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40 In Hungary/ travel

how I made the most of 3 days in Budapest

Heroes Square on sunny day in Budapest. Blue skies.

Where to even start with this one oh my lord.  I had the best time, in one of the best places I’ve ever been, with my best friend.  Could just leave it there tbh.

Like that’s gonna happen. 🙂  Probably one of my most photo heavy posts ever, just a warning!  Couldn’t help but photograph everything in this place.  Since this was only my first time visiting Budapest I wouldn’t consider myself nearly qualified to write a guide or anything, so I’m gonna go with a ‘Diary Plus A Few Pointers For Other First Timers‘ as my not so catchy title.  I’ve included both Hungarian and English names of everywhere we visited too, in the hope that I can save anyone else the confusion of figuring out whether 2 different names are actually the same place!

hm-floral-skater-dress

Despite our many hours of Pinterest and travel blog browsing, we decided not to bother with a fixed itinerary.  Didn’t want to feel like we were following a military regime tbh.  Obviously we had a vague idea of the sights we couldn’t possibly leave Budapest without seeing, but the ‘go with the flow’ approach suited us just fine.  It gave us some very random experiences, that’s for sure!

star-of-david

Dohány Street Great Synagogue

OK so this one hadn’t actually been on our vague list, but we found ourselves walking past it on our first morning and thought why not.  And I’m glad we did. 🙂  Obviously from outside the synagogue’s ridiculously impressive (largest synagogue in Europe, don’t you know!) but we weren’t actually allowed inside the main church part as our skirts were too short.  Wandering around the gardens and nosying in the museum was still a good call though.  We’d both said beforehand that we wanted to visit the places that tell part of the story of Budapest’s past as well as the ‘pretty’ places, and this hit the nail on the head.  Just seeing the number of names displayed on the memorials was quite the humbling (and worthwhile) experience.  Looked around in silence for a little while there.

memorial-at-great-synagogue

happy-selfie

Szabadság híd / Liberty Bridge

Another place we hadn’t actually intended to visit – getting an idea of our sense of direction yet?  Our ‘plan’ had involved walking to the Széchenyi Chain Bridge and exploring Buda from there, but on reaching the Danube we found ourselves at a bridge that didn’t look like the one in our guidebook.  Yep, we totally were the cringey tourists walking around with a mini guidebook and foldout map.  No cares given. 🙂  Now for the daft / fortunate move – assuming that we’d gone too far north, when we’d actually gone too far south.  Only realised this later, of course!  Cue a very long round trip along the Danube.  Which turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because we probably wouldn’t have made the trip over to Liberty bridge otherwise, and I’m really glad we did.  There are far worse walks to find yourself on!  Our feet would probably have thanked us for taking the metro, but nope, we kept walking as they passed.

liberty-bridge-budapest

cave-church-budapest

Sziklatemplom / Gellért Hill Cave Church

Now this, THIS, was up there with my most random experiences.  And I’ve had some bloody random ones in my life, I tell you.  Bearing in mind by this point we were still bemused by the lack of funicular to take us up the hill (thinking we’d headed for Széchenyi bridge), we hadn’t the faintest idea what a Sziklatemplom was.  Our knowledge of  Hungarian is what you’d call nonexistent, btw.  Still clueless, we walked in, paid the few hundred Forints, were handed a pair of audio headsets and a large tea towel thingy for me to cover my bare shoulders with, and were sent off into a cave.  Or precisely, an actual church inside an actual cave.  Inside an actual hill.  With actual people deep in prayer inside.  Our headsets didn’t work, so we hadn’t the faintest idea of the history of the place, but we gave a few token nods anyway.  Definitely a unique experience – I’m not religious, but if I was, I can’t really think of a cooler place to worship.  The most bizarre part though?  The speakers dotted around, playing Snow Patrol on repeat.  ‘If I lay here’ just seemed a little out of place. 😛

statue-near-liberty-bridge-budapest

solo-parking

No particular attraction here.  Just a cool #soloparking spot.

