Budapest – Two Cities, Double Beauty

The Hungarian capital Budapest unites the cities Buda and Pest, together with Óbuda. It was once called the “Queen of the Danube” thanks to one of the longest European rivers that runs through it and divides Pesta from Buda.

Buda was the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Hungary. Since 1873. it is an integral part of Budapest and lies on the west bank of the Danube. Buda is often referenced to „the old town of Budapest“. Interesting landmarks include the grand Buda Castle, the Citadella, and Hungary’s president’s residence Sándor Palace. A 19th-century Chain Bridge connects the hilly Buda district with flat Pest – the eastern part of Budapest. Among its most notable parts are the Inner City, including the Hungarian Parliament, Heroes’ Square and Andrássy Avenue.

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if you like great food, variety of coffee places or just plain old going out on the town – then Budapest is the city for you

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Last year we were there for a weekend. It was my first time in this beautiful city. Even though Budapest is very close to Zagreb (about 2 hours by car), I’ve never seemed to find time to visit. This time J and I decided to go somewhere just for the weekend. We were deciding between Prague, Bratislava or Budapest. Budapest won the ‘battle’ just because it was the closest to Zagreb, so we didn’t have to lose too much time on traveling. Even though I don’t travel as much as I would like to (who does? ), I’ve done a fair bit of traveling so far. Without a shred of doubt I can tell you that Budapest should be a city in your travel book. It has changed so much in the last decade and in a good way. It offers so many interesting sights, things to experience and taste. Our weekend was, definitely, too short to see everything.

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the history of this city is just remarkable and you can see it in every brick of it

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We rented a beautiful airbnb apartment at Pesta. It was situated only a few house numbers away from one the most popular ruin bars in Budapest (I have to say this was a lucky coincidence). Our mornings started with a breakfast at Szimpla bar. Definitely a place to recommend, good food and good coffee for a great price. The „Szimpla Kert“ is basically an old factory converted into a huge open-air cinema and pub. At night, this is a very popular place to go out (they have great cocktails). During the day we tried to see some of the most famous Budapest sightseeing attractions like the Parliament House, Fisherman’s Bastion, St. Stephen’s Basilica, Buda Castle Hill, Szechenyi Chain Bridge … the history of this city is just remarkable and you can see it in every brick of it.

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we finished our road trip, stopping at the “Hungarian Sea” – Lake Balaton

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Usually we don’t have a detailed plan what to see when we travel somewhere new. We like to read about the city and have one or two sights to see a day and the rest of the day we like to just explore. As you are going to see in the video (I couldn’t fit everything into a blog ) and in the images, this city appears to have been made for photographers. Wherever you turn, there would be something interesting to photograph. Needless to say, I came home with too many images . We finished our road trip, stopping at the “Hungarian Sea” – Lake Balaton, which is the largest lake in Central Europe and a big tourist attraction in Hungary. We were practically alone there because we were there during off season. The weather was a bit gloomy but a perfect end of our road trip.

Enjoy the photos and video, my darlings 🙂

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