We headed further east to the capital of Hungary - Budapest. Prague was really beautiful and the Sanderman Free Tour was great. Budapest paled in comparison in terms of cityscape and guided tours. We met a really interesting hungarian on the street who spoke chinese to me and recommended that we walk by the danube river at night. And boy, we were blown away. Just look at the pictures below. The night scene was gorgeous and thoroughly befitting of the 'pearl of the danube river' title.
Budapest - made up of two cities Buda and Pest. The Danube River runs in between. Buda is more hilly and Pest is flat as a pancake.
We had one of the most comfortable and cheapest hostel stay in Maverick Hostel at 12 euros a night. Here's a picture of the six bedder dorm we stayed in. I loved their well equipped kitchen and big luxurious toilets. There wasn't any lock on the 'lockers' in the room but we made do by locking our dorm when we left. No theft and it felt really safe there. We had no problems with noise though I thought the walls were relatively porous. The hostel had a really small lift which noone ever bother to use so it was tiring but good exercise to climb 2 storeys with a mezzanine floor in between. Maverick was also within walking distance to Vorosmarty square- the city centre. I had no issues with this hostel really.
Note: Beside Maverick Hostel is a money changer with one of the best rates in town. We couldn't have gotten better rates. It is also situated right beside a 24 hour supermarket which was really convenient. We tried searching for a bigger supermarket like Tesco but none was found within the city centre.
One of the oldest bathhouse in Budapest. We didn't feel like paying the entrance fee for a swim in a crowded swimming pool. Following a tip from the ticketing officer, one could get a good look at the bath house from the back and the picture above is my only view of the exterior bath pool. It smelled and didn't seem that clean so we were glad that we didn't pay to enter.
There are two cafes that you must visit when visiting Budapest. The first one is New York Cafe which is situated in a 5 star hotel. We initially dismissed the cheesy name, thinking that it was possibly an american chain. But boy, we were wrong. New York Cafe was incredible. It was the most opulent cafe i have ever been to. The wait staff was snooty as expected but their cakes were amazing. I would definitely go back for their black forest cakes and any of their chocolate cakes. Their cheesecake was a tad weird so pass that.
Situated on the corner of Vorosmarty square, sit outside Cafe Gerbeaud if you want to people watch. It is one of the oldest and most historic cafes in Budapest. Try their layered cakes with a layer of caramelised crust on top. You couldn't get better hungarian cakes anywhere else.
I really enjoyed shopping in Budapest. Zara averaged around 20% off Sg's prices so it was a really good deal. The guys commented that the men's range didn't seem that cheap though. I could however get really good bargains like work dresses for 45sgd that were retailing at 99sgd in sg. Meals on the other hand was pretty expensive. Each meal set us back by around 10 euros. There wasn't any cheap eats around so we cooked quite abit in the end.
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