Thursday 21st November – Saturday 23rd November 2019

Are you a Buda or a Pest? The question my mum asks me every time I go to Budapest, ok, that’s an exaggeration, I’ve been there once before but pretty sure that was the first message I got from her! To answer the question, after 3 months of traveling and not much exercise I was most certainly borderlining on Buda, and the epic cold I had sure was a pest, so let’s just say I’m somewhere in the middle.

Usually arriving in a new place I’d have the public transport routes sorted to save money but getting to Budapest sick AF I pretty much googled which taxi company wouldn’t rob me and went with them from the airport to my accommodation. With Air BNB accommodation being ridiculous cheap in Hungary (yep, that’s where Budapest is!), I spent the usual cheap skate budget but got pretty impressive digs. Condo with a balcony right on the Danube river. Winning!! So this is an average view cos it’s night and I was giving zero (insert swear word), but you get the idea, pretty cool place!

Getting there at 8ish, a healthy Holly would have dropped the bags and went to explore, sick Holly walked across the road to a dodgy supermarket, found a day old lukewarm schnitzel to eat, ate and went to bed. There was no normal Holly the next day either, having a small stash of Sudafed left from the UK (why I didn’t stock up no idea!) I stayed in bed and tried to convince myself being healthy was more important than exploring Budapest. If I didn’t have a tour of Jordan starting on the Sunday I would have forced my sick and gross arse out of bed but Budapest really was after all a stop off on the way to Jordan. So can’t remember if I mentioned it before but to get to Jordan from London and back it was about $600, that’s flying London to Amman in one hit via Budapest. Or I could get a cheap arse flight for £30 to Budapest, stay a few days on the cheap then get a cheap flight to Amman before the tour starts. Want that one. Just didn’t plan on being sick and spending said short trip in bed, or on the couch, I did switch between the two at some stage during the day. Also took a chance on their version of Uber Eats called Wolt, there were these dumpling noodle things, didn’t realise you also had to order a sauce but did get some goulash, kinda worked together. No photos cos sick remember, apparently I’m in capable of clicking a button when sick.

So the next day, Saturday if you’re still with me, I was determined to see some of Budapest, even if I had to snot my way through it. Was also determined to find medication that could lessen the flow of snot down my face… sometimes you’re just not fast enough. Popping into a chemist, I thought it could be hard to get what I needed due to the language barrier and having to have ID in Australia for the strong shit but based on the look and sound of me the pharmacist knew exactly what I needed. And unlike the cold n flu tablets in Morocco which contained arse, these were jam packed full of pseudoephedrine, hallelujah! But as my mum taught me, if you’re taking strong drugs then you gotta eat so found this weird kinda hot dog at the supermarket, interesting taste but pretty sure my taste buds were MIA and that was the reason it didn’t taste as good as it looked!

Having already mapped out an itinerary in Goggle, I headed to my first stop, and the biggest must do in Budapest, parliament. Yeah, didn’t sound right to me either but apparently Google reckoned this was one of the top tourists attractions in Budapest. For once, Google didn’t lie. The Hungarian Parliament was that word beyond beautiful, no idea what that is but it’s that. Said wow out loud numerous times which when you have a cold sounds more like OW so people may have thought I was in pain…

And where is the parliament? Smack bang on the river so of course it’s surrounded by a million other gorgeous buildings and monuments, kicking myself for wasting a day and for reals saying OW…

Wandering along the Danube as you do on a glorious day, it was pretty after pretty and kick after kick…

Wandering over the bridge I wished I could turn back time because Budapest is so damn pretty and I just spent a day in bed ignoring her… sorry sweet!

Next stop was Fisherman’s Bastion and St Matthias Church. Now if you know me, you know that I’m not a big fan of seafood, mainly the smell, so why go to some Fisherman’s what ya call it?? Well… this place has nothing at all to do with fish, not even on the river’s edge, I’m sure there’s some reason it’s called the Fisherman’s Bastion will google that after you wowser at these gorgeous pics!!!

Yeah so Google tells me it’s called Fishmans Bastion maybe you commemorate the fishman who lived down by the Danube and maybe protected it in times of conflict, but not even google is sure on this one! What makes this place so damn amazing though is the views over the Danube and Budapest, can you get more picture perfect than this??

And what makes this ‘bastion’ super duper special is St Matthias Church standing in the background, or foreground, guess it depends which way you come up. This church is something special, in a completely vein and superficial way, cos it’s so so so pretty! Coloured roof tiles, white limestone, gothic towers and windows, just gorgeous. And I’m being vein because I was feeling so sick and snotty that I didn’t go in cos I felt bad spreading germs in a church, so no idea if this pretty one had an substance.

Having done a fair wander around the streets, cos getting lost is one of my favourite things, my tummy rumbled as it permanently does so I headed to the Christmas markets, thinking I’d be able to find something to eat, boy did I find something!!! Soooo much food. Stuff that I had no idea what it was but by gosh it looked good. One of everything please, except the Rooster Testicles, I’ll pass on those!! Ended up with this plate of deliciousness, some kind of meat and potatoes and ???, spinach I’d say but that green stuff did not taste good, and ended up costing me about $30 too, tourist rates me thinks!!

As far as Christmas markets go, these were pretty damn impressive. I guess Christmas was just over a month away so time to get into the spirit!

Well and truly pooped from just walking and wiping, I was homeward bound and somehow between sitting down to stuff my face and finishing, it had gotten dark and a bit chilly. Perfect for a sickie like me!?!? Although I had planned on being back before dark, kinda glad my plans went astray cos Budapest at night is something else, the whole place lights up and feels like magic! Almost looks like a golden city, and the Fishemans Bastion and church at night, wow!! If I had an ounce of energy left I would have legged it back over the bridge to see the view over Budapest at night from the Bastion, but I didn’t. So here one side of the river lit up like a Christmas tree, a golden one…

Wandering back down the Danube by night, my last stop was something that will be etched in my mind for eternity, the Hungarian Parliament all lit up so spectacularly it takes your breathe away. My crapola iPhone only captured about one hundredth of its brilliance!

Legging it back to the apartment along the river, I have to admit that I did start wandering if maybe I should have known better than to walk along a river at night by myself!! Did another quick stop for full strength cold n flu meds to get me through Jordan and it was back to bed. Really really really wish I’d spent more time exploring Budapest, glad last visit with Kylie we went to the thermal baths, no way they’d let me in in my state, my whole head was a thermal bath of snot!! Anyhoo, taxi booked for 4am the next day and it was good night to me and fingers crossed for a less snotty time in Jordan!!