Budapest: are you Hungary?

Yes, it has been 9 months since my last post and no, I did not bear a child. So here we go with the mammoth catch up...

August to September last year I spent some time working in Budapest, staying in the city centre on József Körút. The prime location meant I was able to spend all my evenings and weekends walking (and eating) the extent of Pest and some of Buda.

Before moving onto the gastric portion, here is my review of Budapest... Stylist magazine wrote an article about falling in love with the ‘Paris of the East’ and this article gets my absolute stamp of approval! Budapest has beautiful buildings, elegant wines and stunning weather, especially in the peak of summer. During my time there, Budapest experienced record breaking temperatures and unsurprisingly, I spent every weekend unwinding in the famous Szechenyi Thermal Baths. They are definitely worth a visit!

The baths are situated opposite Budapest Zoo, so should you wish to, you can purchase a stick of candy floss twice the size of your head on your way out - treat!  

The views of Buda from the Pest side of the Danube were incredible and I was lucky to be there during the greatest National Hungarian Holiday- St. Stephen’s Day on August 20th. This Public Holiday commemorates the foundation of the Hungarian state and although it fell on a Saturday last year with no day off in lieu in sight, it was an amazing weekend! I saw the marching of the military bands and majorettes down Andrassy Avenue, which ended at the notorious Heroes Square with an air show.

Hősök tere (Heroes' Square)

The celebrations got even better in the evening, when hordes of Hungarians gathered on the embankments of the Danube for a monumental fireworks display...THE highlight of the trip.



In between evenings spent in unique clubs that literally had upside-down rooms, I managed to taste a variety of Hungarian dishes including traditional beef goulash, steak topped with goose liver, chicken paprikash, chilli veal steak and berry glazed duck breast. Have you spotted the pattern? From my experience, Hungarian cuisine is hearty and heavy with the two main elements being meat (sorry vegetarians!) and paprika. Naturally, with the abundance of paprika in Hungary, it is used in a majority of dishes- savoury and sweet.

Instant Club: Upside-Down Room



Steak topped with goose liver in a paprika sauce.



A typical breakfast in Budapest would consist of a coffee and a pastry, which explains the huge cafe culture and lunch is seen as the main meal of the day. However, I would take recommendations on where to eat your lunch and dinner as there are a huge number of restaurants in Budapest, many with their own (sometimes misleading) touts. If in doubt, applying the classic rule of ‘a full restaurant denotes good food’ should suffice. To get you started in Budapest, here are my two favourite restaurants: 

Két Szerecsen
Location: Nagymező Street
Website
What I ate: Chilli & Garlic Veal Chop with Homemade Pasta 

Chocolate soufflé with Ginger Ice Cream & Cherry Compote sprinkled with Honeycomb

Karma Cafe and Restaurant
Location: Liszt Ferenc Square
Website
What I ate: Tenderloin goulash soup with noodles
Favourite Wine: Budai Sauvignon Blanc, Nyakas Pince (2011)

Even having spent a reasonable amount of time in Budapest, I would definitely go back for a long weekend break. It is a romantic city and I would encourage everyone to visit it.

Chain Bridge: the first permanent stone-bridge connecting Pest and Buda.

Filming on the Streets of Budapest: Michael Jackson and Katy Perry are some of the many artists who had music videos filmed in Budapest.

Inside Corvintető