budapest-parliament-viewed-from-buda

funicular-to-buda-castle

Castle Hill Funicular

Several thousands steps on the pedometer app later, we finally made it to the funicular and up Castle Hill.  We saw a hell of a lot of the Danube that first day – unplanned but definitely not a bad thing!  Scaling the hill via funicular was a fab way to cheat the climb and see amazinggg views of the city.  With a little added novelty value too, of course.

view-of-szechenyi-chain-bridge

Buda Castle and Matthias Church

One of the most touristy spots we visited, and you can see why.   Stunning or what?  Strangely for me I didn’t actually take many photos here – too busy just meandering around and taking it all in.  If we’d been in Budapest for longer (or planned our time more efficiently) we’d definitely have visited the Hungarian National Gallery whilst up there too, but for our first trip just admiring from the outside was enough.

buda-castle

overlooking-budapest-from-buda-castle

tourists-in-budapest

happy-tourist-selfie

exploring-streets-of-budapest

Mistake no.2 of our day: taking the funicular back down from Buda Castle, only to get a little lost en route to the Fisherman’s Bastion and land ourselves with a hell of a hike back up the hill again.  At least it felt like a hike 13km into our day, anyway!  So.  Many.  Steps.  I feel like all this walking gave us a real feel for the city though, so don’t regret it at all.  For a capital city with so many tourist hotspots the streets were noticeably calm and clean.  Budapest felt like a city with lots going on, lots of fun, and lots of beauty to see, but without the suffocating feeling of a capital like London.  Felt like everybody had space to breathe, and I liked that.  Budapest’s vibes were right up my alley.

fishermans-bastion-disney-castle

Halászbástya / Fisherman’s Bastion

The steps were worth it!  Fisherman’s Bastion literally looked like something straight out of a Disney movie.  A close second to Buda Castle for the most touristy place.  Unsurprisingly.  Everybody wanted that same photo through the arch windows lol.  I can only imagine how magical it must be at sunset.

fishermans-bastion-window

taking-photos-at-fishermans-bastion

cafe-at-fishermans-bastion

Don’t think I’ve seen a sweeter cafe with a better view in my life.

outfit-for-exploring-budapest

I just wore dresses all week, which was definitely the right decision.  Temperatures were around 25-28 degree every day so anything too clingy or heavy like denim would have just felt yucky.  Shoes-wise I could have made better choices, but I’ll know for next time!  This dress was from H&M a couple of months ago.

szechenyi-chain-bridge

End of day 1!  By the time we’d made it back down the bajillion steps, past the lions, and across to our apartment in Pest, ain’t no way we had enough energy to head out again so called it a day.  A very good day at that. 🙂

city-break-outfit

Városliget / City Park

Another observation on Budapest: 50% of buildings look like castles.  4 brick walls doesn’t cut it round these parts.  We took the scenic route to the Széchenyi baths through City Park and past another couple of museums and various photogenic backgrounds.  I’ll take all of my OOTDs in front of castle-like buildings from now on, please.

red-balcony-bikini

Széchenyi Thermal Baths

No first time trip to Budapest would’ve been complete without a dip in the baths.  In the ‘city of baths’ we had plenty to choose from, but couldn’t help make the iconic Széchenyi ones the top of our list.  If pushed to choose, I’d say this was one of the highlights!  Once we’d eventually found our way to the outdoor pools (the indoor part is one hell of a maze, I tell you) we grabbed ourselves a locker, popped the phones and cameras away for a few hours, and just chilled.  It was perfect.  The beaut setting, the 37 degree water, the sun on our backs, chats about life with my best friend, ahh.  One of my favourite afternoons ever, seriously.  Obviously it was busy given that it’s July, but again, it didn’t feel crowded.

budapest-thermal-baths

white-lace-dress

heroes-square-budapest

Heroes Square

After realising we were only minutes from Heroes Square we decided we might as well tick some more sightseeing off the list on our way home, and weren’t disappointed.  I’ve seen a million and one photos of the landmark on Pinterest, but was surprised by how big it was in real life!  Somehow the scale doesn’t quite come across in photos – this momument is huge.  It’s a UNESCO world heritage site, of course it’s impressive.

