenyi Baths. If you ever find yourself in Budapest you simply must go to the thermal baths. Rumor has it the Szechenyi Baths are over a 100 years old and there are 18 in total at just this one. It was rainy and freezing outside yet the water was so warm. They even had a little whirl pool to circle about. It does take a mental pep talk in order to get yourself from the pool to the door to get back inside though. I advise running.  

The rest of the evening was spent at the hostel with new friends and visiting some of the ruin pubs! Sunday morning the rain turned into snow! We had just enough time to make our way back over to the Buda side up to Fisherman’s Bastion where it was the most lovely thing your eyes could see. White snowflakes were falling and covering the trees and pastel colored buildings and the sky was grey yet still bright. 

It truly was the perfect way to end our weekend. The view was to die for and the snow was the sweetest of gifts. 

Hope, traveling with you is quite the adventure. From fourth grade until now I’d say we are killing it. I also truly love getting to see people’s reactions to our whole “best friends since we were 10, lived on separate coasts, maid of honor in my wedding, now just so happen to both live in London” story we have going on. It is a good one.

Our last stop was this little cafe we stumbled upon that was ever so cozy and apparently super historic for a cup of coffee before biding Budapest farewell.

Budapest was such a dream, even through the rain and snow. There’s also something so special about getting to travel, learn, explore, and meet new friends with someone who has known you for so long. Hope and I are a lot alike in terms of traveling and randomly tearing up because we are just so happy. I’d say we make one heck of a travel duo.