Budapest is definitely one of the most underrated cities in Europe. It used to be two cities, one called Buda and one called Pest, until they joined together to form Budapest. It’s a beautiful city that’s just as grand as any city in Western Europe, but with a quirkiness about it that make it fun, hip, slightly bizarre and full of oddities just waiting to be discovered.
One of my favourite things about Budapest is the ruin pubs, which is a brilliant idea of taking the abandoned buildings in Budapest, and turning them into bars and clubs by inviting contemporary artists to come and decorate these warehouse like buildings with the craziest modern art installations they can think of. There’s things like bicycles coming from the ceiling, old computers with blinking monitors, and a bathtub that’s sawed in half and used as a bench!
There’s usually a DJ or live music, and drinks are relatively cheap. Hungarians love wine.
If that’s not hipster heaven, I don’t know what is.
We went to one called Szimpla Kert, which is the oldest of all the ruin pubs. Apparently if you only have time to check out one out of the 30 something ruin bars in Budapest, this is the one to go to!
For something a lot less hipster, I really loved the Matthias Church and the Fisherman’s Bastion. They were both so gorgeous, especially at night! My photos really don’t do either that much justice…
As for the rest of the city, because of the Turkish influence, a lot of the architecture has a very exotic vibe to it. While I love the architecture in Western Europe, there’s only so many churches and cathedrals you can look at before they all start to look very similar. What I love about Budapest is that its exoticism keeps the whole city interesting!
With Valentine’s Day coming up, I would definitely recommend Budapest as a romantic getaway for anyone in Europe. It’s less cliche than Paris, and I think it’s just as pretty. One thing we never got to do was go see an opera. They didn’t have any playing on the days we were there, but cheap tickets to one only cost about 3 euros!
As of now, I’ve officially finished my first semester of my Masters in Germany! I’m currently living in Munich so expect a lot of exciting upcoming posts about one of my favourite German cities!
Have you guys ever been to Budapest?