hair-in-wind

new-look-beach-ag

Gotta love golden hour and an impressive backdrop. 🙂

andrassy-ut

Andrássy út / Andrássy Avenue

OK so we didn’t actually hit the main boutiques and whatnot of Andrássy Avenue, but even just the little section we did stroll along on our way home was cute beyond belief.  My fave thing?  The way locals were just relaxing with a book on the benches, and the whole vibe was so luxurious and calm.  Oh and it made for some good nosying.  City house goals, omg.

szimpla-kert

Szimpla Kert

Since we’d taken it slower and actually had energy in our bodies by 8pm this time, we listened to all the recommendations and made for the ruin bars on Wednesday night.  I’d heard Szimpla Kert was one of the best and it was fairly near, so that decision was an easy one!  More on the food and drinks in another post, but here’s a snap of our seat for the night:

car-at-szimpla-kert

Right by the Trabant car in the middle of the bar.  Standard stuff.  Ruin bars seem like the kind of place where literally anything goes.  Nothing matches, nothing is ordinary, you’re half inside and half outside, people are from all over the world.  We just bloody loved it tbh.  Still quite bemused by the girl walking around offering everybody raw carrots though…

I’m gonna skim over the part where we giddily walked home, ate Snickers flavoured ice cream, bought a couple of dirt cheap margaritas from a convenience shop, and crashed out on the sofa.  Onwards to day 3!

central-market-hall-budapest

Nagyvásárcsarnok / Great Market Hall

Being the dimwits we are, we didn’t realise that we’d practically walked past here on our first day.  Smart, huh?  A few words to summarise these epic markets: vegetables, paprika, sausages, and smocks.  With many other bits and pieces too, of course.  Don’t think I’ve ever seen so much fruit and veg in one place in my life.  These markets were huge!  Very clean, tidy and organised though.

metro-2-budapest

Metro along the Danube

The one form of transport we took in Budapest other than our own 2 feet.  Besides the airport taxi, ofc.  Taking metro 2 gave a whistlestop tour along the Danube and cost about £1.20 each.  Win win.

margaret-island-outfit

Margitsziget / Margaret Island

Budapest is full of parks so we could have taken our picnic anywhere, but we fancied checking out Margaret Island so wandered around a little, found a bench, and parked ourselves for a couple of hours.  What a pretty place for a picnic it was.

architecture-budapest

Hungarian Parliament Building

Think I genuinely can let the photos do the talking for this one!  We didn’t take any of the tours to see inside this mahoosive building, but the outside was grand enough.

parliament-building-budapest

hungarian-flag

shoes-on-the-denube

Shoes on the Danube

Another sight Saskia and I both felt we really needed to visit.  We’ve both learnt about the war and the holocaust in history lessons many times, but there’s something different about visiting the exact places where you know people were shot to death.  Just kinda sat there and thought for a while really.  Mainly about how it’s horrific that massacres like this happened in the past, of course, but it’s horrific that they’re still happening today too.  Similar memorials could be made in Baghdad, Orlando, Brussels and god knows where else, just from 2016.  Scary stuff.

st-stephens-basilica

Szent Istvan Bazilika / St. Stephen’s Basilica

What a beauty.  Don’t think there’s an angle of this cathedral that isn’t ridiculously impressive.  Perfect way to round up our sightseeing before a final evening in the ruin bars again.

st-stephens-basilica

If you’re wondering why the flip there’s no food included in this roundup, fear not – I have a whole ‘nother post dedicated to the eats and drinks coming your way.

