5 Reasons You Should Book a Hungarian Holiday

 Hi everyone! 

I just got back from a week long trip to the Hungarian capital of Budapest. This was my first completely solo trip experience and my first ever trip to Budapest. This destination has been on my radar for a long time and I'm really glad I had the opportunity to go. (Thank you Irish government for putting Hungary on the "Green List") In this post, I'm going to share 5 reasons why you need to make Budapest your next destination once the world opens back up for tourism and you have time to hop on a plane to Eastern Europe. If you aren't planning a trip anytime soon, I hope this post will help satisfy some of your wanderlust from home :)

Reason Number 1:

The architecture is absolutely stunning!!! I have two words for you: Hungarian Parliament. This building alone had me sold. This neo-gothic masterpiece is right on the Pest side of the Danube river and was only a half mile from my Air BnB.  This building really did take my breath away. 

Aside from the absolutely stunning parliament building, the general city scape is just as beautiful. Something that I loved was the juxtaposition of the pre-war style buildings with the new post-communist style architecture. Here is one of my favorite pictures I took on the trip. These buildings have fantastic gold mosaics along the top and were right across the street from a beautiful modern glass office building.

Reason Number 2:

The market! You cannot miss the Great Market Hall- the best part is it's open every day. The bottom floor consists of dozens of food stalls selling everything from produce to pickled anything, to sausages, to paprika (the Hungarian spice of choice). Upstairs, you can wander the halls and look at all kinds of touristy goodies including embroidered anything, nesting dolls, pottery and cookware, and leather goods. After you take a stroll and find some souvenirs to take home, you can stop by the food booths and try some traditional Hungarian dishes. This was obviously my favorite part as my idea of a true tourism experience is 80% food and 10% art museums and 10% shopping. 

(Here is an overview of the market building and the stalls on the first floor)

Lunch at the market- paprika sausage, potatoes and onion. 

Decided to try Langos for dessert- these are like a flat donut without the hole that are then topped with all kinds of toppings- mine was obviously Nutella. This was the messiest thing I've ever tried to eat, but totally worth it. 

Reason Number 3:

After you eat your weight in fried bread and shop till you drop, you can head to one of the coolest parts of Budapest- a thermal bath house. These are roman style hot spring baths that are scattered across the city. These houses are a staple in Hungarian culture and are, in my opinion, so freaking cool. I wasn't sure I was going to go to one of these, as some of them are closed, I wasn't sure I'd have fun all by myself, and some of them only allow women on certain days, but I am SO glad I went! I did my research and decided on the Széchenyi Thermal Bath. The building itself is worth the visit. For about 8€ or $9, you have access to all the pools and the saunas. The pools vary in temperature from slightly warm to about 100 degrees F. They also have swimming pools for exercise and saunas for you to enjoy. You can even book a massage with a massage therapist.

                                                        Taking a break from the hottest bath.

Look at that crystal blue water.

Reason Number 4:

The museum scene is great! While I was there, I popped into the Museum of Fine Arts which was wonderful and only a short walk from Hero's Square- which has a beautiful monument dedicated to the heroes who fought to end communism in Hungary. The Museum of Fine Arts had an awesome collection of Renaissance art, artifacts from the Austro-Hungarian period, and a really great collection of Egyptian artifacts. The building itself was also a masterpiece. 

Outside the MFA

The interior of the museum. Such a beautiful building. 

Can't post about Egyptian artifacts without including a mummy- this happened to be a crocodile. 

Following the mummy trend, some sarcophagi. 

Reason Number 5:

The city is so budget friendly!! This was something that really surprised me. The currency used in Hungary is the HUF- or Forint. There are about 430 Forint per Euro (in 2020 when I'm writing this post.) I found the city to be so budget friendly compared to everywhere else I've been in Europe. I often had dinner delivered to me via an app called Wolt (Hungrian Uber Eats) and never spent more than about $8 on dinner including delivery and tip. I will be doing a food review in the my next blog post as a part of my Hungary Series. 

Feeling super rich when in reality I had about $30 

I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it! I had the best time on my holiday and hope this inspired you to go on your own! I am going to be making this into a little series. I hope you stick around for parts 2 and 3 :)