Budapest: A perfect lifestyle holiday in Central Europe

Rachna|Published: December - 8 - 2011|Add Comments

Please welcome our guest blogger Monika Csapo from The Traveler

Many people have this imaginary list in their mind of the places they have to visit “first” and all the places come after those. Like if travelling would be a task to deliver, where is clear rules and must to dos. I am not one of these people and the places I have been came totally by random to my life. I won a Goethe- scholarship and spent three weeks in North-Germany, saw an announcement at the university about some student exchange to Brazil and landed in Saõ Paulo and Rio de Janeiro for two weeks. I even chose my Erasmus destination based on that, that once I was babysitting for a Finnish family and they were nice people, and now I have been living in Finland for four years. All I want to say with this is, that yes, Paris is nice and Barcelona also, and you must see New York at least once in your life, but there is so many nice places on the Earth besides the most famous tourist destinations, where you can experience something, what you can not experience anywhere else.

In this article I would like to introduce Budapest to you, which is the capital of Hungary. Budapest is with its nearly 2 million inhabitants a real metropolis where modern and historical gets mixed in a very interesting way. As the author of the New York Times, Mar Milstein, wrote in his article 36 hours in Budapest:“ a weekend here provides a glimpse of the city’s justifiable pride, as well as an authentic sense of place.” Authentic is a good word to describe Budapest and if you decide to travel here you will experience what is behind this expression. I especially recommend Budapest for “lifestyle travellers”, who do not only want to see historical and cultural sights in a city, but want to taste new tastes, relax and like not only functional, but aesthetically beautiful cities with great architectural style.

My favourite seasons in Budapest are autumn and spring, but if you like hot places in the summer, then you will enjoy the hot weather and the sunshine in the summer here. The public transportation system works well in Budapest; you can get free underground maps at any Tourinform office.

You can “google” all the sights, so now I decided rather to give a short insight about the sort of the activities, what you can do during your stay in Budapest. Hungary is famous for its cuisine from special Hungarian sausage through all the diary products to nice wine. Where else could you get to know the tastes better than in a market hall. The main Market Hall of Budapest is a good place to start your trip, downstairs you will find all kind of food ingredients, diary and bakery products, fruits and vegetables, while upstairs there are places offering warm dishes. The building of the Market Hall is already a sight in itself with its beautiful architecture. From the Market Hall you can walk up to the Gellért-mountain and have a great view to the city, which is divided into two parts by the Danube river. On the way back you can go to swim and have a massage in the Gellért spa, or any of the great spas of the city. The particular about spas in Budapest is that they are in historical buildings, and you are not only enjoying the wellness services, but all this in a hundreds years old environment.

If you like fashion, design and arts, Budapest has many galleries, museums; for fashion-lovers Andrássy street and the “Fashion street” close to Deák square might be a place to visit. For those who like local shops and designers I recommend to visit Nanushka, Náray, Béta or Látomás depending on your style. The Dohány street Synagouge and the Jewish district is an interesting cultural experience too.

As it is the main must to see historical sight of Budapest I strongly recommend to visit the Buda Castle and the Castle district. The Gallery in the Buda Castle has Picassos, Monets, Chagalls and a collection of Hungarian art history; also the temporary exhibitions are of very high quality. In the Castle district they hold several festivals organized around one particular topic like “Pálinka- and sausage festival” (pálinka is a Hungarian spirit made of fruits), Wine festival or the Handcraft market on Hungary`s national day August 20^th. If you like outdoor-activities, Normafa and Margharet-island (Margit-sziget) are perfect places to make some outdoor training or go for a picnic and chill out.

The nightlife in Budapest offers many opportunities for various music styles. If you prefer drinking beer and talking at a relaxed place, you should visit the famous ruinpubs and retro gardens of Budapest, which are a local “specialy”. For concerts A38 is a beloved place. In the summer there are every week some festivals in Hungary, Budapest holds the Sziget Festival every August, which is one of the most famous music festivals in Europe.