Budapest, Hungary

(Photos inside the bathhouse added)

Met up with Serene in Budapest last weekend, and it's always exciting and wonderful to meet your friends (especially good ones) in another part of the world and to travel together.

We had buffet for dinner on the first night which was recommended by a few travel websites. Gosh, haven't had buffet for so long! And sotong, for that matter.


Although the hostel wasn't our first choice, it turned out to be quite nice. It was zen-themed, and I liked the furniture. However, the stairs to the upper bunks creaked really badly and caused a lot of disturbance, both from us to other tenants as well as them to us. Plus it was supposed to be a 6-bed dorm, but on the 2nd night 2 more people moved in, and the door couldn't be locked so there wasn't really much privacy.

Went to the Christmas market on the first night, nothing much though I just like to shop and see see look look at Christmas markets. Prices were on the pricey side. After which we proceeded to hunt high and low for bikinis/swimming costumes so that we could go for bath, which is very popular in Budapest. In the end we managed to find bikinis that cost only less than SGD3.00! Wear once throw away also ok hahaha. Treat it as rental.

The next day we went to the main market hall which is where the locals do their grocery shopping on the first floor, and souvenirs on the second. They sell this kind of embroidered tablecloths which are quite lovely, but exorbitant prices! Like, one rectangular piece for a normal coffee table can be around SGD70.00! Crazy. I was thinking of buying so I asked my sis what colour is the sofa at home 'cos I sorta forgot at that time, like I thought it was dark grey but I think some time ago we threw that away and got a new one and I think the new one is maroon but I wasn't too sure so yeah I asked her, then she said, "grey la! Surely you forgot alr!?" Then I was a bit skeptical, then a few minutes later she msged back sheepishly saying da jie say it's red colour -.-''' Yeah but anyway I didn't buy the tablecloth lah hahaha.

Hungarian style mixed-rice vegetables

It was also recommended that we go into the opera house to take a look because it's really nice inside. The guided tour is one hour long only and cost 7 Euros for students, but if you were to catch an opera and don't mind sitting way back way at the top, it also cost the same amount of money, so we decided to do the latter.


After the initial wow-ing at the interior of the opera theatre and when the opera started, we fell into a deep slumber. It was the premiere of a contemporary Hungarian opera. Hungarian = no understand ah. Contemporary music = 很难听 ah. So we left during intermission after an hour's nap.

This view of Budapest by night was what captured my attention when Budapest was featured in Sunday Times (you know the travel column) and made me wanna go there, so yup! Fulfilled my wish :)

Although we didn't manage to go caving which is also one of the popular activities in Budapest (not your regular walking in caves, you must wear helmet and overalls and use your hands to climb one), two highlights of the trip made it very worth it.

Although France is known as the land of foie gras, Hungary is actually a main producer too! And way cheaper than France. If you have no money to eat foie gras in Paris, go to Budapest and cook yourself. Restaurants also sell at quite affordable prices. We bought a slab from the main market hall and cooked it ourselves.

Looks gross I know

But trust me it was heavenly (even nicer than restaurant standards, Kat claims hahaha and I believe her)

The second highlight was visiting the bathhouse. It's like hot springs, but unlike Japanese hot springs where you have to be naked over here at this bathhouse you need to be clothed. There are only mixed pools. The outdoor pools are like swimming pools lor, just that you have to run around in 6-8 degrees cold in your bikini before reaching the pool/indoors. There are medicinal pools, whirlpool (which moves you along with its current), saunas (damn hot I dunno how people can be inside for so long), and outdoor pools.


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As you can see we huddled in the cold trying to take photos.


You can see the steam around us

Interior of the bathhouse, looks like museum hor.

So yup, this trip was quite fulfilling :)