Budapest you gave me all the feels, thank ya.  I want to go back already.

lily kate x

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40 Comments

  • Reply
    Emily Underworld
    10th July 2016 at 4:12 pm

    Budapest looks so lovely, I want to visit one day! I have a friend who lives there, she always tells me to come and visit. Your photos look amazing, I’ll remember to check back on this post if I ever go.
    – Emily from http://www.emilyunderworld.co.uk

    • Reply
      lily kate
      11th July 2016 at 8:15 am

      I can assure you it was! Go for it, you have the perfect excuse to visit. 🙂
      Thank you! I really made an effort to capture the best photos I could so it’s great to know they’re noticed 🙂

  • Reply
    Sarah Mullaney
    10th July 2016 at 4:29 pm

    Wow Budapest looks so great and magical with all the castle like buildings. It’s amazing how much you saw in three days too; really makes me want to go on a city break and explore somewhere new 🙂

    Sarah xx
    http://www.shesawriter.co.uk

    • Reply
      lily kate
      11th July 2016 at 8:18 am

      It has such a magical feel doesn’t it! Amazing what you can do in just 3 days – I felt like we had the perfect amount of time there, but could have easily had fun for longer too. You defo should! I’m planning my next one already 😛

  • Reply
    Flo
    10th July 2016 at 5:15 pm

    Beautiful photos Lily!

    • Reply
      lily kate
      11th July 2016 at 8:19 am

      Thank you Flo!

  • Reply
    Amanda
    11th July 2016 at 5:30 pm

    Wow. These are incredible photos. I makes me want to visit right now. That cave church looks really interesting!

    • Reply
      lily kate
      11th July 2016 at 7:57 pm

      Thanks so much Amanda! What I wouldn’t give to be back there now too. It was such a cool experience, made all the more so because it was completely spontaneous!

  • Reply
    Leona Hinds
    11th July 2016 at 5:31 pm

    Wow, the bridges and rivers look very beautiful, are they very old? And that cave church looks very special, it’s a shame the headphones didn’t work, I wonder why they built it inside a cave, I’m very curious now and hope one day I can go and see for myself.

    • Reply
      lily kate
      11th July 2016 at 7:58 pm

      Some are really old, but some of the most impressive architecture in Budapest was only built at the beginning of the 20th century, or has been redone since damage in the war. The history behind the cave seems so interesting – I wish the headphones had worked and I could have heard it at the time!

  • Reply
    Bob
    11th July 2016 at 5:35 pm

    what a great place and very nice photos. I would love to visit that cave church.

    • Reply
      lily kate
      11th July 2016 at 7:59 pm

      Thanks Bob! It’s an unusual one (I hadn’t seen it on the Pinterest recommendations) but certainly a unique visit!

  • Reply
    Claire
    11th July 2016 at 8:25 pm

    Budapest is one of my top cities to go to, and it looks like you had an amazing time. The weather looked perfect too!

    • Reply
      lily kate
      11th July 2016 at 9:20 pm

      Ah have you been? The weather was soooo lovely – it was around 28 degrees whilst we were there, but it’s set to be about 36 this week! I’d have melted haha 🙂

  • Reply
    Marteen
    12th July 2016 at 11:37 am

    Budapest is just so beautiful! I’m dying to visit for the architecture.

    • Reply
      lily kate
      12th July 2016 at 12:15 pm

      tell me about it! Almost every building had some form of cool architecture, and obviously some were just on another level!

  • Reply
    Rachel
    12th July 2016 at 1:00 pm

    Such a wonderful post. I’m going a week tomorrow and this has got me and my best friends (I sent them a link) so freaking excited. Thank you for all the tips too!x

    willowtea.blogspot.co.uk

    • Reply
      lily kate
      12th July 2016 at 1:04 pm

      Yay thank you Rachel! Really glad you liked it 🙂 You should be excited, you’ll have a fab time! Try not to make our daft mistakes 😉

  • Reply
    Hridya
    13th July 2016 at 2:25 am

    Oh my! breathtaking.. your photos are amazing! great post!

    • Reply
      lily kate
      14th July 2016 at 8:53 pm

      Thank you SO much!

  • Reply
    Emily
    15th July 2016 at 4:40 am

    I went to Budapest last year and your post makes me want to book another trip there!

    x Emily || http://www.lifestyleofemily.com

  • Reply
    lily diaries | 24th July - Joli House
    24th July 2016 at 10:14 am

    […] roundup because I’m fairly sure I’ve professed my love for the city enough already (here and here), so here are snippets from the rest of July in no particular […]

  • Reply
    Emma
    28th August 2016 at 6:48 pm

    Beautiful photos!!

