Three days in Budapest
The first impression when we got off the train at the Budapest Nyugati station and out onto the street was: Big! Pompous! A capital that really lives up to its name. Wide boulevards, beautiful high buildings, a myriad of traffic and people on the move in the hot summer evening. As we were carrying heavy luggage and couldn't bother to find the right bus out to the suburb where we were going to stay, once again we decided to book a Bolt. I've probably become their customer of the month at this point. Both Bolt and Uber are available in every country we've visited, and their service has been a lifesaver on many occasions when we've been in a hurry or too tired to figure out how the local transport system works.
Hungarian Janko and his German husband Marco live in a villa half an hour from central Budapest. Their lovely garden is a little green oasis where they grow vegetables and herbs. As Hugarian laws don't allow same sex marriages (only partnerships), they had to get married in Germany. Both individually and together they have couchsurfed all over the world and here in their home they have received 140 surfers from 46 countries. As a policy, they only accept guests from Europe who travel environmentally friendly - flying just for fun is something they don't want to support.
Just like with our previous hosts, we got some tips on what to see and experience during our visit, but doing Budapest in just two full days is basically impossible. The city is huge and there are a million exciting places to see and especially now, during the summer, an endless number of events going on. We chose to focus on three things:
The train theme. It turned out to be possible to take a ride on the "Children's Railway" where a train, operated by children (ticket sellers, controllers and stints in strict uniforms) along a scenic journey down the lush mountain landscape with an extraordinary view of the city. The children's train was founded in 1948 in communist Hungary where young scouts were given the opportunity to work on board in order to be educated in good work ethics according to the communist ideology. The trip was a great experience and the children really took their assignment very seriously.
Swimming! Hungary is famous for its thermal baths, the most famous of which is the ancient Szechenyi. We went there, but soon discovered that it was both rather expensive and not particularly child-friendly. Instead, we headed to Margaret Island, which also had a large swimming facility that was perfect for both children and adults as well as significantly cheaper. Needless to say, Tim was in paradise. There were a number of swimming pools, fountains, water slides, hot tubs, ice cream parlors and fast food restaurants.
Food! In addition to enjoying a lovely meal at home in the garden with Janko and Marco (vegetarian of course), we took the opportunity to eat Hungarian langos for breakfast in a simple street kitchen (freshly baked and dripping with melted cheese, garlic and sour cream, not for those on a diet ) and chicken paprikash at a restaurant.
Tim also got a haircut at a salon in the hip Jewish quarter while Ylva and I cooled off with a cold Dreher beer. We discovered that there were a lot of fantastically cozy and cool bars here - a perfect place to bar hop for those traveling without children 🥳
During the dinner together with our host couple, we had interesting conversations about our travels to different countries, about the Couchsurfing community, social issues and LGBTQI rights in our respective countries. Being Swedish, you often have a negative preconception about what it's like to be gay in Hungary, but Janko and Marco did not find it problematic at all to be a same-sex couple and said they hadn't come across any obvious homophobia in society.
Early on Wednesday morning it was time for us to once again put on our backpacks and head out on the rails again. Thank you Janko and Marko for your hospitality and the interesting conversations we shared
❤️🩷🧡💛💚💙
Next stop: Ljubljana 😍