    Sounds like you had a wonderful time, I am hoping to make it to Budapest later in the year when I begin travelling through Europe to Russia – will definitely file this post away for tips on what to do when I get there!

    Emma x

    • Reply
      lily kate
      3rd September 2016 at 4:57 pm

      Thank you Emma!
      I really did have a fab time, it’d be fun to explore Budapest in a wintery way too!
      Sounds like you have some pretty exciting travels ahead of you 😛

  • Reply
    Neelam
    29th August 2016 at 11:51 pm

    I love this post – I’m going there in a few weeks and I’m even more excited now! Was it quite expensive to eat/go out there? Bars etc?

    Neelam | http://www.neelamjayna.blogspot.co.uk x

    • Reply
      lily kate
      3rd September 2016 at 5:03 pm

      Thanks Neelam! You totally should be excited 😀 It’s not crazy expensive no – cocktails in the bar we went to were about 6 euros, but contained so much more alcohol than they would in a UK bar haha. Food isn’t generally too expensive either!

  • Reply
    Athena Politou
    30th August 2016 at 1:12 pm

    I’m going to Budapest in December with my boyfriend and I’m so freaking excited! Thank you so much for all the amazing info and your pictures are goals btw!

    http://fashionistalooks.blogspot.gr/2016/08/dancing-at-sunset.html

    • Reply
      lily kate
      3rd September 2016 at 5:11 pm

      You definitely should be! Thank you! These are possibly my fave photos ever haha 😛

  • Reply
    elizabeth allcock
    13th September 2016 at 9:19 am

    These pictures are lovely, I went in June and want to go back already such a stunning place!

    • Reply
      lily kate
      14th September 2016 at 10:16 am

      Thanks so much Elizabeth! I got very snap happy haha 😛 I’d love to go back too, it’s the kind of city I feel like I could happily visit again and again!

  • Reply
    Stefanie
    8th October 2016 at 12:57 am

    Loved your photos! what camera do you use?

    • Reply
      lily kate
      9th October 2016 at 12:44 pm

      Thanks Stefanie! I used a Canon G7X and Canon 400D with 40mm f2.8 lens 🙂

  • Reply
    Molly
    11th January 2017 at 2:36 am

    You did so much while here, I’m sad I missed some of these!!

    http://www.mollyonthemoveblog.com

    • Reply
      Lily Kate France
      13th January 2017 at 12:10 pm

      I’m sure whatever you did in Budapest you had an amazing time anyway, it’s a fab city!

  • Reply
    Ash
    13th July 2017 at 10:46 am

    I can’t believe I live in Budapest at yet haven’t visited these places! Thank you for sharing this, cause guess who’s going to be a tourist in her own city? 😀
    Ash | http://www.theashtreejournal.com

    • Reply
      lily kate
      14th July 2017 at 8:04 am

      I bet living in Budapest is amazing! Being a tourist in your own city is fab, have fun 😀

  • Reply
    Sophie
    23rd August 2017 at 11:42 am

    What a perfect guide, thank you so much!

    • Reply
      lily kate
      3rd September 2017 at 6:22 pm

      Glad you like it! Thank you 😀

  • Reply
    Csilla
    7th February 2018 at 11:00 am

    It’s always great to hear people rave about Budapest. So much more to see though!! Hope you’ll get the chance to go back again soon and actually ride the metro (which is underground), part of which is over 100years old, but beautifully maintained. The streetcars (trams, trolleys-whatever you want to call them) are very nice too though! There are also lots of free tours you can participate in, not to mention fabulous coffee houses, restaurants, pastry shops, etc. which are even worth the visit for their location alone, if you don’t feel like eating in them. Looking forward to going back myself, but with the added blessing of seeing family while there! Thanks for the post!!!

  • Reply
    Blography Aria
    27th July 2018 at 8:39 pm

    Thank you for this post! I’m visiting Budapest in 3 days and you made my list what to visit completed. Definitely made my list a lot bigger! Again thank you, have a wonderful day! xx Aria

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